Growing beetroot for show

At most shows the beetroot class is well contested as everyone seems to grow it. But you need to know a few things to be able to win the class.

I sow several rows spaced a week apart from early May until the beginning of June. This allows me to cover the show period from late August to early October. If you choose a monogerm variety such as Red Ace then there is less need for fiddly thinning. Most beetroot varieties are actually seed clusters that can result in 3 or more seedlings coming through.

The rows need to be well watered during the summer and not allowed to dry out as this can cause corkiness around the shoulders. To prevent this the whole shoulder needs to be regularly covered over with moist soil, but this can be laborious and in any case there is a way of combatting this during the washing process (see below).

I read somewhere that the internal colouring of beetroot can be inproved by the addition of salt in the watering can. I don't know if this actually does help but it certainly hasn't caused any harm when I've tried it.

I like to lift my beet a day before the show so that I'm not rushing about too much. Each root should be about the size of a tennis ball, slightly smaller preferably but certainly no bigger. And there should be a nice long central tap root coming from the exact centre of each. Sometimes these tap roots can fork a few inches down but I snip off any excess roots to give the impression of one single long tap root. Discard any specimens showing signs of slug or pest damage and retire the kitchen sink.

Wash off any loose soil under running water and scrub gently with the soft side of a scouring pad to make the root's colouring shine out, taking care when washing the tap root so as not to break it. If the shoulders are 'corky' the rough side of the scourer can be used to rub off the corkiness (GENTLY!) . It might pay to practice on some 'rejects' first!

Discard any yellowing leaves and immerse your chosen roots overnight in a bucket of cold water mixed with a few teaspoons of salt and a dash or three of vinegar. This seems to bring out the colouring of the beet but you do need to make sure you give them a good rinse before you go to the show or else the judge can smell the vinegar on them when he picks them up for closer inspection.

Bear in mind also that the judge will cut a slice out of one of your roots to check the internal colouring and to make sure there are not any white rings that denote poor watering.

At the show stage them straight onto the show bench facing towards the front, with the foliage tied neatly with string or raffia. Some shows require the foliage to be cut to a certain length and this needs to be done or else the exhibit may be marked down as NAS (not as schedule).

If you have 3 roots all the same size, with nice, bright, red/purple colouring and a nice long, straight taproot then the red card should be yours!

Growing tomatoes for show

2006 was without doubt my best year for showing tomatoes, mainly because I gave them proper attention. I won 5 out of the 7 shows I attended from late August to early October, and the two I didn't I really felt I should have won also....but hey ho!

People are often in a hurry to sow their seed in late Jan or early Feb but mine tend not to go in until about the first week or two in March. I find this sowing date allows me to have strong plants that are ready for planting out during the first Bank Holiday weekend in May. After germinating they are pricked out into individual cells and then potted on accordingly as soon as the roots start to show through the pot they are in. This might mean they are potted on 2 or 3 times before being planted into the greenhouse border soil but it does allow you to bring them inside if frosty weather is forecast.

When planting into the greenhouse border soil, they actually get planted into a large bottomless pot filled with grow-bag compost, watered well then left for at least a couple of weeks so that the tap root goes down into the bed. This means they are less likely to suffer if you miss a watering now and again. The pots are useful for feeding as the feeder roots are nearer the surface of the compost.

A stout cane is secured next to each plant and tied to it as the plant grows. I don't feed until the first flower truss is showing small fruits, and only then every other day. I alternate with 3 feeds.....the usual proprietary tomato feeds from the garden centre such as Tomorite, and my own feeds made from nettles and comfrey. The leaves of each are chopped up and left in a bucket of water for several days and the resultant 'stews' strained off to give 2 concentrated liquid feeds. Pour them into bottles and label. A capful is put into a watering can in turn with the Tomorite.

I've heard it said that tomatoes are best watered in the early evening so that the water has time to get down into the roots and if you do cause some splashes onto the fruit then the sun is not at it's fiercest. If this happened in the morning the sun can be magnified through the water droplets and causes scorch marks on the fruit skins....leading to possible downpointing on the showbench.

One thing I shall be doing next year is the reduction of the fruit on the trusses to allow each fruit more room and to stop them having 'flat' sides. This is viewed as a fault on the showbench and again results in your exhibit being downpointed.

All being well, you should have plenty of fruits to choose from come show day, but make sure you choose 5 or 6 fruits (according to schedule) that are as alike and evenly matched as possible, and that are nicely coloured, well ripened but not overripe. Cut the stalk about 1/2" past the knuckle and pack securely in a box such as the seed trays designed to carry small plant pots. Each compartment should have some tissue paper lining to keep the fruit blemish free. Do NOT polish the fruit....but wipe off any minor marks carefully. At the show arrange the fruits around a paper plate, pop on your exhibitor sticker or card and go and have a cuppa whilst the judges do their work.

Hopefully, all your hard work will be rewarded with a 'Red Card' when the show opens. It's a great feeling.

Hurry up 2007!

Not much happening in the garden at the moment apart from tidying up still....as and when the weather allows. We've had loads of rain so everywhere is waterlogged.

I did manage to drench the beds in my two greenhouses last weekend with several buckets of rainwater. This needs to be done over winter to stop a build up of salts in the border soil which can prevent the roots of plants taking up nutrients. Some growers will remove the glass (or polythene if polytunnel) and allow the winter rains to get at the soil. However, I have some pots of show daffodils in mine and my growing cabinet will be assembled soon so that I can grow on my show leeks and onions (more of this in the New Year).

I also spread several bags of horse manure over the soil in one greenhouse and will do the other one when more is forthcoming from my daughter's friend who owns a horse. I'm intending to grow my large onions in the greenhouses next season in order to give them a more even growing cycle. They will be lifted before the tomatoes and cucumbers are too big and blocking out the sunlight (I hope).

Only other thing to tell is that all my seed orders are starting to drop through the letter box. I've ordered over £200 worth of seeds/sets/plants and spuds with quite a few new varieties to try. But I will have to do a proper 'cropping plan' so that I know exactly what is going to be planted where and when. Last season I was poking plants in where I could with no thought as to how they would grow and when they would be harvested. This caught up with me in the long-run as the season petered out disappointingly, with many crops running out of steam.

When 'growing for showing' things have to be timed to come good when you need them so you have to count back from the show date and sow/plant accordingly. Again, more of this in the next few months.

Bye for now.

'Pointing' of vegetables

Before entering a vegetable exhibit in a Show it is important to know what a judge will be looking for. Too many people are blinded by size and will put the largest specimens into a class with no regard to other factors such as condition and uniformity. The overall quality of an exhibit should be the most important consideration to such an extent that ‘if you wouldn’t eat it don’t show it !’ Gone are the days when the biggest onions automatically won. They will if they are grown well and form a nice even set.........but your smaller ones can and should win if they are in a better condition and are more evenly matched.

The points awarded for parsnips are relevant in understanding what is required. Below are the points awarded under the guidelines of the Royal Horticultural Society and the National Vegetable Society. It is sometimes advisable to check which rules are being used for a particular Show, although for most village events it is not necessary to worry about it too much.

RHS points - Condition 6, Uniformity 5. Size and Shape 5, Colour 4, Total 20 points.
NVS points - Condition 6, Uniformity 4, Shape 4, Size 3, Colour 3. Total 20 points.

In both of the above, size is awarded relatively few points out of the total 20. With this in mind it can be seen that no-one should be put off from having a go just because they think they can’t compete with the ‘big ones’.

Parsnips are one of the '20 pointer' veg. Others are long carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, runner beans, large onions and cauliflowers. The inference is that these veg are more difficult to grow to perfection than say cucumbers (18 points), cabbages (15 points), beetroot (15 points), or 8oz onions (15 points). When a judge is comparing different types of veg in collection classes it would be very difficult, for instance, for cherry tomatoes (12 points) to beat regular size tomatoes unless the cherry toms were near perfect and the regular sized ones hadn't been grown very well, were in poor condition or were poorly matched.....but it can be done!

Presentation of the exhibit can very often make a difference. I have beaten what I would consider to be potentially superior exhibits because not enough attention was given to their preparation. This includes not washing carrots and potatoes, not taking off dead or decaying foliage and displaying an abnormally large vegetable with two other good but smaller specimens and hence losing marks for uniformity.

The pic above shows my winning onions at a recent show. The ones that come second each year are about 4 pounds each and many people struggle to understand how mine keep winning. But luckily the judge knows what he's doing (some don't) and recognises that the larger ones are poorly matched, badly ripened and unevenly weighted.

Read the schedule carefully before entering. Too often people will only put 5 tomatoes in a dish if 6 are asked for. If it asks for carrot foliage to be trimmed to no more than 3” then do so. A judge will be quite within his rights to award a NAS (Not as Schedule) card and first time exhibitors could easily be turned away from what can become a very satisfying and rewarding hobby.

1 flower 1 veg

Enough of football for now.....I'll spend the winter months showing different classes and how to stage in them.

A popular class at a lot of shows is the class for a single specimen flower and a single specimen vegetable. (Some shows go further and also have a single specimen fruit). They are usually very popular as most people will have a spare veg or bloom that they can enter into this class without having to match it up to other blooms or veg. However, it is important to try and select your best single flower or vegetable if you want to have a chance of a prize card.

The judge will compare your dahlia (or whatever bloom you choose) against other dahlias so it needs to be as fully developed and blemish-free as possible. Therefore, flowers such as dahlias/chrysanths and gladioli would be the best ones to go for as these are deemed harder to grow to perfection than say marigolds/sunflowers and other annuals.

Similarly, what are termed '20 pointer' vegetables such as carrots/parsnips/tomatoes/potatoes etc are looked upon more favourably than lower pointed veg such as cabbages/peppers/beetroot etc. (I will explain the pointing of veg in my next post).

The pic above shows a well contested class at Littleover Show this year. The superb gladioli and potato near the camera won.....my humble dahlia and carrot staged next to them didn't even warrant a place.

Southend 1 Manchester United 0

Bugger!

Manchester United 2 Liverpool 0

Nowt to do with gardening but just couldn't help it...........Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!!!

An experiment that failed!

Space is at a premium in my garden. Although quite large it was laid out before I got into growing for showing and so my veg plot is quite small. I've gradually grabbed bits of land from the more 'ornamental' parts but I still need to plan my growing year carefully so that I know which bits of land are growing which crops year by year. Crop rotation is a must on any plot but more so on mine where I grow so intensively.

I've never been able to devote a decent patch of land to growing celery. They like a nice deep fertile trench erring on the boggy side if anything. But they are fickle creatures and can get something called heart rot if conditions are not to their liking. I've grown them before this year in a bed made from old paving slabs on end lined with old growing bags to keep moisture in. This season however I wanted to use that bed for growing more carrots (a rushed attempt in the end that also failed) and I hit upon the idea of growing celery in large builders buckets filled with well-rotted compost and a few added fertilsers. It looked promising at the start......as you can see I had the buckets lined up in a small space next to my conservatory which is reasonably shady. They grew slowly because of the spring and a late sowing so were never going to be particularly large. But just when they seemed to be coming on they succumbed once again to celery heart rot. I use pellets so I know slugs weren't a problem.......it's thought by some that they might sometimes be responsible for introducing it.

One thing I didn't do this year is dribble a solution of calcium nitrate into the heart once a week......some think this prevents heart rot but I did that last season and still suffered from it.

So next year it's back to the drawing board. It's worth growing them when you get it right because they can look impressive on the showbench as you can see from an entry above in 2004 when I did get it right !

SAD !

For a number of years around about now I've started to feel quite depressed at the dying of another growing year........Seasonally Affected Disorder (SAD) I think they call it!

This year I've decided to approach things in a different manner and treat this as the beginning of another growing year by using the next few months to make sure all my preparations are carried out fully. In hindsight I now think my last season didn't fulfil the early promise because my preparation wasn't as thorough as it should have been and that things simply ran out of steam. I was doing my root mixes at the last minute and not enjoying the buzz of sowing things. This meant other things were rushed....notably my bean fence.......and the plot couldn't last the rigours of British weather. Consequently, I was spending valuable time repairing and fixing instead of tending to the plants' needs.

I also need to get some organic matter into my veg beds. It's been a few years since I did and have relied on fertilisers too much. When you grow so intensively and in a confined space like I do then the soil will eventually run out of steam so to speak. The late, cold Spring, hot summer and wet September certainly found out my failings in that department this year.

Pics above are ones of my garden in May this year.......it's nice to look at photos you took earlier in the year when it's so grey and dreary outside.

That's it!

Show season is now over and it's time to assess your growing year and make plans for next season. I won most points in the veg section at Sturton but didn't do as well as in previous years. This was partly due to the fact that my produce wasn't up to the standard of previous years but also because there were several new exhibitors this year, all with excellent veg and flower exhibits. However, it was most welcome to have new competition and I shall certainly have to raise my game next year.

This season I won 62 classes, came 2nd in another 47 and 3rd in 32. This was down on last year confirming my suspicions that things weren't as good. There were successes, notably tomatoes with which I won at 5 out of the 7 shows I entered. But my carrots were very poor and I only managed one 3rd place all season with runner beans (finally, at Sturton!). I really need to make sure I have done a lot more preparation over the winter months and that all my support structures are ready and my compost mixes prepared in plenty of time.

Lessons are learnt every season. Just when you think you've cracked something a different problem comes along to challenge you. I've always been strong on carrots, but the late cold Spring killed my initial sowings, and followed by a scorching summer the second sowings didn't grow as well as they might have.

And whilst I was giving optimum attention to my tomatoes I was failing to give the proper care to my beans. Several work-related issues also conspired against me and meant I was often working late during the late Spring and into Summer, and having 3 teenage daughters that need 'taxi-ing' to various places on a daily basis doesn't help! Most of the guys I compete against are retired and presumably have more time to devote to their hobby, although I have encountered many more people this year who are of a similar age to myself if not younger. This is encouraging for the future.

One final problem I need to solve is that of tending the plot during my annual holiday. We always go away during July and although my mother-in-law does a stirling job it's not the same as being there yourself. I returned from holiday this year to find my cabbages infested with cabbage white caterpillars and already half-eaten. It had also been incredibly hot and everything had suffered. If I had been at home I could have watered more judiciously and protected against butterflies. Oh well!

Last show of the season

Tomorrow is my last show this season at the village of Sturton-by-Stow in Lincolnshire. As I said in the previous post it's been going over 119 years and is another well-run show organised by very nice people. They always make me feel very welcome, appreciating the fact that I have to travel over 50 miles in time to get there at 7.30 to start staging.

I have to be mega-organised for this one as I put in about 60 entries, so I have to get as much stuff ready in the days leading up to it as possible. I got up bright and early yesterday morning to pick a load of dahlias as heavy rain was forecast, which could have marked the blooms. My onions and shallots are all packed, my cacti top-dressed and the pots cleaned and my marrows cut. There are some jobs such as lifting the roots and cabbages which need to be done today otherwise they won't be as fresh as possible on the showbench. I've booked the afternoon off so that I can finish everything off and get the car loaded so that all I have to do in the morning is drive off.

The last job that I always leave as late as possible is washing the spuds. These have now been out of the ground stored in my garage in pots of peat for over 5 weeks now and will not be looking as fresh as they would have done a few weeks ago. Because of this they take a bit more 'scrubbing' and can show up bruises by tomorrow afternoon when the show is open to the public. This can cause some comments from people who cannot understand why mine have won. But what you have to bear in mind is that they probably were the best when they were judged. The judge cannot judge on what they might look like in 2 or 3 hours time. Similarly, you may see dahlias and chrysanths that are falling to pieces and yet they have a prize card against them. In those instances the exhibitor only just got away with it and staged his blooms at the last possible moments of their perfection before they started dropping petals. Seems unfair but that's 'showing' for you!

Pics above are one of me at a previous Sturton Show and one of my winning spud entries.

Cacti and Succulents

This weekend sees my last show of the season at a village in Lincolnshire. Although only a small village the show is quite a large concern and this will be the 119th annual show which is some going!

There are many classes including root and corn classes as it's a rural farming community. The large swedes and mangolds are quite amazing. I hadn't heard of or seen mangolds until I went here....they're like great ugly beetroot that are used as sheep feed (see pic above).

There are also several classes for cacti and succulents. I have started to acquire a few of these in the last couple of years and grow them in my conservatory where they require the minimum of attention. You just water and feed every couple of weeks in the summer and give them a dribble of water every month or so in the winter. Some of the choice specimens may require a little more cossetting but by and large they are trouble free, and the vast amount of different shapes and forms makes them very interesting I think.

One particular class at this weekend's show which was introduced last year was for a display of cacti or succulents in a space 20"x20". Now this allowed my creative side to 'kick in' and rather than just taking several pots of various cacti and plonking them down on the show bench I had a metal tray made at work that I could fill with sand or grit to hold the pots in place. The made the display quite different from the rest and earned me first prize. The only problem was it weighed a tonne and was a bugger to carry from the car. I wasn't even sure the benches would stand the weight. So this year I've modified it slightly by packing around the pots with polystyrene and putting a lyer of grit on top of that. It's much, much lighter as a result. The pic above is last years entry on the car park floor outside the show hall.

Onions under 8oz

This is a good class to enter if you haven't got the facilities (as I haven't really) to try and grow the larger onions to compete against the 'big boys'.

I grow a variety called 'Tasco' and the key is to harvest them all at the same circumference in the hope that they will all come in under the 8oz mark. An added complication (thanks to metrication) is that some shows specify a maximum weight of 250 grammes which equates to 8.8 ounces! Therefore a compromise has to be reached until the schedule makers get their arses into gear so I settle at 225grammes which is just under 8oz.

Over the years I have learn to harvest Tasco at 26cms around in order to achieve this weight after drying and tying.

Other good varities to grow for this class are Toughball/Buffalo/Carlo/Canto/Marco and Bristol. However, each variety will have different circumferences at which it would be best to harvest them for the optimum weight.

The way I arrived at 26cms for Tasco was by taking one up when it reached say 28cms and weighing it after I had cut the tops and trimmed the roots. This told me that it was too heavy and that I needed to harvest at a smaller size.

The onions will not all 'arrive' at 26cms at the same time so you need to have the tape measure handy over a period of 2 or 3 weeks and harvest them as they reach your required size. They then have any loose skins removed, are washed, dried, dusted with talc and stored in newspaper or on beds of sawdust in a cool place such as a shed or garage out of the sun.

This needs to take place about 3 to 4 weeks before the first show so that they go a nice golden brown colour that the judges like. Trim the tops and tie with raffia and display on plates of dry sand in a simple arrangement like the pic above.

I've actually won 'best veg in show' awards with these onions when competing against all the other large onions, huge leeks and long roots. So you see.....if you can spend a little effort getting them to look good then you can compete against the 'big boys'.

Growing marrows for show

I usually start to get some decent marrows around about now as I grow the vines up and over some strong strings securely attached to fence posts as in one of the pics above. If you let them trail on the ground the botton side of the marrow in contact with the soil will inevitably be discloured due to the lack of all round light and probably have a few scratches and marks from stones or slugs.

Growing them the way I do means the fruit is the same colour all the way round and the judge cannot fail to be impressed. The only problem is knocking your head on them and the risk of them being blown to the floor in strong winds. The one nearest the camera is about ready for cutting (tomorrow evening hopefully) and the next one needs to catch it up to be ready for my last show in a little under 2 weeks. Hopefully it should be spot on. The variety is Blyton Belle but Table Dainty is another good one to grow.

Whilst at Malvern Autumn Show on Sunday I also couldn't fail to be impressed by the marrows in the giant classes......absolutely huge and ugly as well!

Geoff Hamilton

A couple of weeks ago I arranged for Nick and Sue Hamilton to give a talk at our horticultural society AGM and a very interesting and entertaining evening it was too. Nick is the son of the late, great Geoff Hamilton the former (and by far the best) presenter of BBC Gardener's World. The programme used to be presented from his 'Barnsdale' garden near Oakham in Leicestershire and was great for novices like me in that Geoff told you exactly how to do things in simple terms. I find the programme now is so frustrating as it flits from shot to shot in a bid to show trendy camera angles, and they try to pack far too much into it. Stick to basics for pity's sake! I feel sorry for new gardeners if they watch GW these days......it would have left me even more bewildered than when I started I reckon.

Barnsdale is open to the public and several courses are run throughout the year on various subjects. Despite being an 'organic manic' I feel sure that anything Nick runs would be very enjoyable and excellent value for money.

http://www.barnsdalegardens.co.uk/ie-index.html