Well, i've decided. I'm going to have a crack at next year's National on August Bank Holiday weekend in 2011 and with that in mind tonight I booked a room at a hotel near to Llangollen where the event is being held. I can't back out now.
A couple of classes at the National sponsored by JBA potatoes are for a dish of 5 Amour potatoes (pictured) and 5 Sherine. These 2 varieties used to be show winners everywhere until they were discontinued. JBA's Iain Barbour has reintroduced them so I've ordered 10 tubers of each to see if I can't get a dish of each for Llangollen. They can be ordered online:
What about my pal Mr. Ian Taylor having a go at that one? If your spuds this season are anything to go by you should be thinking about having a go at that one Ian!
If anyone wants to know more about growing spuds then consider joining JBA's spud forum:
When I spoke to Iain Barbour this afternoon he mentioned he's hoping to introduce a new line of potato grow bags with extra holes in for the roots to penetrate through into the soil below the bag. Top lady grower Sherie Plumb will actually put lots of extra holes into the bottom of the standard polypots currently on the market, so this new innovation will hopefully make that task a thing of the past. You really want the roots to get down into the soil for water in order to get healthier, sturdier plants.
After my disastrous year with potatoes I hope to be doing a lot better next season and with Iain's help I've got a few plans to get a few plates of potatoes at Llangollen 2011.
7 comments:
I'll probably have a go at those two classes, but do you think 10 tubers of each will be enough? Bearing in mind Sherie Plumb plants around 400!
I'll plant the same amount as you just because i've got no room for more.
If i'm being honest 10 tubers is no where near enough but it's all I have room for as I want to grow other varieties such as Kestrel, Blue Belle, Camelot and Bonnie.
However, if I grow them brilliantly well and follow Mr Barbour's guidance I fully expect to become National Champion or else I'll demand a refund! LOL
I would think that if you want to stand a chance of winning that class you will need to grow at least 20 bags of each variety.
The Amour grow very large tubers so you have to watch them for size and I would class them as a late second early/early maincrop.
Sherine are a great spud to grow but they do need consistant weather conditiona as they can develop double growths or snowmen as we call them if the weather has been dry for a long time followed by wet weather.
We can keep sharing our ideas on the NVS forum or my forum and see what master plan we can come up with.
What is a refund Smithy haha
Not a word you'll find in the scottish dictionary then Iain? Lol
You are 100% correct Smithy lol
A refund is a bit like scotland qualifing for a world cup,not going to happen
England had the Christmas tree formation followed by the diamond shape formation. Scotland went one better and pioneered the toilet shape formation 4-6-0
Post a Comment