Friday, January 27, 2012
Interlude
Sorry folks but i'm going to be giving this a miss for a while as I'm finding my free time is being squeezed at the moment, and probably for the foreseeable future. If anyone needs help or information then please feel free to email me and I'll do my best to advise as much as I can.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
***Date change***
Just heard that the RHS Westminster Autumn Show date has changed to 23rd/24th October.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Rhubarb rhubarb!
MAKE A DATE IN YOUR DIARY
AN EVENING NOT TO BE MISSED
2012 ANNUAL LECTURE
John Smiles
‘Revealing What Goes on Behind Closed Doors in the Rhubarb Triangle’
John has worked in the ‘triangle’ for all his life and nobody is better qualified to tell us all about this intriguing early vegetable.His talk will be informative and spiced throughout with humour.
Rhubarb themed refreshments will be available on the night.
TO BE HELD ON MONDAY 12th MARCH 2012 7.30 p.m.
EVERGREEN HALL, CORNHILL,
ALLESTREE, DE22 2FT
TICKETS £5
CONTACT: Peter Cooke for Tickets (01332 553429)
www.derbyshirehortassoc.co.uk
AN EVENING NOT TO BE MISSED
2012 ANNUAL LECTURE
John Smiles
‘Revealing What Goes on Behind Closed Doors in the Rhubarb Triangle’
John has worked in the ‘triangle’ for all his life and nobody is better qualified to tell us all about this intriguing early vegetable.His talk will be informative and spiced throughout with humour.
Rhubarb themed refreshments will be available on the night.
TO BE HELD ON MONDAY 12th MARCH 2012 7.30 p.m.
EVERGREEN HALL, CORNHILL,
ALLESTREE, DE22 2FT
TICKETS £5
CONTACT: Peter Cooke for Tickets (01332 553429)
www.derbyshirehortassoc.co.uk
Monday, January 23, 2012
Wenger winger wanger
I had a good old tidy up in the garage (my potting shed) at the weekend and started emptying the sand barrels so I feel at last as if I've made a start on things in the garden now. It was a good weekend, but then it always is when Man U win and the Racists (Liverpool FC) lose, although it was a good job the Arsenal manager has suddenly become unable to spot a good player at 10 paces. Taking off Oxlade-Chamberlain made no sense at all.
If you haven't ordered your seed spuds then you need to get on and do it quickly, but order from a reputable Scottish supplier such as JBA or (at the risk of making him even richer) my facially impaired pal Dave T at Exhibition Seed Potatoes (ESP). The garden centres are now stocking bags of the common kitchen varieties as well as a few of the usual showbench favourites but don't think that just because it says 'certified' on the label you're getting the best. 'Certified' is actually one of the lowest ratings and basically the dross that the scots send down to us sassenachs. However, If you order direct from such as JBA's online shop you'll be guaranteed basic or pre-basic seed which are actually the best grades. Oh how I bet they laughed their tits off dreaming up those names whilst roasting their haggis round their campfires one night to try and confuse us! At the risk of giving my friend Iain Barbour of JBA palpitations at what i'm about to say, I saved a tray of Kestrel and NVS Amour for this season's seed rather than buying in new. In theory the offspring can be kept going for 7 or 8 years as I understand it, as long as the resultant crop remains virus-free. I shall probably not risk that, but get new stock in a couple of seasons time to be on the safe side. I'm only growing the two varieties for show this season as I only need a single plate of 5 for Malvern and both these varieties performed great for me last season. At my wife's insistence i'm also growing a few Maris Piper for kitchen use only, probably in the ground rather than bags.
My 'seed' spuds are now laid out in trays with an old towel over them on the coldest of nights which also stops them chitting. In late Feb I'll remove the covers and allow chitting to start, although I won't start planting until mid to late April. I saved a variety of sizes, as you can get a good crop from even a marble sized tuber. Many growers insist on hen's egg sized seed but it makes no difference to the size of showable tubers, it's all down to how you grow them. But I did make sure all saved tubers were disease free and had good splashes of colour around the eyes as Kestrel in particular has been prone to losing its colouring. Very often you think you've unearthed a tuber that is totally colour free but be careful as there are very often the tiniest of lilac specks that the judge will surely spot if you're cheeky enough to try some Kestrel in a white class.
The last of my seed order arrived last week from Shelley's. I like Shelley's. I've never had a bad batch of seed from them in 15 years and you always get a personal, hand-written letter from James Shelley wishing you all the best for the next season. Never met the fella but i'm sure he's a top bloke. So now I have all my packets of seed to hand apart from one. I realised last weekend that I haven't ordered any long carrot seed from anyone so I need to get some sorted pretty damn quickly. I may have to be nice to Dave T but that's a proposition I don't want to entertain just yet.
If you haven't ordered your seed spuds then you need to get on and do it quickly, but order from a reputable Scottish supplier such as JBA or (at the risk of making him even richer) my facially impaired pal Dave T at Exhibition Seed Potatoes (ESP). The garden centres are now stocking bags of the common kitchen varieties as well as a few of the usual showbench favourites but don't think that just because it says 'certified' on the label you're getting the best. 'Certified' is actually one of the lowest ratings and basically the dross that the scots send down to us sassenachs. However, If you order direct from such as JBA's online shop you'll be guaranteed basic or pre-basic seed which are actually the best grades. Oh how I bet they laughed their tits off dreaming up those names whilst roasting their haggis round their campfires one night to try and confuse us! At the risk of giving my friend Iain Barbour of JBA palpitations at what i'm about to say, I saved a tray of Kestrel and NVS Amour for this season's seed rather than buying in new. In theory the offspring can be kept going for 7 or 8 years as I understand it, as long as the resultant crop remains virus-free. I shall probably not risk that, but get new stock in a couple of seasons time to be on the safe side. I'm only growing the two varieties for show this season as I only need a single plate of 5 for Malvern and both these varieties performed great for me last season. At my wife's insistence i'm also growing a few Maris Piper for kitchen use only, probably in the ground rather than bags.
My 'seed' spuds are now laid out in trays with an old towel over them on the coldest of nights which also stops them chitting. In late Feb I'll remove the covers and allow chitting to start, although I won't start planting until mid to late April. I saved a variety of sizes, as you can get a good crop from even a marble sized tuber. Many growers insist on hen's egg sized seed but it makes no difference to the size of showable tubers, it's all down to how you grow them. But I did make sure all saved tubers were disease free and had good splashes of colour around the eyes as Kestrel in particular has been prone to losing its colouring. Very often you think you've unearthed a tuber that is totally colour free but be careful as there are very often the tiniest of lilac specks that the judge will surely spot if you're cheeky enough to try some Kestrel in a white class.
The last of my seed order arrived last week from Shelley's. I like Shelley's. I've never had a bad batch of seed from them in 15 years and you always get a personal, hand-written letter from James Shelley wishing you all the best for the next season. Never met the fella but i'm sure he's a top bloke. So now I have all my packets of seed to hand apart from one. I realised last weekend that I haven't ordered any long carrot seed from anyone so I need to get some sorted pretty damn quickly. I may have to be nice to Dave T but that's a proposition I don't want to entertain just yet.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Back to the suture
About 12 years ago I used to cut up my stock shallots so that each little bulblet was extricated for individual planting. This was on Medwyn's recommendation at the time, the idea being that you don't have to thin them out later in the season and hopefully you got perfectly round bulbs come harvest time.
I cetainly used to get well shaped bulbs, although quite small, and at the time I won a lot of local shows. Therefore, I decided today to try cutting up a couple of the stonkers that Dave T gave me, and I suddenly remembered why I stopped doing it....it's a right fiddlefuck of a job. You need to peel away the outer skins and carefully part the separate bulblets with a sharp knife, exercising all the skills of a surgeon to cut through the base plate so that each thinning has some rootplate attached.
The two bulbs gave me 8 tiny thinnings which I planted up in 3" pots tonight and I shall mark them through the season to monitor how they fare.
I cetainly used to get well shaped bulbs, although quite small, and at the time I won a lot of local shows. Therefore, I decided today to try cutting up a couple of the stonkers that Dave T gave me, and I suddenly remembered why I stopped doing it....it's a right fiddlefuck of a job. You need to peel away the outer skins and carefully part the separate bulblets with a sharp knife, exercising all the skills of a surgeon to cut through the base plate so that each thinning has some rootplate attached.
The two bulbs gave me 8 tiny thinnings which I planted up in 3" pots tonight and I shall mark them through the season to monitor how they fare.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
First potting
I finally got to pot on my Pendle Improved blanch leeks today, preferring not to do it last weekend as it was so cold and I didn't want to risk the roots suffering a chill. There are various ways of doing but this is the way that works for me.
The plants are knocked out of the tray they were in, trying not to disturb the root ball too much. I transplanted into 9cm square pots into multi-purpose compost with a smidgeon of added Q4.
A thin cane is pushed into the root ball, about 1/2" from the plant, and a 2" section of 3/4" bore pipe lagging is pushed over the plant and secured to the cane. I position the lagging so that the growing point is halfway down inside it. This is to encourage the growing point upwards.
With other leek varieties the leek is pushed upwards in relation to the girth, but Pendle Improved needs stretching as quickly as possible, and can mean they look drastically out of proportion but they seem to fill out. Because I only use short sections of lagging the lower part of the barrel will turn green but will soon blanch after planting in May when I cover it with DPC. I never seem to experience a problem doing it this way. Perhaps the extra chlorophyl helps as you are covering quite a bit of the upper leaf area in an effort to lengthen the plants.
Finally a green clip near the top of the cane keeps the foliage upright and also helps to keep the plant growing upwards.
The plants are knocked out of the tray they were in, trying not to disturb the root ball too much. I transplanted into 9cm square pots into multi-purpose compost with a smidgeon of added Q4.
A thin cane is pushed into the root ball, about 1/2" from the plant, and a 2" section of 3/4" bore pipe lagging is pushed over the plant and secured to the cane. I position the lagging so that the growing point is halfway down inside it. This is to encourage the growing point upwards.
With other leek varieties the leek is pushed upwards in relation to the girth, but Pendle Improved needs stretching as quickly as possible, and can mean they look drastically out of proportion but they seem to fill out. Because I only use short sections of lagging the lower part of the barrel will turn green but will soon blanch after planting in May when I cover it with DPC. I never seem to experience a problem doing it this way. Perhaps the extra chlorophyl helps as you are covering quite a bit of the upper leaf area in an effort to lengthen the plants.
Finally a green clip near the top of the cane keeps the foliage upright and also helps to keep the plant growing upwards.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
It happened on this day
1644 First recorded UFO sighting in America by Pilgrims
1778 Captain Cook discovers Hawaii
1788 First fleet of convicts arrive in Botany Bay, Australia
1882 AA Milne is born
1892 Oliver Hardy (Laurel & Hardy) born
1904 Cary Grant born
1912 Captain Scott reaches the South Pole
1919 Post WW1 Peace Conference begins in Paris
1943 Nazi siege of Leningrad broken
1948 Gandhi breaks a 121-hour fast to halt muslim-hindu riots
1951 Lie detector first used in Holland
1955 Kevin Costner born
1963 Hugh Gaitskell dies
1964 World's most handsome veg grower born
1967 Boston Strangler sentenced to life
1975 'Mandy' becomes Barry Manilow's first no. 1 hit
1991 Iraq fires first scud missiles at Israel
1996 Lisa Marie Presley filed for divorce from Michael Jackson in New York
1778 Captain Cook discovers Hawaii
1788 First fleet of convicts arrive in Botany Bay, Australia
1882 AA Milne is born
1892 Oliver Hardy (Laurel & Hardy) born
1904 Cary Grant born
1912 Captain Scott reaches the South Pole
1919 Post WW1 Peace Conference begins in Paris
1943 Nazi siege of Leningrad broken
1948 Gandhi breaks a 121-hour fast to halt muslim-hindu riots
1951 Lie detector first used in Holland
1955 Kevin Costner born
1963 Hugh Gaitskell dies
1964 World's most handsome veg grower born
1967 Boston Strangler sentenced to life
1975 'Mandy' becomes Barry Manilow's first no. 1 hit
1991 Iraq fires first scud missiles at Israel
1996 Lisa Marie Presley filed for divorce from Michael Jackson in New York
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Slumber and Clumber
There's really nothing happening around Smithyveg Manor at the moment. All i'm doing for now is getting home from work and going out walking 3 times a week to get myself fighting fit for the imminent yearly emptying out of the sand barrels ritual. As I get older I dread this essential task more and more. Otherwise it's a case of writing your sowing dates in a diary, cross-referencing against previous years and double checking to make sure all the information is in there to make sure you haven't missed anything. Although I could probably get through a year on memory I still like to refer to my RHS diary on a weekly basis during the main sowing season (February to June), and I religiously note when all crops are sown, potted on and eventually planted out. However, you have to remember that each year is different and what worked last year won't necessarily work this year.
I'm going to be sowing my Vento onions indoors for the 250g class at Malvern this weekend. I won't be posting a photo of this process because quite frankly if you don't know how to do this you shouldn't be allowed out unattended let alone be thinking of growing veg for show. I'm hopeful of much better germination rates than last season now that Medwyn has got his supplier to get rid of those evil seed casings. I shall be glad to get back to growing Vento as I do find it an excellent onion to grow, the foliage growing quite upright meaning that you usually get plenty of uniform round specimens, with the growing point pretty much bang in the centre. I've also found it pretty tolerant of strong winds also, although you should always be prepared to re-upright them (is that a real word?...well it f***ing well is now) by pushing them back if they lean to one side, pushing soil underneath to keep them standing erect. This prevents the bulbs growing to one side and going off-centre. Last year Medwyn sent me some plants in the post to compensate for my germination problems, but those workshy bastards at the Post Office neglected to post a slip through my door telling me they'd tried to deliver them. By the time I realised they had been in the dark for nearly a week and although the plants did eventually get planted and harvested they were pretty pathetic specimens.
Other than that the only other things 'growing' are the potted up shallots although to be honest they are just sat now in freezing compost in an unheated greenhouse. The last few nights have seen temperatures down to -4degC which is much more like it for the time of year. I wonder how many growers were tempted to try a few early sowings in the recent mild weather?
I have a single long carrot down to seed, my best one from last season. I tried seeding one last year but it rotted off by early summer and I never managed to get my own strain of seed going. Hopefully I'll have more luck this time around as the plant certainly looks a lot better than before.
And last Saturday we took Oscar to Clumber Park in Nottingham. Well worth a visit, they have a superb walled garden growing all manner of veg varieties in an organic (yawn) manner. Most interesting is a display of old tools with a museum telling the history of the gardens and the techniques that the Head Gardeners employed. However, take plenty of money as the National Trust sure know how to empty your pockets.
I'm going to be sowing my Vento onions indoors for the 250g class at Malvern this weekend. I won't be posting a photo of this process because quite frankly if you don't know how to do this you shouldn't be allowed out unattended let alone be thinking of growing veg for show. I'm hopeful of much better germination rates than last season now that Medwyn has got his supplier to get rid of those evil seed casings. I shall be glad to get back to growing Vento as I do find it an excellent onion to grow, the foliage growing quite upright meaning that you usually get plenty of uniform round specimens, with the growing point pretty much bang in the centre. I've also found it pretty tolerant of strong winds also, although you should always be prepared to re-upright them (is that a real word?...well it f***ing well is now) by pushing them back if they lean to one side, pushing soil underneath to keep them standing erect. This prevents the bulbs growing to one side and going off-centre. Last year Medwyn sent me some plants in the post to compensate for my germination problems, but those workshy bastards at the Post Office neglected to post a slip through my door telling me they'd tried to deliver them. By the time I realised they had been in the dark for nearly a week and although the plants did eventually get planted and harvested they were pretty pathetic specimens.
Other than that the only other things 'growing' are the potted up shallots although to be honest they are just sat now in freezing compost in an unheated greenhouse. The last few nights have seen temperatures down to -4degC which is much more like it for the time of year. I wonder how many growers were tempted to try a few early sowings in the recent mild weather?
I have a single long carrot down to seed, my best one from last season. I tried seeding one last year but it rotted off by early summer and I never managed to get my own strain of seed going. Hopefully I'll have more luck this time around as the plant certainly looks a lot better than before.
And last Saturday we took Oscar to Clumber Park in Nottingham. Well worth a visit, they have a superb walled garden growing all manner of veg varieties in an organic (yawn) manner. Most interesting is a display of old tools with a museum telling the history of the gardens and the techniques that the Head Gardeners employed. However, take plenty of money as the National Trust sure know how to empty your pockets.
Sad.....but true
Woman - "Can I drive?"
Man - "No. I'm fine"
Woman - "Oh, please let me. I really want to!"
Man - "No"
Woman - "I tell you what, if you let me drive, just for a bit, when we get home I'll give you a blowjob"
Man - "Really?"
Woman - "Promise"
Man - "Oh go on then"
(Apparently, the final entry from the black box on the cruise ship Costa Concordia)
Man - "No. I'm fine"
Woman - "Oh, please let me. I really want to!"
Man - "No"
Woman - "I tell you what, if you let me drive, just for a bit, when we get home I'll give you a blowjob"
Man - "Really?"
Woman - "Promise"
Man - "Oh go on then"
(Apparently, the final entry from the black box on the cruise ship Costa Concordia)
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Ringing the changes
There was some discussion recently about reducing class quantities at the National Championships, specifically from 5 to 3 for things like blanch leeks, long carrots, long beet and parsnips. The 'dinosaurs' won the day and it's not something that will be adopted for now but I hope they'll think again in future. Over the years other veg have been reduced, such as runner beans from 18 to 12 for instance. At Llangollen there were only 3 entries in the blanch leek class, so surely having 5 entries of 3 would look better than having 3 entries of 5???
The old fogies argument was that 'BUT IT'S THE NATIONAL' and that it should be harder to win. Well of course it fecking well would be....the best growers would still be there but they wouldn't have to stretch themselves so much, and the likes of myself would be tempted to have a crack. As it is I cannot see myself ever attempting blanch leeks, long beet or long carrots when I might have to pull half my crop of long roots for instance. Some of us don't have vast rolling acres with dozens of raised beds and drums. What are they gonna do when there is one or even no entries in a class? The argument really doesn't wash i'm afraid. When a team reaches the FA Cup Final they don't suddenly have to play the game over 180 minutes just because 'IT'S THE FA CUP FINAL!'
I've said many times before that show organisers should reduce quantities if they want to increase interest, and in village shows this means reducing from 3 to 2 if necessary. The benefit is two-fold. The guy who perhaps only grows one barrel has a chance of finding a set of two, and the more experienced guy who grows several barrels will continue supporting his local show if he only has to sacrifice a pair and can save the rest of his crop for the bigger shows that he likes to have a go at. I've been on several show committees where the long carrot class was declining and after we changed it to a pair from a set of 3 numbers started to rise. It certainly looks much better on the benches and makes the judge earn his corn too. In my opinion, things like cabbages should be reduced to a single specimen for village shows.
However, to be fair to the NVS they have introduced a new class this year for 15 pointer veg and below, according the latest magazine 'Simply Veg'. In an effort to try and encourage new growers to have a crack this year it will be table marrows (a pair?) which leads me to believe the choice of vegetable will change from year to year (can anyone clarify this?). I wasn't going to bother with marrows this season but I may have to rethink my plans now I know this, although I don't think i'll be growing Blyton Belle any more as I've found it a little shy to produce fruits the last couple of seasons. Whatever happens, I reckon we'll all have to beat Marcus Powell who won the Midlands last year with these Bush Baby, the best pair of marrows i've seen for quite some time.
The old fogies argument was that 'BUT IT'S THE NATIONAL' and that it should be harder to win. Well of course it fecking well would be....the best growers would still be there but they wouldn't have to stretch themselves so much, and the likes of myself would be tempted to have a crack. As it is I cannot see myself ever attempting blanch leeks, long beet or long carrots when I might have to pull half my crop of long roots for instance. Some of us don't have vast rolling acres with dozens of raised beds and drums. What are they gonna do when there is one or even no entries in a class? The argument really doesn't wash i'm afraid. When a team reaches the FA Cup Final they don't suddenly have to play the game over 180 minutes just because 'IT'S THE FA CUP FINAL!'
I've said many times before that show organisers should reduce quantities if they want to increase interest, and in village shows this means reducing from 3 to 2 if necessary. The benefit is two-fold. The guy who perhaps only grows one barrel has a chance of finding a set of two, and the more experienced guy who grows several barrels will continue supporting his local show if he only has to sacrifice a pair and can save the rest of his crop for the bigger shows that he likes to have a go at. I've been on several show committees where the long carrot class was declining and after we changed it to a pair from a set of 3 numbers started to rise. It certainly looks much better on the benches and makes the judge earn his corn too. In my opinion, things like cabbages should be reduced to a single specimen for village shows.
However, to be fair to the NVS they have introduced a new class this year for 15 pointer veg and below, according the latest magazine 'Simply Veg'. In an effort to try and encourage new growers to have a crack this year it will be table marrows (a pair?) which leads me to believe the choice of vegetable will change from year to year (can anyone clarify this?). I wasn't going to bother with marrows this season but I may have to rethink my plans now I know this, although I don't think i'll be growing Blyton Belle any more as I've found it a little shy to produce fruits the last couple of seasons. Whatever happens, I reckon we'll all have to beat Marcus Powell who won the Midlands last year with these Bush Baby, the best pair of marrows i've seen for quite some time.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Cold comfort
My wife, kids and work colleagues all think i'm quite mad. I travelled a 300 mile round trip last night to listen to John Soulsby's talk on leeks, specifically the importance of supplementary lighting. It was well worth the effort. John is a florist by trade and has a great knowledge on the science of plants and what they need or don't need in terms of lighting/heating/feeding, learning much by trial and error, experimentation or just plain mistakes. Just like thes rest of us in fact! It was quite heavy going at times and quite technical but there is always something you can learn from these talks. Being an NVS member you can attend many such events that are going on up and down Britain pretty much every week of the year.
A pot leek specialist, John has a huge set up as he also supplies thousands of pot leek plants through a mail order business to growers the length and breadth of the country, but he has experimented with every conceivable light set up over the years to ensure he has the best possible plants when it comes to competition. As he said last night, if you can go to a talk and pick up just one tip then it's always worthwhile and I certainly had flashing lights going off in my head at some of the things he was saying. Eventually I'd like to consider growing my own leeks from pips, and I will need better conditions to 'strike' (root) them than I currently have but from what he told us last night I'm even more convinced that my current cardboard set up is more than adequate for growing on my bought in plants.
I've always been worried about sudden temperature drops causing the leeks to go to seed later in the season, and indeed I lost about half a dozen last August which I'd put down to the extreme cold we had in December and January. But last year John performed a little experiment that blows that idea right out of the water. He left a tray of tiny plants on his lawn through the depth of last Winter when we experienced temperatures in the region of minus 16deg.C. They were sometimes covered with 18" of snow. Quite incredibly, none of those plants went to seed! However, other plants that he had in his heated greenhouse he neglected from time to time in terms of depriving them of water, giving intermittent exposure to light, excess heat at times and a poor feeding regime. These plants ALL went to seed. This experiment illustrates that many plants are well adapted to coping with the cold and lets face it leeks are traditionally hardy biennials, the staple diet of the winter veg plot especially in the harsh north-east. But once you start messing about with their essentials for life then the plants become stressed and it's then that you run the risk of your plants going tits-up.
John reckons leeks are more than happy with an ambient temperature of 45degF which is a relatively lowly 7degC. My crappy little growing chamber (some cardboard boxes and silver foil!) is more than capable of maintaining this temperature but I am now of the opinion that I need to make sure I don't let the plants dry out which I may have done last season as I didn't want the roots sitting in freezing compost. Now that I know cold isn't really a major problem I won't worry too much if the night-time temperatures dip but I will ensure I keep the compost as moist at all times with water at ambient temperature. Similarly, when planted out in the beds my leeks were left to fend for themselves somewhat last season and of course we had a particularly dry summer. I shall be adopting a more regular watering regime this year and will be sinking bottomless pop bottles next to each plant to ensure water gets straight to the roots much as I do with tomatoes. I think my few plants went to seed so late in the season because of a stress check through lack of water in July rather than anything that went wrong in December or January.
I am also being very particular with switching the light on at 6pm every night and turning it off before going to work in the morning, to make sure they get the minimum 12 hours lighting. The heat from the light also helps keep the temperature well above freezing, which of course I now realise isn't a problem anyway. This will continue until March time when the day/night hours equal out and I can bring the plants into the greenhouse during the day, and the plants can benefit from the natural light spectrum.
A pot leek specialist, John has a huge set up as he also supplies thousands of pot leek plants through a mail order business to growers the length and breadth of the country, but he has experimented with every conceivable light set up over the years to ensure he has the best possible plants when it comes to competition. As he said last night, if you can go to a talk and pick up just one tip then it's always worthwhile and I certainly had flashing lights going off in my head at some of the things he was saying. Eventually I'd like to consider growing my own leeks from pips, and I will need better conditions to 'strike' (root) them than I currently have but from what he told us last night I'm even more convinced that my current cardboard set up is more than adequate for growing on my bought in plants.
I've always been worried about sudden temperature drops causing the leeks to go to seed later in the season, and indeed I lost about half a dozen last August which I'd put down to the extreme cold we had in December and January. But last year John performed a little experiment that blows that idea right out of the water. He left a tray of tiny plants on his lawn through the depth of last Winter when we experienced temperatures in the region of minus 16deg.C. They were sometimes covered with 18" of snow. Quite incredibly, none of those plants went to seed! However, other plants that he had in his heated greenhouse he neglected from time to time in terms of depriving them of water, giving intermittent exposure to light, excess heat at times and a poor feeding regime. These plants ALL went to seed. This experiment illustrates that many plants are well adapted to coping with the cold and lets face it leeks are traditionally hardy biennials, the staple diet of the winter veg plot especially in the harsh north-east. But once you start messing about with their essentials for life then the plants become stressed and it's then that you run the risk of your plants going tits-up.
John reckons leeks are more than happy with an ambient temperature of 45degF which is a relatively lowly 7degC. My crappy little growing chamber (some cardboard boxes and silver foil!) is more than capable of maintaining this temperature but I am now of the opinion that I need to make sure I don't let the plants dry out which I may have done last season as I didn't want the roots sitting in freezing compost. Now that I know cold isn't really a major problem I won't worry too much if the night-time temperatures dip but I will ensure I keep the compost as moist at all times with water at ambient temperature. Similarly, when planted out in the beds my leeks were left to fend for themselves somewhat last season and of course we had a particularly dry summer. I shall be adopting a more regular watering regime this year and will be sinking bottomless pop bottles next to each plant to ensure water gets straight to the roots much as I do with tomatoes. I think my few plants went to seed so late in the season because of a stress check through lack of water in July rather than anything that went wrong in December or January.
I am also being very particular with switching the light on at 6pm every night and turning it off before going to work in the morning, to make sure they get the minimum 12 hours lighting. The heat from the light also helps keep the temperature well above freezing, which of course I now realise isn't a problem anyway. This will continue until March time when the day/night hours equal out and I can bring the plants into the greenhouse during the day, and the plants can benefit from the natural light spectrum.
Monday, January 09, 2012
Unnatural urges
Doesn't it feel great now that we're getting a couple of minutes or so of extra daylight per day? The first daffs are poking their little noses through the soil and several trees are breaking into blossom in the town, very early I know and a frost will soon knock it back but no worries....Spring will soon be here although it will be some while before the Northern chutney ferrets can start doing their naked group sundances where they lather each other in lard and see who can spear the most black puddings on their love cabers.
This weekend I will probably sow my Vento onions for the under 250g class at Malvern, although i'm in no rush and if it's a task that gets left to the end of January then no problem. I had huge problems with the germination of Vento last season thanks to those maddening seed casings that the suppliers coated them in. After several weeks they still hadn't come through and I since found out that they were germination inhibitors that allowed farmers to sow early and that the seeds wouldn't germinate until temperatures in the field were right. Great for farmers but no friggin good for me and, as it tuned out, dozens of other growers up and down the country who were experiencing similar problems. Well, Medwyn listened to us and insisted to his suppliers that in future all his seeds wouldn't have this coating on so I felt duty bound to buy a packet from him which duly arrived with my other orders last week. I'm going to try sowing the seeds in slightly larger modules with some seed compost and added vermiculite for drainage. Onions like an open, 'gritty' media and the traditional practice is to prick out at the crook stage. However, some current thinking is to leave the seedlings until they have the first proper pair of leaves and are more robust and likely to survive transplanting. Doing so at the 'crook' stage risks damaging the delicate root and is easily done with my fat fingers.
I am also hoping to get hold of some onion sets 'Setton', a variety which I have grown for a couple of years now. They are quite unusual for sets in that I find they grow pretty uniform in shape (similar to Vento), ripen nicely and are pretty easy to match up. Every other onion set i've ever grown has thrown up a multitude of different shapes and skin tones, and matching up nigh on impossible for anything other than village showing. However, as with all my onions this year i'm going to have to grow them in pots throughout, as I can never grow in the ground again because my soil is rife with white rot. I finally decided last year to give up growing them in the ground as the failure rate was proving to be just too high, despite regular treatments with the highly toxic Basamid.
I really want to stage a set of 250g onions as part of the Millennium Class at Malvern, a class that was introduced in 2000 to give ordinary growers like myself a chance, as none of the crops supposedly required any special heat or set up to grow them. This isn't strictly true, as the top growers have made great strides growing potatoes in polybags, stump carrots in deep sand beds, and even coring holes for globe beetroot i'm told, so if you want to compete you do still need to go to great lengths of preparation. David Thornton won it in the first year but hasn't got a look-in since so he obviously got lucky. The class calls for 5 dishes namely, 250g onions, tomatoes, globe beet, potatoes and 250g onions, 4 matching specimens of each. Mark Hall has won this class at the last 2 Nationals so he'll be going for his hat-trick at Malvern but it's always a competitive class attracting many entries. Here is Mark's winning entry from Llangollen in 2011.
The bottom photo shows Ron MacFarlane's winning 'Toughball' onions in the 250g class. Note how beautifully ripened they are and how uniform the shape is, with the veining adding an attractive pattern to the skins. 250g onions only command 15 points under NVS judging rules, the same as cabbages, marrows and globe beet. I reckon they deserve more as getting this sort of quality takes more than just growing them to the required size.
p.s. has anyone got an antidote to an itchy beard? My face feels like a pair of bollocks that have been across a desert without a change of Y-fronts.
This weekend I will probably sow my Vento onions for the under 250g class at Malvern, although i'm in no rush and if it's a task that gets left to the end of January then no problem. I had huge problems with the germination of Vento last season thanks to those maddening seed casings that the suppliers coated them in. After several weeks they still hadn't come through and I since found out that they were germination inhibitors that allowed farmers to sow early and that the seeds wouldn't germinate until temperatures in the field were right. Great for farmers but no friggin good for me and, as it tuned out, dozens of other growers up and down the country who were experiencing similar problems. Well, Medwyn listened to us and insisted to his suppliers that in future all his seeds wouldn't have this coating on so I felt duty bound to buy a packet from him which duly arrived with my other orders last week. I'm going to try sowing the seeds in slightly larger modules with some seed compost and added vermiculite for drainage. Onions like an open, 'gritty' media and the traditional practice is to prick out at the crook stage. However, some current thinking is to leave the seedlings until they have the first proper pair of leaves and are more robust and likely to survive transplanting. Doing so at the 'crook' stage risks damaging the delicate root and is easily done with my fat fingers.
I am also hoping to get hold of some onion sets 'Setton', a variety which I have grown for a couple of years now. They are quite unusual for sets in that I find they grow pretty uniform in shape (similar to Vento), ripen nicely and are pretty easy to match up. Every other onion set i've ever grown has thrown up a multitude of different shapes and skin tones, and matching up nigh on impossible for anything other than village showing. However, as with all my onions this year i'm going to have to grow them in pots throughout, as I can never grow in the ground again because my soil is rife with white rot. I finally decided last year to give up growing them in the ground as the failure rate was proving to be just too high, despite regular treatments with the highly toxic Basamid.
I really want to stage a set of 250g onions as part of the Millennium Class at Malvern, a class that was introduced in 2000 to give ordinary growers like myself a chance, as none of the crops supposedly required any special heat or set up to grow them. This isn't strictly true, as the top growers have made great strides growing potatoes in polybags, stump carrots in deep sand beds, and even coring holes for globe beetroot i'm told, so if you want to compete you do still need to go to great lengths of preparation. David Thornton won it in the first year but hasn't got a look-in since so he obviously got lucky. The class calls for 5 dishes namely, 250g onions, tomatoes, globe beet, potatoes and 250g onions, 4 matching specimens of each. Mark Hall has won this class at the last 2 Nationals so he'll be going for his hat-trick at Malvern but it's always a competitive class attracting many entries. Here is Mark's winning entry from Llangollen in 2011.
The bottom photo shows Ron MacFarlane's winning 'Toughball' onions in the 250g class. Note how beautifully ripened they are and how uniform the shape is, with the veining adding an attractive pattern to the skins. 250g onions only command 15 points under NVS judging rules, the same as cabbages, marrows and globe beet. I reckon they deserve more as getting this sort of quality takes more than just growing them to the required size.
p.s. has anyone got an antidote to an itchy beard? My face feels like a pair of bollocks that have been across a desert without a change of Y-fronts.
Sunday, January 08, 2012
Scholes, goals, and holes
On the day that the report of Manchester United's demise appeared premature I managed to get some shallots potted up. It's unseasonably mild still, and despite the high winds of last week (which actually blew our conservatory door off!) we haven't had any Winter as such yet. But it will come!
I watched Dave Thornton potting his up yesterday, dibbling a hole about an inch deep and nestling the bulb about 3/4 depth as previously mentioned.. This is much deeper than I've always done it but hey ho. Aint gonna argue with Dave on shallots.
I used a good quality multi-purpose compost with a bit of Q4 added as the shallots will be in the pots until April, so you don't want them to go short of food.
I also scraped the base plate and dipped it in some dry Rovral powder before planting and hopefully this will ward off botrytis during growth. I'll give a spray of Rovral before harvest also. Dave was using Benlate this time around but he reckons they're very similar.
On Tuesday i'm hoping to make the trip up to Cumbria to hear John Soulsby talk on leeks at Westmoreland DA of the NVS. A pot leek specialist, he also knows a thing or two about blanch leeks so i'm sure i'll be able to pick up plenty of tips. There aren't many pot leek growers left outside the north east and I must admit they're not something I think I'd ever want to start growing, but i'm always open to persuasion.
I watched Dave Thornton potting his up yesterday, dibbling a hole about an inch deep and nestling the bulb about 3/4 depth as previously mentioned.. This is much deeper than I've always done it but hey ho. Aint gonna argue with Dave on shallots.
I used a good quality multi-purpose compost with a bit of Q4 added as the shallots will be in the pots until April, so you don't want them to go short of food.
I also scraped the base plate and dipped it in some dry Rovral powder before planting and hopefully this will ward off botrytis during growth. I'll give a spray of Rovral before harvest also. Dave was using Benlate this time around but he reckons they're very similar.
On Tuesday i'm hoping to make the trip up to Cumbria to hear John Soulsby talk on leeks at Westmoreland DA of the NVS. A pot leek specialist, he also knows a thing or two about blanch leeks so i'm sure i'll be able to pick up plenty of tips. There aren't many pot leek growers left outside the north east and I must admit they're not something I think I'd ever want to start growing, but i'm always open to persuasion.
Friday, January 06, 2012
Bullshit boys are back
I haven't seen it yet but apparently my photo is once again in the January edition of the NVS magazine Simply Vegetables, prompting Dave Thornton today to call me (and I quote) an "arse licking, good for nothing,attention seeking twat". I'd sue for defamation of character if it wasn't for the very minor technicality of him telling the truth! I can only assume someone has set me up again. When will people learn their lesson? It isn't set in stone that I have to wait until the next Smithyveg Awards you know!
Anyways, back to the business of the year now that all that Christmassy nonsense is out of the way. I am happy to announce that the 2012 BBC event will be contested in the 3x20 pointer class in the NVS Northern Branch Championships at Harrogate in September. It will be changed this year after complaints from the Pennine Sausage Jockeys that they couldn't possibly beat me in the 6x1 collection and could we make it easier for them? Awww bless. Anyway, i'm a fair man so we had a committee meeting....when I say meeting, Dan suggested it and me and Bastow said yeah ok....so it's now set in stone. Same rules as before, 10 quid in, winner takes all including a year's bragging rights. Which will be me....of course. So if you think you're good enough to put me back in my box and wipe the stupid smirk off my face then make sure you enter. Below is a previous winner of the class.
This is a good class to enter at a higher level as you obviously only need to find a pair of matching specimens and I entered this class at both Llangollen and Malvern last year. I won didly squit but it did allow me to compare my produce against the very best at very little 'outlay' in terms of the quantity of specimens I had to pull or harvest. I'd suggest to schedule makers of village shows that this would also be a good class to introduce if entries in your larger collection classes have dwindled over the years.
Tomorrow I will be potting up my shallots if the weather stays as mild as it currently is but I'll be doing things slightly different this year. Each shallot will be potted up into 3" square pots as i've always done, into good compost with a bit of added Vitax Q4, but I will bury them to about 3/4 depth rather than just nestling them on the surface as I have in the past. I will also be scraping the base plate until it 'gives' a bit of moisture and dipping this in dry Rovral powder. Both these tips come from multiple National Champion David "pot/kettle/black" Thornton, who is convinced that dipping in Rovral prevents losses from botrytis during storage. We shall see as I only left myself 15 bulbs of my own stock this season due to a 60% loss rate and a few giveaways, although he has kindly offered me some spares from his own stock which I shall be collecting from him tomorrow afternoon.
I have also grown my first crop of the season in the form of a spiffing new beard. I got to thinking once again that several of my scottish friends sport varying degrees of facial fungus so it got me wondering whether it might be a useful tool in attracting mildew away from my peas, and that climate really has nothing to do with it. I'm told I look like a cross between the Yorkshire Ripper, Zac Dingle and Baldrick, but it's got to be worth a shot and it has the added advantage that I sometimes find bits of leftover food in it.
Anyways, back to the business of the year now that all that Christmassy nonsense is out of the way. I am happy to announce that the 2012 BBC event will be contested in the 3x20 pointer class in the NVS Northern Branch Championships at Harrogate in September. It will be changed this year after complaints from the Pennine Sausage Jockeys that they couldn't possibly beat me in the 6x1 collection and could we make it easier for them? Awww bless. Anyway, i'm a fair man so we had a committee meeting....when I say meeting, Dan suggested it and me and Bastow said yeah ok....so it's now set in stone. Same rules as before, 10 quid in, winner takes all including a year's bragging rights. Which will be me....of course. So if you think you're good enough to put me back in my box and wipe the stupid smirk off my face then make sure you enter. Below is a previous winner of the class.
This is a good class to enter at a higher level as you obviously only need to find a pair of matching specimens and I entered this class at both Llangollen and Malvern last year. I won didly squit but it did allow me to compare my produce against the very best at very little 'outlay' in terms of the quantity of specimens I had to pull or harvest. I'd suggest to schedule makers of village shows that this would also be a good class to introduce if entries in your larger collection classes have dwindled over the years.
Tomorrow I will be potting up my shallots if the weather stays as mild as it currently is but I'll be doing things slightly different this year. Each shallot will be potted up into 3" square pots as i've always done, into good compost with a bit of added Vitax Q4, but I will bury them to about 3/4 depth rather than just nestling them on the surface as I have in the past. I will also be scraping the base plate until it 'gives' a bit of moisture and dipping this in dry Rovral powder. Both these tips come from multiple National Champion David "pot/kettle/black" Thornton, who is convinced that dipping in Rovral prevents losses from botrytis during storage. We shall see as I only left myself 15 bulbs of my own stock this season due to a 60% loss rate and a few giveaways, although he has kindly offered me some spares from his own stock which I shall be collecting from him tomorrow afternoon.
I have also grown my first crop of the season in the form of a spiffing new beard. I got to thinking once again that several of my scottish friends sport varying degrees of facial fungus so it got me wondering whether it might be a useful tool in attracting mildew away from my peas, and that climate really has nothing to do with it. I'm told I look like a cross between the Yorkshire Ripper, Zac Dingle and Baldrick, but it's got to be worth a shot and it has the added advantage that I sometimes find bits of leftover food in it.
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Monday, January 02, 2012
Tucked up?
Well I finally managed to get up to H'udders-fondle in Yorkshire to fetch my Pendle Improved leeks grown by Dave Metcalfe. Paul Bastow had kindly collected them for me before Christmas so it was with some relief that I got them back home so they can be grown properly from now on!
I am now relaxed about showing a photo of my growing chamber, simply because I know it works. There's a lot of talk about light meters and additional heat but my area consists of nothing more than a few cardboard panels with a single grow light suspended above the plants, and this will now be on for approximately 12 hours overnight. I line the cardboard with some silver foil but that is pretty much it. I have no additional heat as I find the light throws out more than enough heat to keep the plants ticking over, although I will keep an eye out for the nighttime weather forecasts. Having said that my leeks survived minus 16 last year although I did eventually lose half a dozen plants that went to seed in July/August which was unsurprising.
I will pot the leeks on into individual 3" square pots at the weekend once they have got used to their surroundings, inserting a cane and a plastic plant support clip to keep them growing upright. Another important thing to do is to make sure there is a small watering can full of water in the chamber so that you are applying water at ambient temperature.
Other growers will soon have far larger plants than me, but I prefer to have slower, steadier growth that race away when planted in the outside beds in April. I have 24 plants but will only plant out the 20 strongest.
And if anyone doubts how strong and hardy the Pendle is then the last photo shows a leek that is growing up through the top of my compost bin. I threw a discarded base plate in here several weeks ago and it has thrown up new leaves. It has been quite mild the last month but even so this is still a great indication of a plant's will to survive.
I am now relaxed about showing a photo of my growing chamber, simply because I know it works. There's a lot of talk about light meters and additional heat but my area consists of nothing more than a few cardboard panels with a single grow light suspended above the plants, and this will now be on for approximately 12 hours overnight. I line the cardboard with some silver foil but that is pretty much it. I have no additional heat as I find the light throws out more than enough heat to keep the plants ticking over, although I will keep an eye out for the nighttime weather forecasts. Having said that my leeks survived minus 16 last year although I did eventually lose half a dozen plants that went to seed in July/August which was unsurprising.
I will pot the leeks on into individual 3" square pots at the weekend once they have got used to their surroundings, inserting a cane and a plastic plant support clip to keep them growing upright. Another important thing to do is to make sure there is a small watering can full of water in the chamber so that you are applying water at ambient temperature.
Other growers will soon have far larger plants than me, but I prefer to have slower, steadier growth that race away when planted in the outside beds in April. I have 24 plants but will only plant out the 20 strongest.
And if anyone doubts how strong and hardy the Pendle is then the last photo shows a leek that is growing up through the top of my compost bin. I threw a discarded base plate in here several weeks ago and it has thrown up new leaves. It has been quite mild the last month but even so this is still a great indication of a plant's will to survive.
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