Final countdown

Just a few more days until my last date of the season, the Dave Thornton organised Derby Show on Saturday and Sunday. I actually made up about 9 points on him at Westminster thanks to my policy of entering just about everything including a plate of 1000 matching lentils and a dish of curly pubes (dressed). However my chances of overhauling him are nil as the likes of John Croot, John Goodall and Charles Cooper will be showing at Derby, all first-rate growers. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained, and although i'm over 300 points behind i've kept back some long carrots, parsnips, stumps and spuds plus I finally have some tomatoes ripening which I hope to include in my Top Tray. There are also classes for brussel sprouts, a brassica collection (for which I saved one of my 3rd place winning Westminster red cabbages) and a weirdly named 'stem vegetable collection' where you choose from 3 types, 1 of each type selected from Onion, Leek, Celery, Beetroot, Swede. Never seen a class like this at any other show anywhere but it could be worth a dabble! And there is an any other veg cass that my radishes won last season, although I've been a bit more ambitious this year and think I have some nice clean turnips plus I still have several decent lettuce 'Sandrine'. If the Great Show God Mohammed Medwyn is smiling upon me I might make it a close contest yet!




And in answer to the pathetic torrent of texts, emails, blog comments (deleted) that I have been subjected to since yesterday afternoon (haven't you fuckers got anything better to do?) can I just remind you all of the following?



October 20th 1996 Newcastle United 5 Manchester United 0

October 26th 1996 Southampton 6 Manchester United 3



Champions that season? I rest my case. No trophies were ever handed out in October! Now piss off!

Derby 2010

Got to be happy with that. A single red card ( more on that later), 3 seconds and 6 thirds against some of the best growers in the country never mind Derbyshire.



Most pleasing was 2nd in parsnips, second only to Dave Thornton who won at Malvern and was 3rd in the National. As you can see from the photo my set in the middle was bigger shouldered but did have a few patches of canker compared to Dave's clean set to the left. If I can get this disease beaten next season I know I can compete on size and uniformity.















3rd in 250g onions with Vento. My onions have looked better and better as the season has gone on. This is one class I really want to go for next season at Llangollen.
















3rd in leeks, the set on the right. The winning set of John Croots in the middle was actually best in show. Mine were a bigger set but thrip damage on the foliage and overstripping, a common problem with Pendle Improved, did for me here. At least I beat Thornton's pencil leeks which were unplaced. He called them culinary leeks! I called them crap.














I didn't get anything in the tap root class, my pathetic long carrot letting me down, but at least I proved to myself I can grow long beet with my Cheltenham Green Top being as long as my huge parsnip (also pocked by canker).

2nd in globe beet with a nice clean set of Pablo grown in raised beds filled with garden compost. Another crop I want to try and grow well next season for the Millennium Class at Llangollen.

Out of 6 entries I got a 3rd in Top Tray. The potates are Camelot which I was hoping to grow again next season but apparently the whole stock of most of the major suppliers has been bought up by a supermarket chain so I shall be saving some of my crop to use as seed potatoes.

Not a bad set of tomatoes for the end of October from an unheated greenhouse. These all came from the upper trusses and still have nice green calyces. I shall certainly be applying the soot water feed again next season as I think this has been the major contributory factor in the improved colour of my fruits this season. I also gave Dave Thornton a bag of soot which he used around his celery and he puts that down to his best ever season for that also.

My one red card? It was in the any other veg class for these two magnificent (and by day two of the show very shrivelled) radishes. I also got 2nd for the two french beans in the class with the most entries. There was kohl rabi, various peppers, marrows etc. Bit embarrassing but hey ho.

And so that's it for another season, a season that was beyond my wildest dreams when I won a class at the Midland Championships. Now starts the planning (and dreaming) for next season when I shall be having a crack at my first ever National.

I shall spend the winter months getting the plot back in shape and making a few structural alterations to allow me to compete with parsnips, carrots and long beet, but also glancing over at my trophy shelves. I won some lovely cups and plaques but it is the little glass tankard that means most as this is the one that means I am Midland tomato champion......for a few more months at least.

A O Veg

I've tried growing butternut squashes for the past couple of years with little success as the fruits have tended to rot and drop off when still small. This year though the plants have gone mad and I got lots of fruits coming. I entered this pair in the 'any other veg' class at Sileby picking up a 1st.

Where I'm 'at' !

Medwyn Williams always says that how many red cards you get in the autumn depends on how much work you put in to the plot during the Winter and Spring, so if that's true I really hope I've got some good results to look forward to. I've been busy beavering away the last few weeks sowing seeds, potting on, planting and digging but like anyone who works full time I always wish I had more time to devote to my hobby.

My parsnips 'Pinnacle' and stump carrot 'Sweet Candle' are on a par with last years seedlings but yet again I fear disappointment with my long carrots. The Graeme Watson seed has failed to germinate in sufficient numbers and those that have look decidedly 3rd rate.

I've planted out my first cabbages and these seem to be growing away well. However, my brussel sprouts 'Abacus' are very small and I reckon I'll struggle to exhibit any in early October at Sturton. Despite failing abysmally on an annual basis with cauliflowers I'm having one final go albeit with the green curded 'Romanesco'. I'm hoping I can at least have a head of decent size that may be a useful addition to one of my trug entries. You never know, if I get two I can always enter it into the 'Any other veg' class as most shows near me have deleted the cauliflower class through lack of entries.

On the onion front, the variety 'Vento' (for the under 8oz class) is performing better than Tasco which has always been slow growing for me. I have plenty of 'Red Baron' and 'Setton' from sets, as this is quite a popular class around here. Apparently an experienced judge can tell if the onion has actually been grown from a set rather than seed but they all look the same to me. I shall try and 'pull' all my onions over a period of time once they have reached a set size (say 4" diameter for my large onions in the greenhouse or 2.5-3" for Vento and the sets) so that I have plenty of bulbs to choose from. This can start from about mid-July and last until late August but either way you want to be exhibiting a set of onions that has been out of the ground for at least 4 weeks so that they have had ample time to ripen.

All of my shallots have now been thinned down to four including the superb ones given to me by NVS secretary Dave Thornton. I will be amazed if they grow as big as their parent bulbs but I live in hope.

I sowed my first row of globe beetroot 'Red Ace' last weekend and another one this weekend. Another couple of rows will be sown for the next 3 weekends and should be enough to cover my season.

As yet my first peas and runner beans are just breaking the compost surface but there is no sign of life from my marrows sown early last week. I will be sowing more of these crops over the coming weeks.

I've just about planted all my spuds but I do have several 'Maxine' and 'Pixie' left over which I will endeavour to get planted up by the end of the month. Hopefully, these will give me fresher specimens for my later shows such as Sturton and (dare I say it?) Malvern.

In the greenhouse I have peppers/aubergines/lettuce/celery and cherry type tomatoes. I planted my first 6 'Cederico' tomatoes yesterday in the greehouse borders. I also have 4 pumpkin plants of the European record breaking pumpkin that was seen at Malvern last year. I shall plant these on the patch of land that I've been loaned in Sileby, in the hope I can at least get one to a couple of hundred pounds or so. Any bigger and I won't be able to physically transport it to any show in my car which is usually packed to the roof with my other produce.

On this extra patch of land I also intend to plant my surplus of onion sets and cabbages, as well as sowing more carrots (for the pot), beetroot, peas, french beans, courgettes and leeks (also for the pot only).

I've managed to take a few dahlia cuttings but am having to rely on some others from Kev Broxholme as my Kenora Sunset and Jomanda tubers are stubbornly refusing to wake up from their winter slumber. I really need to get these off him by next Sunday as I fear by that time he may never speak to me again if Man Utd send his beloved Hull back down into the Championship from whence they came!

Sunny....like me!

Once again I’ve been very pleased with the lettuce ‘Sunny’ that has gained me 3 wins in ‘any other veg’ classes this season already. It’s a real ‘zingy’ lime green colour so does stand out on the benches but you need to take one or two precautions when displaying it. It’s quite a loose leaved variety that hasn’t got a solid heart as such, so it is a bit like trying to hold a jelly when you’re digging it up. You need to get a fork under it, lever it up so far, put your hand at soil level above the roots and pull it out with the roots intact. It pays to have a hosepipe running in anticipation so that you can wash off the soil and pull off and yellowing leaves from around the base. Wrap a few sheets of kitchen towel around the roots and wash off any muck or slugs that may be lurking in the leaves.


Display on the bench with the moistened kitchen towel still on the roots so that it stays fresh as lon as the show lasts and doesn’t wilt.

Seagrave 2008

First the important news……we raised over £1200 for local charities which is another record. The generosity of the villagers never ceases to amaze me. This in spite of the fact that show entries were slightly down on previous years which was understandable given the atrocious weather conditions on the day. Having said that standards were still high and Mick Mills won Best in Show with his stunning yellow crysanths and also the Smith & Byatt Shield for most points in show. I had a mixed day but I was happy that I managed to beat Mick for the first ever time with my blanch leeks, as well as other wins for beetroot, cucumbers, parsnips, onions from sets, any other veg (lettuce) and the heaviest pumpkin. I thought I should have won with my tomatoes(3rd), carrots(2nd) and Top Tray(2nd) but hey, you can’t win ‘em all!

AOVeg

I only grew radish to add another variety to my trugs but I had a load of quite large ones left over so I bundled them together and entered them at Hathern in the 'any other veg' class. Won me a 2nd prize card!

Any other veg ?

For the second year I'm growing aubergines in large pots but I'm giving them more attention this season and they seem to be better for it. Aubergines are worth up to 18 points as they are quite difficult to grow and so are worth it for entering into the 'Any other veg' class if there is one at your show. I read that whilst they like lots of water they don't like to be sat in it so I plant them on a bit of a mound so that excess water can run off. The pots are on the greenhouse staging and the compost is drenched each day. There are no flowers yet but as soon as there are I shall pollinate with a soft brush to facilitate the process.

The weakest links

Sad, sorry sod that I am, I keep a spreadsheet of all my successes since I started showing in 1996. Over the years I can now see those veg that I've had most successes with, notably:

Cabbages 26 wins

Parsnips 25 wins

Long carrots 24 wins

Potatoes 23 wins

Beetroot 22 wins

Tomatoes 16 wins

Cucumbers 15 wins

Marrows 15 wins

However, it also shows some glaring failures on my veg showing CV:

Shallots 7 wins

Runner beans 6 wins

Caulis 1 win

Celery 0 wins

Large onions 0 wins

I've decided that next year I really have to rectify this situation if possible so I'm going all out to try and improve my record on caulis and celery in particular. To do this I'm going to grow far less cabbages as they take up far too much room for the trouble involved. I shall also be growing less 'novelty' veg such as peppers, aubergines, chard and okra and really concentrating on the 'serious' show veg.....onions/leeks/spuds/carrots/parsnips/tomatoes/cucumbers

Any other veg !?! (AOV)

At most village shows there is a class called 'Any other veg' and people are often confused as to what this means. Basically, if there isn't a class for it in the main schedule then you can enter it into this class......but the same rules apply for any other veg in that you should make sure you have good quality and uniformity in whatever veg you choose to display.

However, you need to think about what you enter and try and use a veg that is reasonably 'high pointed'. Lots of shows don't bother to have separate classes for caulis or pot leeks these days as they don't tend to get many entries......and the 'AOV' class would be a good one to put these into if you had grown some. Caulis and Pot Leeks are worth a maximum of 20 points and are more likely to beat courgettes, sweetcorn, radishes, lettuces or any of the other veg that are usually seen in the AOV class.

Remember also, that if there are no classes for 'quality' marrows then you can enter them into the AOV class.......even if there is a class for 'heaviest marrow' as that doesn't count. Marrows are worth up to 15 points so have a reasonable chance.

The pic above shows a cardoon I exhibited at Littleover a couple of years ago. I only dropped it in to see if the show organisers knew what it was (they didn't) and I ended up getting a '3rd'.