Update

This is where all my show veg and flowers are at thus far in the season, bearing in mind that it's still very early.

Tomato Cederico. 1st 8 seedlings recently potted on in conservatory. Another batch will be sown this weekend to cover the later shows.

Celery Morning Star. Tray pricked out a week ago and first true leaves now showing. These are also in my conservatory as it's been far too cold to put them in the greenhouse recently.

Peppers Bullhorn have just germinated in the conservatory, likewise my aubergines Black Beauty.

Large onions (bought-in plants) in greenhouse and will be planted into greenhouse borders next weekend.

Blanch leeks (also bought in) have been potted on into larger pots and a 4" pipe lagging collar applied. These are in the greenhouse and will be planted outside during mid to late April.

Shallots were planted during January in 3" pots in the greenhouse and now have decent roots and foliage. I will pot these on into 5"-6" pots where they will stay, being 'plunged' into the outside onion borders in the next couple of weeks.

Onion sets Stuttgarter Stanfield. Were planted in cell trays in the greenhouse several weeks ago and are very slow to show green leaves.

Red Baron onions. 2 trays pricked out a week ago. Greenhouse.

Parsnips Pinnacle. Chitted seeds have been placed in each 'station' in my large drums, 35 stations in all. The nights have been very cold however so I will have a nervous week or two waiting to see if they have survived.

Red cabbage Maestro. Tray of 24 pricked out 2 weeks ago. Greenhouse.

Green cabbage Globemaster. Tray of 24 pricked out yesterday. Greenhouse.

Brussel Abacus. Tray of 24 pricked out 2 weeks ago. Greenhouse.

My long carrots will hopefully get sown next weekend.
My potatoes (Winston/Kestrel/Nadine/Malin) are chitting in trays in my garage and will go in the weekend after that.
My dahlia tubers are all in boxes of peat and will be watered for the first time tomorrow to encourage new shoots for cuttings.

Manchester United 3 Liverscum 0

Can anyone tell me if he was playing? I certainly never noticed him!

Onions and leeks are go!

Apologies to Liam (http://veg4show.blogspot.com/) for nicking his photo but it shows brilliantly how to support onions during growth. They need to be kept bolt upright so that they grow symmetrically and he uses plastic clips and small canes to create a cage. It's little tricks like this that make the difference between 1st and 2nd come Show day! His onions look superb for the time of year so I'll be interested to know how he gets on.





I only collected my large onions and leeks (20 of each) from a local grower today, and immediately potted the leeks on into 1 litre square pots with a 4" pipe lagging collar as a starter. The onions are still quite small (not like Liam's) so they have a lot of growth to make up but there is plenty of time.





I've also acquired some new parsnip seed today (Pinnacle, a new F1 variety) which I've put onto some moistened kitchen towelling in a tray on my kitchen windowsill. As soon as the white root radicle pops out of the seed casing I will transfer a couple of seeds to each prepared parsnip station. That way I can save 4 or 5 weeks of waiting around wondering if they've germinated when sown directly outside. Grown this way the seeds should be showing root inside a week if kept uniformly warm and moist.

Are you 'bored' yet?

It's was a weekend of highs and lows. Obviously it started with Manchester United being robbed of their rightful place in the semi-final of the FA Cup by an FA/referee conspiracy. Luckily it's only a Mickey Mouse cup and we have bigger fish to fry...........and Arsenal only managing a draw on Sunday at Wigan has cheered me up no end.

I bored and filled all but 2 of my 35 parsnip holes on Sunday with a variation on Dave Thornton's mix.

He recommends:

45L compost

15L vermiculite

10L sand

10L soil

6oz Vitax Q4

3oz Ground lime stone
3oz seaweed meal

I cannot get Vitax Q4 so instead of the last three ingredients I've added 6oz each of superphosphate, potash, lime and calcified seaweed, and 3oz of bone meal. This is a lot weaker mix than I've used in previous seasons and I made sure it was all well mixed by doing it three equal lots.

I've never used vermiculite in my mixes before thinking it an unnecessary expense but now I can see it has definite advantages. It certainly makes the mix more free-draining and should help to encourage roots to go down into the bore hole. The packet also claims that vermiculite helps to lock up the nutrients until they are required. We shall see.

Having said all that when I came to sow my seed I couldn't find the packet anywhere. I know I've had it so I must have misplaced it somewhere in the garage or house and I've had to send off for another packet. What a git I am!

Start sowing

At last I've managed to get the first of my seeds sown. Today I did some red cabbage (Maestro), brussel sprout (Abacus), red onion (Red Baron) and onion (Bristol). These are all in the cold greenhouse along with a pot of parsley which is needed for the enhancement of displays and baskets.

Inside I've sown a pot of Morning Star celery which, along with cauliflowers, is one of the two crops I really want to improve on this year as I've never really been able to show either to a high standard. Celery needs quite a long growing season so I've sown some seed onto some moistened compost in a pot and covered them over with vermiculite. They'll be kept warm to aid germination and should be ready for pricking out in a month or so. At that point I'll transfer them to the greenhouse by which time temperatures should have warmed up. However, I will have to keep an eye on night time weather forecasts as celery is very susceptible to frost or even low temperatures and will die very easily if allowed to get too cold.