Sow those onions and shallots

Well I'm glad that load of nonsense (Christmas) is over and done with for another year. And hasn't the choice of telly programmes been absolutely crap? Apart from a few back editions of Ground Force and Griff Rhys-Jones 'Mountain' it's been truly awful.



Yesterday I had 4 box tickets through one our suppliers to watch the Newcastle-Liverscum game. Can't decide whether Liverscum are serious threats to Man U or whether Newcastle were seriously crap but we had an excellent day out all the same. Newcastle is a really amazing city and I'd advice anyone to have a day or night out there by the quayside. You have to feel sorry for the fanatical Newcastle supporters who turn out 50,000+ for every home game and then get served up such an inept display as that. Despite being in amongst the Newcastle fans I had a right twat of a (Irish) Liverpool supporter next to me. God I so wanted to smash the bastard's face in! However, this is a peaceful blog and I could never promote such a thing. (Hopefully, someone else will have done it!)



In the next few days I want to sow my onions for the 8oz/250g classes, the varieties I have are Vento and Tasco. It's been cold here over Xmas so I'm in no rush but I do want to get them sown before the first week of January as the idea is to get them grown and harvested by mid August at the latest for them to be ripened in time for the show season (for me the end of August). I shall sow in small trays of compost and keep them indoors. Once the seedlings are at the 'crook' stage I will prick them out into cell trays and put them in my greenhouse under lights in a 'growing chamber' of some description which I shall have to build. I find the growlight gives out quite a bit of heat and this usually keeps them ticking along and keeps them reasonably warm but I will still keep an eye out on the weather forecasts. If a hard frost is forecast I will bring them indoors overnight.

I shall also be potting up my shallots in 2" square pots in the greenhouse. The compost will be watered and the shallot just pressed into it, after which I shall not water again for a few weeks, encouraging good root formation. Shallots are hardy beasts and will survive low temperatures.

An important task I will be undertaking in the next few days is to mark off all my sowing dates in my new RHS diary. I have about a dozen of these now stretching back over the years and carefully transfer my dates from last year's to this, making any minor adjustments according to how varieties grew last season. I also make notes of my tap root mixes and make entries when these have to be ready by, as well as marking when all the Shows I intend to enter are likely to be.

One extra show that I've 'pencilled' in is Malvern as I'm hoping to have a go at some classes in the Midland Championships of the National Vegetable Society. Sadly, this will mean I will be putting in a few less entries in the other village shows that I enter as I want to make sure I give a good account of myself at a higher level. Well....that's the plan for now at any rate!