Vento spento

I'm monumentally pissed off about my Vento onion seeds this season. After sowing two batches I haven't had a single one germinate, despite keeping the second batch moist at all times after taking the advice of some of the growers on the NVS forum. I sowed a third batch this season and another suggestion I was given was to break the hard seed coating to make it easier for moisture to penetrate the seed. After doing this I was buggered if I could see a seed anywhere inside so it appears I may have been sowing fresh f****** air! All in all i'm pretty hacked off about it. For the 250g classes I will have to rely on some onion sets 'Setton' and a tray of 'Armstrong' onions that I pricked out a week ago. The 'Armstrong' were a free trial packet which i've never grown before so I have no idea what shape they make and whether they'll be any good for the 250g class.

Yesterday I went walking around the Derwent dams in Derbyshire, famous for being the training ground for the WW2 Dambuster Squadron. Today has been a miserable day weather-wise, totally the opposite of what the f******* useless Met Office forecasted so once again no work has been done in the garden. I've managed to get a few seeds sown, such as capsicums (Californian Wonder, Hot Cayenne, Hungarian Hot Wax), brussels (Abacus), cabbage (Brigadier), red cabbage (Rodeo), celery (Evening Star) and the first batch of tomato Cedrico which i've sown earlier than usual with a view to getting a set at the NVS National Championships at Llangollen at the end of August.

So, the greenhouses are still pretty bare save for this long carrot set down for seed and which seems to be flourishing pretty well......

......and my shallots which are really starting to motor now. The first roots are starting to poke through the bottoms of the pots.

Looking forward, I won't be doing much next weekend as I intend to go walking again, so the weekend after that will be set aside for boring my parsnip boreholes. When they are all finished I will set the parsnip seeds on some damp tissue in plastic containers for pre-chitting indoors. I still swear by this method as it buys you time and means you are absolutely certain that you have germinated seeds in your boreholes. After a few seasons of carrot seeds not germinating I may well try pre-chitting these too. A bit more fiddly than the large parsnip seeds but it could be worth the eye-strain!

More on different collections

Another class I may try at Llangollen is the 3x2 class, calling for 3 dishes of 20 pointer veg, 2 specimens of each.

Looking back over the past 4 years blanch leeks have featured in all the winning entries. I've noticed that leeks often seem to score quite highly. I'm not stupid enough to bench my leeks against the big boys as it would be akin to appearing in a porn film alongside Dirk Diggler and it's more than likely i'll just be making up the numbers but I think I may try a collection of 2 long carrots, 2 parsnips and 2 potatoes, subject to being happy they won't look out of place. Again, it's just me trying to get something on the bench to compare my scores against the very best, as all the exhibits will be pointed and you can then tell how far you need to improve. However, the point i'm making again is that classes like this allow you to stage those two specimens where you couldn't quite find a matching third for the main classes and as a result the quality is usually amazing.























It's also my intention to try and show at Harrogate this year where their collection of 6 class is different from the National and the other Branches' Championships in that you only have to find a single specimen of each, which I was surprised to find out only in the last few months. This was Peter Clark's winning collection at Harrogate in 2010.




















Show secretary's won't go far wrong if they include classes like these in their schedules if they're looking for fresh ideas. A collection of 6 complete dishes of veg for a small village show is unlikely to attract many entries these days unless the prize money is worth winning. But this variation of the collection of 6 could easily fill the benches and as I've said before the regular showers can exhibit all those specimens that they can't use in sets for the main classes. If it's good enough for Harrogate where there are usually several entries then there's no reason why it can't work at your show too.

Qualify to quantify

The pinnacle of the show grower's ambition is the collection class whether it be your local show or a large NVS or RHS show. I remember when I first started showing and going to the long since defunct Loughborough Show and seeing 4 or 5 superb collections with backboards draped in superb celery and blanch leeks. I'm that old that this was before digital cameras so I have no photos to be able to compare to todays NVS displays like this one at last year's National in Dundee staged by Peter Clark. The prize money is big and the kudos is great. I'm fairly sure that my rose tinted glasses have enhanced those local displays from years ago, and that they wouldn't have been a patch on this exhibit where every dish needs to be as perfect as you can get it. The guys that do these displays will enter very little else as they save all their best veg for this one class, maybe just the one show all season. They are usually made entirely from six sets of 20 pointer veg and you would need a stunning set of 18 pointer veg if you were to substitute a set for one of these. The 20 pointer veg are leeks, celery, long carrots, parsnips, potatoes, long beet, peas, caulis and of course large onions.

Maybe one day in the distant future I'll be good enough to consider competing in this class but for now i'll content myself with trying for something called the Millenium Class at Llangollen, which calls for 5 dishes of veg, 4 each of globe beetroot, 250g onions, potatoes, stump carrots and tomatoes. If I can improve on the form and shape of my stumps and i'm able to harvest 4 good matching potatoes of the same variety then I reckon I could be in with a shout of getting close(ish) to the tickets in what is always a hotly contested class.

This is Allen Young's winning entry at Dorset in 2009.

And here is Mark Hall's top scoring effort from Dundee 2010.

The 250g onions and globe beet are rated 15 pointer veg, the stumps and tomatoes are 18 pointers. Potatoes are the only 20 pointer veg. I've seen a few of these displays now and you often see several faults on the winning collection, especially if that grower has entered the main classes. If you visit an NVS show it's always a good idea to look at these collection classes, going from exhibit to exhibit and assessing the same vegetables against each other. For example, start with the carrots and come up with a 1-2-3 in your head before looking at the marks that have been awarded. Try not to look at the marks before you've done this. Then move onto the parsnips and so on. In a way you're judging it after the event and learning what the judge is looking for, especially if the judge has split the marks for each of the criteria - size/shape/uniformity/condition - but he doesn't always have time to do this.

To be able to show veg you need to think like a judge when selecting your own veg for display, critically analysing your faults and weaknesses to try and bench what is called for according to the RHS or NVS rules applied to any given show. With this in mind I have put my name down to take the NVS judges' exam on October 1st. It involves a written test paper and Dave Thornton has promised me some past papers to look at so I can see the sort of questions likely to be asked. The hardest bit is the practical part, where you have to judge a mock show comprising 6 or 7 'classes' of 5 or so dishes and arrive at a 1-2-3 in front of other qualified judges, handling the exhibits with confidence and explaining your thought processes as you go. Hopefully, I'll pass and then be qualified to judge other shows in the afternoon after staging at my own shows in the morning.

Boxed in

I've not shown my leeks and onions for a while on here. I collected my Pendle Improved leeks from Dave Metcalfe in December which is a lot sooner than I would ideally like to have them. Usually I don't get my leeks until February so it's been a case of keeping the plants ticking along under a grolamp until I can get them into the greenhouse during the day for some natural light. If the daytime temperatures are ok this is what I'll be doing from now on, getting them from under the light before I go to work, putting them on a greenhouse shelf, before getting them back under the light in the evening.



Looking at other growers' blogs and photos these are not the biggest by a long shot but I'm hoping they'll grow well from now on. I shall only be growing these for local shows anyway.

I'm a lot happier with these 'exhibition' onions believe it or not. The third and fourth leaves are showing and I'm pleased to have got these through the last few cold weeks. Sown on a kitchen windowsill, pricked out into a 24 cell tray, I shall keep 20 for growing on in the hope of getting a reasonable set of bulbs between 2 and 3 lbs. I got this seed from Ian Stocks in Scotland and grew a few plants last season up the allotment where I was very pleased with the shape they made. They didn't get very big as they were a last-minute late-sowing so I decided to grow these as my main onions this season rather than buying plants in. I shall ensure regular potting on and bring them from under the overnight lamps into the greenhouse like my leeks during the day.

There is a class at the Malvern Show for a collection of onions and shallots so it's with this in mind that I shall be endeavouring to get a reasonable set, as I've noticed in the past that you don't have to have large onions to compete in this class. I think the large onion growers don't bother with 8oz onions and shallots so regular growers like myself definitely have a chance.

And once again it's been a dead loss weatherwise so I've had to content myself with other tasks in the garage. With transportation to the shows in mind i've made these stout boxes from 1/2" ply for my 250g onions and shallots. I shall fill them with vermiculite and carefully nestle the bulbs into that, making them safe and secure on long journeys to Malvern, Llangollen and Westminster. In the past i've had a variety of containers but from now on I need to make sure my veg is kept in tip top condition during travelling and that there is no chance of any damage occurring. I already have a box for my tomatoes, and I plan to make others for cucumbers, peas and long roots. I shall attach some strong catches to make sure the lids cannot come open, and then they can all be stacked on top of each other.

This is a luxury i've been promising myself for several years but i've made do whilst i've been exhibiting at local level. For better quality competition I've had to make sure i'm giving myself the best chance of competing. My boxes won't win awards for carpentry but they're functional and will more than do the job. Once the veg has been staged the boxes are merely pushed under the benches ready for use at the end of the show, when you can repack your veg ready for another show.

Ring those changes!!!

I've been helping a lady suggest changes to their village show schedule after offering to help her when she took on the role of show secretary. In the past I've had involvement with several local shows so I know quite a few little tricks now to try and help keep these shows alive. One of the main problems is a show committee's reluctance to change classes that have remained the same for decades, mainly because Ernie Flangeflap and Dick Knobgism used to contest that particular class in their heyday. The fact they've both been dead for 15 years and the class hasn't had any entries since doesn't seem to hit home.

And I've said it before and I'll say it again, try reducing the number of vegetables required in a dish and you will often see the number of entries on the rise. For instance, long carrots and parsnips involve a lot of effort and to get a matching set of 3 you may have to pull 7 or 8. Why not try having just a pair of matching carrots/parsnips? Now a novice trying to grow long roots for the first time may only try one drum so his chances of getting an entry in the show are increased if he/she only has to find a couple of matching specimens. And this also appeals to the more experienced grower who has several drums as he can usually pull a couple of specimens and carry on supporting his local show. If he has to find 3 then he may be tempted to not bother and save them for (dare I say it) more prestigious shows later in the season. Instead of getting 3 or 4 entries (9-12 carrots benched) you may get 7 or 8 (14-16 carrots benched) and so you've actually improved the overall spectacle.

Classes for cauliflowers (difficult to grow), pot leeks and celery may attract very few entries so do consider deleting them. People can always enter these veg in the any other veg class if they so desire. Indeed the AOV class is a good one to watch for suggestions for new classes. If you have a lot of courgette entries, or sweetcorn perhaps, then consider having a separate class for these the next season.

And if you're a small village and Johhny Goldnipples from 20 miles away enters the show each year and cleans up all the cash and trophies then have novice sections, or villager only sections with trophies for best local exhibit etc so that people aren't put off thinking they cannot compete against the big headed interlopers.

And I know one or two of you have been disappointed at my lack of response to this subject but truth is i'm still stunned.......what a f******* gooooooooal!

Itching to get going

Last weekend was a bit of a waste of time weather wise but I did manage to fill my long carrot bed so that is now ready for boring and sowing the seeds in April. As I've already said I intend to get 24 long carrots in this structure and the extra wooden panel gives me an extra 8" of length, about 5' 6" in total, more than enough to compete on length for now. Here is is complete with the wooden frame clad with a mix of polythene and enviromesh to keep the carrot fly out.

I also set up these drums on a wooden framework similar to the set up that I did for my parsnips and I am now in the process of filling these with sand from my stump carrot bed. Giving my long roots the extra height has meant finding extra sand and so I shall be taking this from my stump bed further up the garden. This means my stumps will get nice clean sand to grow in this season, and means I will only have to barrow it halfway down the garden when it is delivered by the builder's merchant. Logistics you see! I shall try and get 6 bore holes in each drum, giving me a total of 42 long carrots to go with my 35 parsnips.

I set up three long carrots for seed a few months ago. They were given to me by Charles Cooper, and were his winning set at Derby Show. Two rotted off in the last few weeks but one appears to be going strong still so i'm hopeful of getting some seed off this later this year. I've never done this before so any advice about what to do next will be gratefully received.

My shallots are ticking along nicely and are starting to show strong green tops. A couple appear to be rotting but I still have over 30, which if they all split into 4 will still give me over 120 potential bulbs to select for showing. I split down to 4 per cluster last season in May but I may yet decide to split half down to 3 and see if it gives me bigger, better shaped shallots. Dave Thornton is adamant he splits down to 4 but I don't believe him !

A few are slow to send up green shoots but if you tug them sideways the resistance should tell you that they are well rooted and all is well.

And finally I did manage to get a couple of my veg beds dug over. When I first started veg gardening these beds were the extent of the culinary garden. Four beds made from slabs on edge allowing me to rotate on a four year plan.The middle two beds were for spuds. As i've needed more land i've progressed up the garden for growing things like spuds, runner beans and peas, and further down my garden for the long roots. These beds looked quite smart when I first made them but they're showing their age now.....a bit like me. Comments not required or welcomed!

Scoti semper in excretia

Today I managed to find a local source of well-rotted horsemuck that will be essential for my pea trenches. Game on !!!

Vento tip

I was talking to Gareth Cameron about the problems i've been having getting this particular variety of onion to germinate. The seeds are supplied in a green casing resembling a ball bearing. It's some form of fungicidal coating but it sure seems to hinder germination as far as I can tell. Gareth had got onto Medwyn about this and the advice that came back was to crush the coating so that water can get to the seed easier. I guess you'd have to be very careful how you do this and I think you would only need to crack the casing slightly and I'm thinking this may be best achieved by putting them into a container and pressing a brick down on them.

Too late for me as I've already sown all my seed and still nowt has come up!!!

Best of luck.......

.....today to Dave Thornton who has gone into hospital for a hip replacement. However, when I emailed yesterday to ask if I could have his show winning shallots if he died on the operating table his rather disappointing response was "f*ck off, the shallots die with me!" You soon find out who your mates are!

Making the beds

Before my trip up to dribble at the Lake District and Ian Simpson's fantastic carrots I managed to start emptying my long carrot bed and to put on another layer of scaffold boards. Whilst I won't win any awards for the quality of my carpentry this now gives me a good 5' of growing depth and I also stapled a plastic sheet to the inside of the boards to help prevent the sand from drying out too much. I think the wood may have absorbed some of the moisture in the beds and contributed to my fanging problem last season. I have a wooden framework with enviromesh attached which goes over this bed to deter carrot fly, and indeed last season I didn't suffer a single fly hole on this bed as a result of the frame. I can actually get 24 boreholes in this bed as I believe carrots can stand closer spacing than parsnips what with their foliage being much more loose and 'willowy'.

I also have this makeshift bed with metal drums that I shall have to re-use this season for more long carrots. These will be exposed to the elements for now but I will use a mixture of Phorate granules and garlic sprays and see if these actually work without an enviromesh barrier. Dave Thornton's long carrots are all outdoors with no protection and he did ok last season (winning the National) so it must be possible.

In the next few weeks I will be making a further bed with drums to grow some long beetroot having been supplied with some seed from a Scottish champion. I grew one magnificent specimen of Cheltenham Greentop last season in a drum where i'd had a carrot station not germinate so I want to have a crack and see if I can't get a set of 5 for Llangollen. A tall order for someone who has hardly ever grown long beet but i've been given some tips from Paul McLeod of the NVS so I'll have a go. The variety I'll be growing is Regar. The drums will be filled with a mix of sand/compost/sterilised soil and the boreholes bored into that. This is because long beet need plenty of water and if you grew them in pure sand it would be a lot harder to give them sufficient moisture.

And this weekend I shall be sowing my first batch of Cedrico tomatoes in order to have the fruits ripe in time for Llangollen at the end of August. Last season I geared my toms entirely for Malvern at the end of September which meant I was struggling to get fruits ripe for the late August/early September shows, so they need to go in a month earlier this year. A second batch will be sown mid-March as last year.

You need to make good use of every weekend from now on to get as much preparation done as you possibly can, unless you're retired and can go out onto the plot whenever you can, in which case.....I hate you!

Up mountain and down dale

Top, top day yesterday. A 5am start saw me driving up to the glorious Lake District for a walk up High Street from Haweswater. On arriving at the very isolated car park I was greeted by the sight of a huge stag walking in the road before it bounded up the hillside. Breathtaking. It was a cold day but a bright start was soon spoiled by some high level mist that meant I didn't have the views of the surrounding peaks when I got to the top. And it was quite surprising to see how many more mad men were out and about. I really expected to see no-one else all day.





















After ticking off another 5 'Wainwrights' I travelled to a village near Kendal for a talk by Ian Simpson on stump carrots organised by the Westmoreland DA of the NVS. Ian has won stumps at the National a couple of times and he gave me a lot of food for thought about how I grow my stumps.

His attention to detail is quite outstanding and I shall be changing my methods slightly to mimic his methods a little more. The one thing that struck me most was the texture of his borehole mix, which we were able to experience as he'd bought some with him to hand round to the assembled group. Now that really is attention to detail, to even think of bringing some along with you to a talk! I riddle my compost through a 1/4" sieve to remove any lumps but he goes even further and then puts it through an 1/8" sieve. He is adamant this fine textured medium gives him the superior skin finish he is famous for. He also bought along photocopied handouts showing the finer points of his presentation and I will be looking back at this in the coming months during my preparations. If growing Sweet Candle, depending on your show date you need to count back 22 weeks for your sowing date.

And he is a great fan of the concentrated garlic sprays for warding off carrot fly, so much so that I bought a bottle of the stuff for 3 quid. Dan Unsworth mailed me tonight saying the stuff retails for 12.75 so as a tight-fisted Yorkshireman he's well chuffed! And it was good to meet up again with my blog following pals Paul Bastow, Paul and Linda Wlodarczak, James Park and of course Dan, not to mention NVS legends Gareth Cameron and Ronnie Jackson. Nice also to meet Chris Crowther and Chris Jackson for the first time.
























In the last few months it's been a real privilege to listen to some of the NVS 'greats' lecture on their growing methods for different crops and it's great credit to them that they are prepared to do this and try to help others improve. For my part I hope to give as much of that information out to as many beginners and improvers during the coming months.

Sets set

Once again i've had terrible problems getting my Vento onions to germinate this year. I'm convinced the hard green seed casing this particular variety is sold in hinders germination. I have sown a second batch of Vento but I have also taken out extra insurance in the form of these onions sets 'Setton' just in case the Vento fails again. Setton is a similar shape to Vento so I should be able to harvest at a similar diameter for the under 250g classes. A couple of 24 cell trays were filled with good quality compost mixed with nutrimate and Vitax Q4 and the onion sets pushed in to a third depth.



A common problem with onions grown from sets is premature bolting, or running to seed, so I shall keep an eye on night temperatures and bring the trays indoors if frost is forecast so they don't get a check in growth. Onions from sets is a popular class in my local shows. Whether I can grow them to a good enough standard to exhibit at NVS shows against onions grown from seed is a different matter but I think it is possible.

Most of my shallots are now showing green top growth although it is looking a little 'unhealthy' at the tips. I find this very often to be the case in the early days as the plants are often out of kilter whilst they find the correct balance between root and leaf growth. A good watering with rain water from the butt soon sees them greening up.

An important task through the winter months if you have greenhouse borders is to make sure you water them regularly even though you don't actually have anything growing in them. This mimics winter rains and ensures any nutrients are not locked away. I'm not into the science of it but it's called a 'build up of salts' and I will often pour several buckets of water over the beds to ensure I have a workable soil come Spring time.


This particular border is where I usually grow my cucumbers but a different method for cu's means I shall be able to try a few 'exhibition' onions here this season.

Bad wind

Best laid plans and all that! I was hoping to start emptying and refilling my carrots beds and drums today but instead I shall have to be cutting up this sumach tree which was blown over during last night's gales.

Luckily it fell away from my conservatory or I wouldn't like to think what damage might have been done. Just moments before it came down I'd decided to take the dog out on the front for it's nightly constitutional rather than the back lawn. It just shows what a fine line we all tread and my decision ensured there is still chance of an english pea champion at this year's National.

Two passions in one!

It's all about spuds for the next few days. I've got Dave Thornton giving a talk at my local hort soc tonight on the history of the humble potato so that should be an opportunity to catch up on some sleep. Then on Monday John Bebbington is also giving a talk at North Mids DA on the same subject. John is regularly amongst the cards at National and Branch level, very often coming second to Sherie Plumb so it will be interesting to see how his methods differ to hers if at all.

On Tuesday it's my intention to drive up to the Lake District and climb several mountains around Haweswater. It's the most unpopular of the seven mountain districts due mainly to it's fairly isolated position so I'm hoping to spend several hours in walking solitude with the fells to myself. The means to an end is to then go to Kendal DA in the evening to listen to Ian Simpson lecturing on stump carrots. Hopefully, I shall also be meeting up with Messrs. Bastow, Unsworth, Wlodarczak, Park (James....not Ji-Sung), Crowther (Chris....not Leslie) and Cameron (Gareth....not David) at the same meeting. Guys.....if I'm not there for 7.30.....call mountain rescue!