Boogie roots....

Last year Shelley Seeds sent me a trial packet of a stump carrot called Caradec with my order. I liked the name as it reminded me of Caer Caradoc, a superb hill in Shropshire that I walked 4 years ago and keep meaning to go back to. I was encouraged by the results even though they grew ridiculously long and a bit ribbed, although I did manage to win a local shows with them. I nicknamed this one Dirk Diggler.

The ribbing and length was down to a poor watering regime and the fact that I grew them in black plastic drainage pipes in the greenhouse, but the skin finish in general was excellent and the stump end very good come September so I thought I would grow them 'properly' this season to see if they could compete with Sweet Candle in any way. I took a couple of plank frames off a long carrot bed and converted it into another stump bed and sowed the seed just after my Sweet Candle was sown, as I found they took a similar timeframe to develop the stump end. These were thinned down to one per station yesterday and i'm looking forward to seeing what they look like come show time. They appeared to be a thinner variety than SC, resembling its predecessor 'Gringo' which ruled the roost until 'Candle' came along. I definitely think it has potential .....but of course I could just be wasting my time. I often do!


I mentioned last month that you needed to be patient with your roots after several of you felt yours were just sitting doing nothing. As I said, June is usually the month that the blue touch paper is lit and so it has proved. My parsnips have really perked up in the last week and this season i'm making sure I sprinkle a few grains of phorate powder around the bases as a precaution against carrot fly. I've always assumed the brown lesions on the skins are canker but after reading up on the subject I've realised that canker shouldn't like the way we grow parsnips (in free-draining media with added lime) so I think it might actually be carrot fly damage. Carrot fly will happily lay their eggs at the base of parsnips if there are no carrots to hand, and as mine are all under cover I guess they might have gone looking elsewhere. We shall see come harvest time if my hunch is right.

 

My Sweet Candle stumps are also growing away nicely. These are contained within a wooden frame and polythene structure with an enviromesh top so the plants are really cossetted against strong winds but rain can get through. I water them a couple of times a week in dry weather and the 'cups' concentrate about an inch of water straight at the roots rather than just draining away into the surrounding sand. I found I got much more refined roots doing it this way last season.

I'm happy to report that I have no problems so far with tomatoes (Cedrico) this season. Although a little elongated the plants look very healthy and the first fruits have formed on the bottom trusses. Since planting i've only watered a couple of times in order to encourage the tap root to forage deep into the border soil. I'll start feeding as soon as the first fruits are pea-sized.

I also have 3 plants of Sungold which have to reside in my conservatory due to a lack of space elsewhere. This way runs the gauntlet of my middle daughter Jen nicking the fruits near showtime as she loves them and Oscar has also shown a huge interest in the canes, wafting them from side to side on occasion and causing me some palpitations. Leesa reckons it shows he's a gardener. I reckon it shows he's a demonic little hooligan. Hopefully they'll survive as I do get lovely clean fruits growing them indoors like this.

I am also growing a single plant of a beef steak variety. At Harrogate there is a class for a collection of tomatoes (with decent prize money) where you need 5 medium fruited, 6 small fruited and 3 beefsteak. Getting a matching set of 3 off one plant is perhaps a tall order but I only have room for the one. I sent the following photo of a funny shaped beef-flap variety to David Allison, editor of the NVS magazine but for some reason he says he can't publish it!

My cactus and succulent collection has now been placed outside in a sunny spot for the Summer and Autumn. This really freshens them up before their Winter hibernation. I bought the creamy cushion cactus 'Echinocactus Grussonnii' (common name Mother-in-Law's Cushion...if only!) for 8 quid at Malvern about 5 years ago. In Tenerife they were growing wild everywhere, and were the size of space hoppers!