In the meantime it is time I should be thinning the last of my long carrots growing in drums. They look really strong this season so i'm hopeful I'll be back on track with long carrots after a couple of poor seasons. I've had 100% germination too.
All my long and short carrots are now covered in mesh and polythene frames, the mesh being on the roof to allow rain water through. I won't win any joinery awards but with these in place I shouldn't suffer any damage from carrot fly or other nasties such as willow aphid.
I have now harvested enough pickling shallots to make a set of 15 for Llangollen plus a few spares assuming I don't suffer any losses during storage. Further to my posting about my 'Heath-Robinson' cardboard gauge which went a bit soggy when I left it out in the rain, I came up with the totally brilliant idea all on my own without any help from anyone north of Leeds to buy one of these spiffing calibrated digital verniers off 'ebay'.
I shall be using it to make sure my picklers have not swelled to more than the 30mm diameter required, but also to determine when to harvest my large shallots the biggest of which is now about 36mm dia. Last year I settled on 45mm and when they reached that size I got them up irrespective of whether they were still growing....which they were. Last year mine ended up about 50-52mm diameter as they carry on swelling after harvesting as the foliage dies back into the bulb. I'm hoping to be able to get mine up by the end of the first week in June. The idea is that if you leave them much beyond the second week in June, even though they appear to be still motoring, once the new green growth stops emerging from the centre they will quickly start on their secondary growth cycle and start to go 'double'. Rather than leaving them in the hope of getting some whoppers I decided to get them up but I still had quite a few that went out of shape. I would much rather have the shape and uniformity than the huge size although having said that Dave Thornton somehow manages to get his about 60mm diameter the golden bollocked bastard.
10 comments:
Simon what a brilliant idea I will have to get one of them Verniers myself did you say ebay ?
Oh and by the way I live South West of Leeds.
I agree with Paul, what a fabulous idea. I am off to order one now :)
South West Leeds, North East whatever.....they're all northern ratoles.
How did Linda enjoy being the only women in a room full of sexy blokes last night?
She said there was only one Sexy man in the room last night and it wasnt you lol,
You know that Football Team that you and every other Southerner Supports ?
Where exactly are they from ? Oops !
Do you use 'Hative de Niort' for your pickling shallots too Simon, or do you use other non-exhibition varieties? I have two types growing right now, Hative de Niort, and Yellow Moon, the plan being to use the Yellow Moon for the pickling shallots class, and the Hative de Niort for the Exhibition size shallots class.
Hative de Niort for picklers too. Even when small they still have the classic flask shape.
Most of the local shows where I am don't have a pickling class. My one are about 34 mm but were late in 7th March. Will i be able to leave them till mid June
Ontheplot....
So long as new green growth is coming out the centre then yes leave them alone until June.
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