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!
14 comments:
At least I got some Vento to germinate. Although they're now growing away, they're at least a fortnight behind the Red Baron that were sown on the same day. Never again will I buy pelleted onion seed.
Simon you should have let me know you were going walking on my doortep I would have joined you I have walked round the valley a couple of times it is a nice walk
you seem to like the north a lot better than where you live
are you attending Kendal?
Just a pity the North is frequented by northerners!
I hope to be at Kendal work permitting.
Do you find that the Sweet Candle which have a strange blue coating germinate readily but the long ones are pretty crap and unreliable,assuming you use Medwyns that is ?
Never had a problem with Sweet Candle. I haven't used Medwyn's long carrot seed for a few years....i get it off champion growers.....Graeme Watson, Thornton, Ian Stocks etc
hi simon i might go to wales in august my son lives in conway [i know i dont look old enough to have kids] will have to see whats happening around here hopfully there will be dates in the next copy of sv mag
simon do you soak your seed before sowing, we use the guardian plant tonic they had a stand by the nvs at malvern, and we have had pretty near 100% germination with the vento seed which we had from medwyn
Possibly a daft question, but last year I bought St Valery and Sweet Candle seeds from http://www.exhibition-seeds.co.uk/ and had no complaints, winning both classes in my local show, and Best Root Vegetable in Show with the long carrots. This year I have also bought Cedrico tomato seeds from them so I can try them out. I just wondered why others here are buying from Medwyn when these people also specialise in exhibition seeds, and are marginally cheaper?
I bought from Medwyn because I wanted to try Vento. However, as I've said before, the Red Baron from him are doing fine......but they're not pelleted.
For the record, I've managed to salvage just 20 Vento plants from 48 sown. A pricey trial!
Once bitten, etc etc
Paul....i've just twigged.....The Peak District is in the f***ing Midlands so piss off with yer northern jibes!
Anonymous.....never tried that stuff and don't intend. I expect the seed to germinate! Been growing onions for 20 years and never had problems before.
Misty.....Vento is only available from Medwyns as far as I know.
Hi Simon, Been reading your blog for a while now with great interest so thought it was time to put a few useful/unuseful comments your way. After speaking to Medwyn and reading your blog i decided to totally remove the casing off the Vento Onions and i had about 90% germination in 10 days in my propagator at 12 degrees. Not sure why you couldn't find the seed when you took the casing off. Maybe a duff batch :-(.
Mysteryhorizon2003 I brought Cedrico from Exhibition Seeds last year and had some cracking tomatoes. Really strong plants, stay ripe for a long time and won me a couple of firsts at local shows.
just thought it might be of interest to you, as you prechit parsnip not that dissimilar an idea!
hi simon. just going on to tomatoes if you dont mind. i think you said at one time the toms have to be of a certain size for showing, could you let me know and does that apply to all shows ware ever they may held.
Geoff...you can show whatever size tomato you want but the NVS specifies 65mm dia. as being optimum size.
In actuality 60mm dia. is probably about right. My toms at Malvern were 63mm.
Again....the key criteria are condition and uniformity.
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