Sometimes the veggie God taketh away then he giveth. It's been a diappointing few days on the Smithyveg estate. A couple of nights ago as I was uncollaring my leeks I noticed that at least 6 of them were going to seed. The rest of them (16) seem to be ok but I'll have a nervous few weeks waiting to see if they go to seed too. I can only assume the recent hot weather and complete lack of rain has stressed the plants.
Today I pulled up all my large onions and took them into the kitchen. I'd been expecting this for 3 or 4 weeks since the foliage started going yellow. They all have white rot. The bases are mouldy but the tops of the onions are perfectly edible but it means I won't have any to show this year. I shall need a drastic change of plan next season. The disease is widespread on my land and despite regular applications of Basamid I don't appear to beating it so from next season I'm going to have to grow them in large pots with fresh compost and soil.
A few weeks ago I pulled some Caradec F1 carrots that i'd been growing in short pipes in the greenhouse for a local show. At the time I was disappointed as they hadn't stumped up but today I pulled a few more and was happy to see they'd mostly formed a stump end. The skin finish was also excellent but they did lack uniformity somewhat. I snapped the largest one trying to see if it would straighten.
I've got about 20 of these left so I'll leave them now for my local show and hopefully get a matching set of 3. I cleared the compost from around the shoulders of my Sweet Candle in the outside sand beds and (touch wood) they appear to be 'fang free', with no sign of the mass of large side roots that afflicted me last season. I have about 60 to go at and am tempted to enter a set of 5 at Llangollen.
This afternoon I spent a highly productive few hours emptying out my bags of Casablanca white potatoes. I was worried that I didn't have any decent tubers after a few crafty feels into the bags as they were growing. How wrong I was as each bag yielded several showable sized potatoes with superb skin finishes and only a few tubers having minor scab marks. I had labels with each show and class already written out so I was able to sort about 40 spuds into various sets which were put into pots of dry peat until the night before each show when they will be washed. I was even able to earmark a set of 5 for the white class at Llangollen, although i'm sure that if I am able to grow Casablanca so well there will be several growers who will be able to grow them to exceptional standards. I think Winston's days as the top white show spud are numbered.
And finally Oscar is progressing nicely and is almost back to his normal cheery self. He needed a bath today but the daughter needed a shower cap to keep the water off his wounds so her elder sister bought him this rather fetching pink number.
I look forward to showing this to all his mates at his 21st birthday party!
6 comments:
If you honestly think we'll fall for the 'my daughter bought the showercap' routine, you're sadly mistaken. Somewhere, I believe I have a photo of you wearing it leaning against the wall outside the gents at Westminster last October.
Seriously, Oscar looks happy. To see him like that must be a huge relief to you and yours.
If it's not too late, a close up photo of one of the White Rot infested onions would be very useful.
But all his female friends will go awww and fancy him even more!
Shame about the leeks thought you had got away with it.I have also found Cassablanca to be far better than Winston and will not be growing Winston anymore Nadine also had an excellent finish but the size was not there Nice to see Oscar looking well I wont mention the obvious
Oscar looks so cute in the shower cap, what a little darling he is. Bet he breaks a few hearts when he grows up.
Quick question on the potato front. When you clean your potatoes the night before the show what do you use to scrub them? I am concerned about damaging the skins in my efforts to get rid of any remaining dirt. Thanks
If the spuds are good they shouldn't take much cleaning, just a quick rub with a soft cloth to remove dirt and the grubby sheen to leave them gleaming. Dry and store in white kitchen paper towelling
Thanks Simon, fingers crossed mine will be good then. I won't know until I empty the bags in a week's time.
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