This blog is to help me as a new veg exhibitor to keep a diary of my exploits and share the results with other likeminded people
Tuesday 25 May 2010
Saturday 22 May 2010
Japanese Onion disaster
Most of the Japanese onions Planted last year to over winter had to be pulled up today they had bolted and were going to seed. I can only put this down to the very long winter followed by this weeks heatwave. I will try again for next year in November and see if I fair any better.It is a shame as they were coming on well still the can be used for salads etc. But will not keep.
D Day
I finally managed to get most of the plants out today I planted the first of my Dwarf Beans Caulis, Sweede, Marrows, and Courgettes. I also sowed some runner Beans this is the second sowing, the first ones were sown 10 days ago these are now through. The second sowing is to ensure a supply for the show.
Monday 17 May 2010
Sunday 16 May 2010
Onions Progress
Friday 14 May 2010
Frost
Been very cold this week here in the Pennines so its been a case of covering up and bringing in to the tunnel every night, it seems to have worked with no casualties.
Planted some broad bean seeds in to one of the beds yesterday they are Bunyards Exibition, but not done much else due to work getting in the way.
Monday 10 May 2010
Long Beetroot
Today I decided to make use of some lenghths of 6" diameter pipes which I picked up for 99p on Ebay. As it is now a bit late to sow Carrots or Parsips for showing, I decided to plant them up with Long Beetroot. I made a mix with Vermiculite This again was from Ebay I bought the wrong stuff it was quite large so I had to blend it up in the blender it ended up fine nearly like dust. To the Vermiculite I added sieved Compost and sieved Bagged Topsoil to this I added vitax Q4, Super Phosphate, Sulphate of Potash and Calcified Seaweed. Not measured accurately just a handfull of each, it took 20 Litres to fill each tube I then sowed 2 Medwyns Long Beet seeds to each tube its just a case of see what happens.
Saturday 8 May 2010
Mini Tunnel for onions
TodayI covered one of the small beds with Polythene left over fron the large tunnel, Creating a small Pollytunnel, I have planted some Ailsa Craig and some Kesae in this micro tunnel hopefully this should help them on their way, keeping the temperatures up and the wind out I may have to remove the Polythene when the weather picks up otherwise it may get too hot inside.
Thursday 6 May 2010
Onions Progress Tomatoes
Onions are flying the tallest are 2foot 6 inches tall. I had to re support them today as they had outgrown the supports I had in place and were falling over I have also potted some Tomatoes in to their final pots. They are Secura, Cedrico, and Sungold all are flowering. I have some more coming on to keep a constant supply and hopefully have some to show, my Tomatoes got wiped out by Blight last year I put too many in too close together.
Celery
Never tried growing Celery before these are Red Star from Medwyns I will be planting these out in a couple of weeks Time in a well manured Bed There is no class for Celery at my Village show but if I get any good ones I can use them in the four veg Distinct kinds class or any other veg not in schedule
Shallots
Tried an experiment with one of the Shallots today It was dividing in to 6. As I had read several articles regarding splitting them I decided to use a radical approach I dug the plant up washed the soil out of the roots then using a sharp stanley knife I cut through the root plate leaving roots on every bulb, they were then replanted in the bed as singles with some support till they get going again. I will see what happens in due course.
Wednesday 5 May 2010
Brassicas
Bit the bullet today and planted out some of my kitchen Brassicas to free up some space in the tunnel. The varieties planted were Pixie Greyhound and Pyramid Cabbages, Helenor and Gowrie Sweedes, Aramis and Golden Ball Turnip and Romanesco all are under the netting to protect them from pests so we will see what happens.
Monday 3 May 2010
Sunday 2 May 2010
cabbages
Mesh
Finally managed to get some of the beds covered with mesh. On the Carrot bed I have used Enviromesh which is supposed to keep out the Carrot fly fingers crossed it works. There have been mixed fortunes with carrot germination with nearly all the long carrots now through but only a third of the stumps have germinated the failures were all re sown before the mesh was fixed its a matter of wait and see what happens.