Don't be a dummy

On Saturday night I was able to visit a local show and assess my local competition, and some that I am likely to come up against at Llangollen as Mark Roberts was in attendance. He has had to admit defeat in his aim to stage a collection as his leeks all went to seed but he is hoping to enter the 3 pairs of 20 pointer veg class like me. I am hoping to stage a couple of long carrots, two parsnips and two potatoes and if my long roots are any good I may carry on pulling and enter a set of five long carrots and a set of five parsnips. However, if I'm in any doubt about the quality of the roots after the first couple of 'pulls' they'll remain firmly in their growing positions and be saved for later shows. I met one of my blog followers at the show, a guy called Phil Burgess who had plenty of tickets including a very nice set of Sweet Candle. Nice of you to say you find the blog entertaining Phil....it makes all the crap I get from certain quarters worthwhile! Best in show however were these superb gladioli. Stunning.

I emptied out my NVS Sherine yesterday afternoon and was able to get a reasonable set of five set aside for Llangollen for the special class sponsored by JBA Seed Potatoes, plus a few sets for other shows. Not bad from only 10 bags of this variety grown. I was very happy to note that was absolutely no sign of scab anywhere to be seen so it looks as if I've got the watering cock on this year, as the 15 bags of Casablanca I emptied out a couple of weeks ago were also superb. Contrary to popular belief scab cannot be transmitted from the seed tuber as that is merely the mark left by the scab mycellium attack during the growing season. Scab is only soil borne and as it prefers warm, dry soil you need to make sure your bags do not dry out, especially at tuber initiation which is when the haulms are about a foot high. I washed one of my 'reject' Casablanca on Friday night just to see how they clean up and here was the result. I'm happy.

I have labels already written out ready to put on each set which is graded and re-bagged in dry compost until the night before each show. That way I can go straight to the set or sets I need. I still have my NVS Amour (class also sponsored by JBA) and Kestrel to get up yet but I already have more spuds for showing than the whole of last season from just 25 bags emptied thus far. I never sieved the lumps out of the peat when I was filling the bags back in April so I'll continue to adopt this lazy method from now on. After the results I've had so far I'd be mad to mess about sieving umpteen 200 litre bags when I obviously don't need to. I think leaving the lumps in allows plenty of air pockets vital for good root production. I would stress however that you need as good a quality peat as you can get.

My parsnips 'Polar' are confusing me. The foliage is pretty ordinary but I've excavated a few inches down and can feel some fairly large shoulders so hopefully these will be ok. Three years ago I had poor tops but pulled my best parsnips ever, getting best in show at Leicester. I'm now of the opinion that for the past few years I wasn't suffering canker attacks but carrot fly as this pest also targets parsnips if it cannot find its preferred meal of choice, namely carrots. Growing in a free-draining growing media as we do, canker shouldn't be a problem as it usually manifests itself in heavy, poorly drained clayey soil, so as well as the black material membrane to stop the canker spores getting down I've also been applying Phorate granules at regular intervals which deter carrot fly. I'll only know whether this has worked in a couple of weeks of course.

I haven't had any more leeks go to seed so hopefully the 6 that went out of 22 plants is an end to it. I pulled one of them for the pot. Good blanch length and girth and clean foliage so they should be good for local shows as well as one part of my set of 6 for the Harrogate Bullshit Bloggers' Challenge against the Yorkshire rent boys.

A veg i've always done well with is french beans 'Prince' and I hope to get a set of 15 for Llangollen. For this i'm growing them in 12" pots, three plants per pot planted into my own homemade compost with nutrimate added, and the plants are very lush and healthy. This method allows you to bring the pots indoors if adverse weather is forecast in the days leading up to the show and stops the beans getting marked.

They're cropping already but there are plenty of tiny beans to come which will hopefully give me plenty of choice for Wales. In the 2 or 3 days leading up to the show I will be measuring the beans and cutting them as they reach my desired size which I will decide upon when I cut my first bean at the right shape and condition. This will be my template as such and will hopefully be about 7 to 8". All beans reaching EXACTLY this size will be cut and stored in a damp cloth in the fridge until final selection the night before.

And I'm still keeping half an eye on later shows such as Westminster. I have similar pots of french beans at earlier stages of growth as well as these pots of turnips, a trial variety called Goldana. I also have a few rows in the greenhouse soil vacated recently by the disastrous onions.

I am also growing pak choi, intermediate beet, fennel, radish, lettuce, spring onions, swiss chard any many others, much to Dave Thornton's consternation in my attempt to get more cards than him this season at the shows we both enter. There's 20 quid riding on the outcome this time around. I don't intend to fail and suffer another year of his smugness!

And finally as the height of show season approaches make sure you're well organised and have all your show paraphernalia to hand. Read the schedules carefully and make sure you're not daft enough to show 250g onions when 8oz is called for (227g).....no names mentioned....or that you fill out a variety or exhibitor card and leave it against your exhibit if the rules of that particular show require it. Again no names mentioned as I don't want to embarrass two friends.