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.