Chitting it

Started Chitting some parsnip seeds today it may be a bit early but Medwyns article in the garden news stated that it was time to start some off so I have followed his advice and will set 2 drums going and the rest will be in March the earlier ones will probably be good for the early shows.I have placed them in a plastic tubs on kitchen paper with some water then covered them with more paper

I have also sown 2 variety's of Celery Redstar and Evening Star I am a week later than last year which is fine as they were in peak condition for my local shows I will sow some more in a months time so that I have some good ones for Harrogate as it is game on with Mr Smith  and imperative that I beat him
I also sowed the first of my Tomatoes 6 Cedrico and the 2 Giant toms that I got from Dan and some Lemon grass purely for interest.

Shallots are sprouting an will need to be planted out soon

Mixed fortunes with the Vento as some of the foliage seems to be dying and some are OK with 2 true leaves I will just have to see what happens later on  I still have more plants than last year at the moment

I have managed to gather 200 litres of molehill soil each day this week in my lunch break  1000 litres in total it is lovely stuff and my Onion beds are now full and ready to be tilled with my Mantis tiller I will then have both beds analysed and correct the growing medium accordingly.I intend to grow Leeks in one and Onions in the other.

spuds are coming along nicely

The Alliums that I bought from Harrogate show have sprouted after only a week

I have also been working out my sowing dates for Carrots and Peas after Ian Simpsons talk this week His times for Sweet Candle and Show perfection Peas are as follows Carrots 22 weeks from sowing  Peas first pod reaches Optimum size 86 days from sowing date
I intend to sow 2 lots of Carrots and 3 lots of peas to cover the Shows that I intend to exibit at. I am also buying some 10 foot canes to grow the peas on using Ians method more on this later as the first lot of peas will not be sown till May I also e mailed Ian regarding the type of lime in the mix and his reply is below also there is an an amendment to some information that he gave at the talk he has asked me to feed it out to all concerned
Hello Paul,

Although I use Garden Lime it may be worthwhile trying a few with Dolomite Lime to see if it makes any difference. I’m a great believer in trying something different when I can but only experiment with a few just in case.
If you do try any with the Dolomite Lime I would be keen to find out how they turned out. Please let me know.
Rgds Ian


P.S. During my talk on the Peas I mentioned that I grew a variety called Juno that was Mildew resistant. This was an error on my part as it was a variety called Dorian that was Mildew resistant not Juno. I had also grown Juno that year as well as Dorian and my reselected Show Perfection.
Dorian produced a reasonable Pod but the main characteristic was its total resistance to Mildew, hence my suggestion regarding trying to cross Dorian with Show Perfection. Dorian is sold by Thompson & Morgan.
As for the Juno Pea, it was very disappointing and in my opinion will never make a “ Show “ variety.
If you could let people that attended the Talk know this then that would be appreciated. Many thanks.

Sweet Kendle

As you may have already read on Simon Smithyveg several of the blogging community traveled to the Westmoreland DA of the NVS monthly meeting for a talk on growing stump Carrots by Ian Simpson who has won the Nationals twice with stump Carrots. I must say that it was well worth the trip as I gained a vast amount of knowledge from this excellent speaker, and with that in mind I shall be building a new stump root bed in the next 2 weeks in order to try to grow some stumps following his method as closely as possible.I also bought some of the Garlic Wonder that Ian swears by he claims that it prevents Carrot Fly to the extent that he does not use Enviromesh. At the meeting it was on sale for £3 what a bargain.As an added bonus Ian also gave a talk on growing Exhibition Peas which was equally interesting and informative I will also be using his method for my Peas I bought 2 packets of his Show Perfection Pea seeds 100 seeds per packet £2 per packet another bargain in my eyes.
It was also nice to meet some new faces, Paul and Linda Wlodarczak and James Park  and even nicer to be bought a pint by Smithy,but in true Yorkshire fashion Dan undsworth bought nowt in the way of drinks for anyone. Well done Dan for keeping up the Yorkshire traditions!!!!

I am sure both myself and Simon will be filtering down some of the information as the season progresses so keep watching. And thanks to the Westmoreland DA  for making us welcome.I will be back.

Rain stops Play

If it rains anymore I am going to build an Ark. I have not been able to get anything done this weekend, apart from having 2 tons of topsoil delivered to fill up the raised beds in the tunnel,in  readiness for the Onions to be planted in to their final positions in mid March. I would like to get them finished and the growing medium analysed before then.The only other job I managed was to put 80 onion sets in to compost to get them going before planting out.I also ordered 100  14litre pollypots in redness for planting out the potatoes.

Large Onions

Had another check of the large Onions today one in particular is far larger than the rest it is now in a 7"diameter by 8" deep pot and has 9 leaves mine last year were only this size in mid May so they are 14 weeks ahead of last years 6lb attempt.

I will be selecting the 6 best next week and will be planting them in 100 litre pots come March to try to break Dans record I also received 2 giant Tomato seeds in the post also from Dan we are going to see if we can grow a big un.

Pumpkin Seeds

Today I recieved some Pumpkin seeds from Wyoming, I found the contact from big pumpkins . com, all they cost me was the price of the postage they even came with a detailed desription of each and growing instructions. I intend to grow a couple this season due to space I am aiming for 500lb plus if we have a good summer.

Root Bed Construction

As everyone seems to be re vamping their tap root beds I have decided to follow suit. I am going down a slightly different road I have dug out one of my raised beds in the new tunnel, then constructed a framework to suspend the barrels 2 feet off the ground the space underneath has been filled with a mix of compost Vermiculite soil and sand which has been sieved and shredded. The barrels were placed on the framework and filled with the same mix with added nutrients Seaweed Meal Calcified Seaweed Powdered Vitax Q4 and a small amount of Dolomite Lime. I decided on this method instead of sand cored out because this is how I grew my Carrots and Parsnips last year and it worked very well, the total depth of compost is now 4 foot 6 inches I intend to place some 6" diameter pipes on top of one of the barrels to gain another few inches. I found that using compost only last year enabled me to get the roots out easier without loosing the ends and also I have loads of cheap compost to fill the barrels (this is purely experimental so please do not try this at home) as they say.

This Weeks Progress Report

Things are moving on nicely I have now started chitting my Spuds they are in the tunnel with frost protection

The Vento are now in Pots and are all in the tunnel with the Spuds

The Leeks have now had the collars changed for 22mm  pipe insulation 9" long and are coming on nicely

Large Onions ticking away nicely

Quality Onions both sowings are also coming on nicely I may have sown them a bit early on reflection as they have another 6 weeks to go till they can be planted in to their final positions,

                                     

                                    

You can do it if you B&Q it

Visited B&Q last week as I had some time to kill before an appointment, I ventured out the back for a look around and came across a large cage full of split bags of their peat based compost ,14 bags in total.After seeking out an assistant I was informed that they were been sold off at £1 a bag so I promptly bought the lot and as they went through the checkout the till also knocked off the bulk discount making the grand total £8.32 for 14 x 75litre bags of compost bargain or what !!!! they will now be put through the shredder ready for mixing the Potato mix.

Spuds Shredder Shallots Seeds

The first lot of My Spuds arrived today from JBA. rather are more than I thought I ordered with more to come. they are fine looking specimens the next job will be to put them in trays to chit them.The varieties are Blue Belle,Sherine,Armour,Celine,Winston and also some International Kidney (Jersey Royals for the table) to follow are Nadine and Cassablanca these were ordered later than the others.

I have read with interest about the use of a shredder on the growing medium for the Spuds and the Carrot mix, so I decided to give it a go I managed to get a good used one off Ebay for £6.50 and a friend collected it for me as she works nearby to where it was Thanks Rachel.

Garden Shredder Ebay

It works a treat I shredded 300 litres of compost in an hour and when the shredded compost was sieved there was virtually no waste.I am using Wickes compost again this year as it is just Irish Peat with added nutrients it is already quite fine and does not have any twigs in it best of all it is only £13 for 4 x 75 Litre bags

wickes compost

 Some of my Shallots are starting to sprout and are now in an unheated tunnel as I do not want to plant them out yet.The large one bottom left is a Spanish onion from the Co Op which was bang on 250g and a lovely shape so It escaped the Curry, And I am going to see if I can get some seeds from it.

I have also now ordered the rest of my seeds from Medwyns and am anticipating their arrival.



Potting on

Only another week left before I start work again after the Christmas break, as I will be away in Edinburgh for the week so I spent yesterday potting on the Onions and Leeks. The Large Onions are really motoring and are now in 5" square pots

 half of the Quality Onions are in 4" pots and the others from the second sowing which are slightly behind them are in 3.5" pots.The Leeks are now collared with pipe insulation and are also in 4" square pots

The germination of the Vento has been a bit erratic with less than half coming through I sowed another 30 last week just in case as I need around 30 plants to choose from.

I am now looking to start positioning the barrels in the tunnel ready for the long Carrots and Parsnips

The Shallots Are In and Vento Sown

I Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and wish you a happy and prosperous new year.

My thoughts have now turned to next year, I have read many different peoples Ideas on when to plant Shallots and decided to plant mine in pots of John Innes no 2  in the Tunnel yesterday, there are 61 in total as previously mentioned from 4 different sources.The tunnel has some background heat to guard against frost. The 6 plants at the back right in the photo are Elephant Garlic pips that I have successfully managed to root. I also sowed 40 Vento Onions these are a week earlier than last year which will give them another week to ripen hopefully. when these are through I will not be giving them any artificial light as last year they reached the required size in plenty of time for the shows without any.  

Shallots Large Onions

I have obtained Hative De Niort Shallots from several sources as I needed to build up my stock. The best ones were from Smithy veg  the next best were from Dobies followed by Plants of Distinction and last of all from M Brereton who advertises in the Garden News these were the smallest but good sound bulbs it will be interesting to see if the size of the original bulb determines the size of the new bulbs. (pictured as mentioned left to right)

The large Onions are now in large square pots and are doing well they are still getting 12 hours of daylight the photo shows them in a double seed tray sized gravel tray this enables them to be watered from the bottom.

Ive seen the Light

After speaking to Dave Metcalf on the phone, as I forgot to ask how much light the Leeks needed. I was informed that they only require 12 hours .So as they are in the same place as the Onions I asked him if it was OK to cut down on the light the Onions are receiving he said it was, so everything is now receiving 12 hours of artificial light and ticking along nicely

THE LEEKS HAVE LANDED

Traveled across the Pennines today to collect my Pendle Improved Leeks from Dave Metcalfe. What lovely specimens they are, and what a nice chap Dave is.I learned loads he was very forthcoming with info which I wrote down hastily I now need to make sense of my notes so I can feed out the info.I took a couple of photos below and also one of mine now tucked up in the growing chamber. a photo is also below.

leeks

I had a Brain storm today and decided that although the collection of Pendle improved Leeks was imminent I would sow some leek seeds as a banker. I sowed some Robinson's Giant Leeks in Rootainers they are now awaiting germination. It will be good to see which does best at the shows. I was quite successfull with the Robinsons last year considering I was learning as I went along. I am also a month earlier than last year with the sowing. I also sowed some seeds that I saved from my Runner beans and Poppy the pumpkin to check germination, these have now popped through making my first attempt at saving seeds a success. 

My Final 15

I have now selected my final 15 Onions for size, and potted them on in a mix of John Innes no2 combined with a hand full of Vermiculite a sprinkling of Nutrimate and another sprinkling of powdered Vitax.The root system is very strong and they are growing well,there is a small amount of yellowing to the tips of the leaves I have researched this and it could be down to lack of fertilizer. I have also lifted the lights slightly to accommodate them they are still on 24 hours of light.I am hoping to get one over 10lb so we will see what happens.

The first sowing of the Quality Onions are not far behind, and the second sowing are now through and will be potted on this weekend.