I harvested my first large shallot today at 44mm. Not as big as I would have liked but as big as I'm going to get them this season. The other night at the North Mids NVS DA meeting most people were reporting their shallots coming early because of the warm Spring.
My stump carrots Sweet Candle under enviromesh covers continue to give me the raging horn but after the last couple of seasons I'm not suffering from premature excitement in case they all end up fanged again.
Most of my potatoes are now through having not been sown until early May. The Casablanca are most advanced, the 5 bags on the left being a foot high. The others were sown a week after the first 5.
The 4 pots of Casablanca that I sowed 13 weeks ago with a small village show in July in mind are still growing strongly. I had a furtive furtle around the compost and felt the odd decent sized tuber. I will stop watering now and let the foliage wilt a bit with a view to cutting off the haulms in a fortnight or two. I'm told casablanca should have reached size by now but as it's a small village show i'm not too worried if I end up with large spuds. It will give me an idea when to harvest my bags in July/August.
I also hope to have some courgettes for the same show, the variety 'Cora' which I am going to be growing up against the stout posts. I tried this method last year after seeing NVS Southern Branch Chairman Barry Newman (top chap...getting my vote for NVS Chairman when Medwyn steps down in August!) write about this in the NVS magazine a couple of years ago. It means the plant takes up a smaller footprint in the soil (you can grow other things in the freed-up space) and the fruit are carried at the top of the plant, are easily picked and usually free from marks on the skins. As the lower leaves get old or mildewy you can cut them off and keep the plant looking fresh. Labour intensive but it seemed to work. I've got another 6 plants just germinated which I will grow in the same way for later shows such as Malvern and Westminster.
And now for the moment some of you have been waiting for. I'm getting strangely pestered to post a photo of my Kelsae onions on here. Admittedly I haven't shown them for a while as they haven't really done much whilst I know other growers up and down the country have onions the size of bull's bollocks already. Mine may not be humungous due to my lack of facilities (lighting and warmth in Winter) but i'm quite happy with them (sown from seed in January) and thanks to regular spraying with a thrip spray I have no sign of pest damage yet. I know i'm being set up for less than complimentary commentary so here goes....do your worst you bastards!
17 comments:
Is that a Spring Onion in the photo did you upload the wrong picture
and do Bulls in Loughborough have Bolloks as big as footballs?
poor onion maybe something wrong with water suply
Your onions are bigger than mine and I'm pretty sure I'll have 3 pounders+,Ideal for the Harrogate 5 Class.
Slow and steady wins the race.
Too early and the bottom of the neck and shoulders shrivel away and the onion ends up looking like a grapefruit or a ping pong ball rather than the ideal sort of Pear shape.
4 weeks max from pulling to showing for me.FFS It's not even Mid June yet and "proper onions" only start to bulb then.I'd hate to pull a 3-4 pounder in July and try to keep it in good nick 'till mid September.Not a chance !!
So amazingly no piss take from me !
P.S, Am I the only Yorkshireman who can spell ?
Bolloks and Suply ?
Come on Huddersfielders you need to get a few more shovel fulls of Coal int' spellchecker tha' 'nos.
Quite interested to see if mine match up to yours, but can't tell unless you post the Kelsae picture. Seems you posted one of a White Lisbon by mistake.
I agree with Dan!
I agree with Dan!
Either the lull before the storm, or he's giving you a false sense of security before a size 9 in the bo**cks!
Dan you may be able to spell but technically you are from Lancashire being born there. I see where you are coming from with the Onions but do not fully agree I am following Vin Throups methods and timescale and using his strain of Onion. To Quote Medwyn Williams GN.September 14th 2011 Vin is probably the best all round Large exhibition onion grower; his onions are remarkably consistent-always top quality with good form winning the Welsh open onion championships and welsh championship class last year his onions had a deep globe shape with good shoulders and measured 22 1/2" in circumference if its good enough for him it will do for me.
wats wrong wi mi spilling anyway?
Hi Simon, i lifted my shallots a few days ago and have them curing/drying on some mesh with bulbs down as per your advice. At what stage do you remove the excess skin layers to leave one complete skin, as not grown shallots for show before.
Paul,I agree if you're going to grow massive ones,but for me only wanting max 3 lb if I lifted them say 2 months before the show I always lose the neck and the shoulders as they dry too much being smaller.
Yours will be more like 6 pounders I would think by August.
P.S When you time travelled into the future to read Medwyns GN article from September this year what was the result of the set of 6 at Harrogate ?
Dan you guessed it I won Cabernet Sauvignon strikes again lol
Marcus
Don't remove a single thing at this stage. A few days before the show take off all the loose crap and rub off the first complete skin. The one under that should be a lovely nut brown colour.
Paul/Dan/Richard.....eat shit and die wankers!
Paul/Dan/Richard.....eat shit and die wankers!
I understand that's a quaint little Leicestershire custom that stunts your growth.
Thanks Simon
Could you please explain this courgette system? I'm intrigued
No probs.....as the leading shoot of the courgette grows you tie it (very carefully!) to the post so it grows up the post instead of sprawling in the ground. In effect growing it like a standard.
Thanks Simon. Going to give this method a go!
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