Niort so fast!

I haven't planted my pickling shallots out yet, and I don't think I'm going to either. At a talk I attended last year given by Dave Thornton on shallots (heard it several times but went along to boost the numbers and make sure everyone else stayed awake by prodding them occasionally with a shit-covered stick!), top grower Geoff Butterworth mentioned that he leaves his picklers in the pots all the way to harvest time. He basically starves them so that they stay small, and several other growers in the room nodded in appreciation as if this was a common practice. Therefore they'll be staying in these trays (I have two trays of 20) more or less neglected.

I must say it does seem to make a bit of sense. If they are planted out into half-decent compost in the first place then I guess there's no reason why they should not last until June with a bit of supplementary foliar feeding if required. When planted into a bed containing soil they probably get a boost and put on a growth spirt at the time you don't really want them to. I harvested several bulbs at 27mm last year and after experiences of previous years I expected them to come up to the 30mm diameter mark once the foliage had died back into the bulb and rounded it up. In actuality the majority went over the 30mm mark and I was unable to make a set anywhere, which was hugely frustrating as I had some very good looking bulbs at 31-32mm! This tells me that I simply had too much good, lush, foliage to die back into the bulbs, so I'm wondering whether leaving them in the pots will solve this. I can also bring the trays into the greenhouse during early June to start the ripening process by stopping any water getting to them. It will also help prevent any from rotting as I shall also give a Rovral spray about the same time once they have started to dry off.

Below is a photo of Sherie Plumb's winning set from last year's National, all superbly well ripened, identical in size and nicely tied.

Attention turns this weekend to getting some stump carrots sown, and the pressure is really on now as we've booked to go away on a cheap deal in a couple of weeks time to sunnier climes (won't be telling Leesa where until we get to the airport....but rest assured dear they say Azerbaijan is lovely in Springtime!). This is something we have never done before, going away at a critical time in the growing year but seeing as the kids are now all grown up and can feed and water themselves (but not my plants usually!) then we thought what the heck, let's start to relax and forget all about them for a week. Our phone's will be turned off, the suntan lotion will be out and all thoughts of show veg will be on hold for a week. I shall have to rely on my unreliable daughters to keep an eye on everything in the greenhouses, so you will excuse me if I wish for a week of rain and dull weather in GB. That way my plants might get through the inevitable week of neglect they will endure.

One thing I think worthy of mention for the sake of posterity if nothing else, they had a practice run in Loughborough today for when the Olympic torch officially comes through in July. There were helicopters in the sky, television cameras, hundreds of rozzers whizzing about and shit. As Team GB will be based in the town that will be made famous as the birthplace of the 2012 National Pea Champion, it feels quite an honour that we're going to be witnessing this and I certainly won't be seeing it again in my lifetime. There's less than a hundred days to go till the big event kicks off and I must say I'm looking forward to watching it all on TV. I'm glad I didn't bother applying for tickets in view of the ticketing fiasco but I still think we should all be proud we are hosting the Greatest Show on Earth. Actually, the second greatest show....obviously the Greatest will be the 2012 Malvern Cake-Off!