Veg4Show

Blanch Leeks: Pendle Bulbils 40 of them. I hope Medwyn can send 20 early December and 20 January so I can show leeks in September aswell. Last year I tested welsh seedling and the pendle leeks, both had there general faults and worrying factors. Welsh seedling's definitely grow slower than the pendle leeks but went over the top very quick in August where as the pendle leeks kept growing. I do like the fact that the welsh seedling leek has much stronger foliage and stands up by itself unaided, very handy when small as the leaves don't flop about the place. The pendle leeks did cause me the most concern early on in the season as they all seemed to develop footrot at some stage or another. This really put me off buying them again but I have made my choice because I feel they have more potential and are less likely to bulb at the bottom. If I can just avoid footrot this year I'm sure they will be great but I'm still very worried about this happening again as it really does destroy all your leeks once one has it. If this fails I will go back to growing Peter Clarke and the only reason I don't grow this leek any more is because they reach full potential later in the season and I don't do late shows.

Onion Seed: My own selection and Medwyns Own selection.
30 Onion seedling backups from Medwyns aswell so I have a good chance of getting some decent onions. Again Kelsae onion is the strain and being planted inside this year I hope to get at least 45 planted inside the tunnel.

Marrow: Blyton Belle, Table Dainty, Bush baby, Long green Bush. Plant them later this year as my best marrows came a bit early.

Runner beans: Stenner, will grow about 50 plants from a mixture of medwyns selection and my own.

Carrots Long: My own and Medwyns.

Stump carrots: Sweet candle and a new unnamed stump carrot trail. Will be a test this year as my stump carrots are always bankers only having to pull 4 carrots to make a set of 3 is handy. I can no longer buy this stump carrot seed and mine wont be ready for seed until the following year. The longer stump carrots are harder to grow as they wont all be straight. I'm sure they will be decent clean carrots but the majority will have a bend so getting a good set will require more carrots to be pulled.

Cauliflowers: Not that impressed with Beauty to be honest which is what i grew this year. Dok elkon? is what i use to grow, amazing cauli..cant get this anymore. Despite Beauty being very white I found the curds went out of shape and sometimes slight gaps on the larger heads. This year I will be giving Concept a go as i like the sound of tight self wrapping leaves. I may grow a few coloured varieties aswell for fun.

Celery: Evening Star: I still feel this is the best celery to grow for the show bench. I have tested Starburst, Morning Star, Ideal and Redstar and Evening Star always stood out as the best. I did grow Redstar last year aswell which i was very impressed with and comes a close second. I would grow Redstar again but growing one variety ensures I have more sticks to select from in what little good ground I have to grow my show celery in. I hope to make another raised bed up to grow some Redstar in the future.

Cucumbers: King George and Carmen.

250g onions: Marco, amazing onion when grown well very hard to beat.

Parsnip: Gladiator and pinnacle, would love to try picador aswell but don't have the room. I will only grow a few pinnacle, as I do every year I test just a few of anything that i feel has potential. Gladiator has always worked for me so there is no need to change that. I grow 25-30 gladiator until I grow something that when i pull up is better and then grow 25-30 of them. Last year I tested a few albion, good parsnip, not as white as you would hope, carries its weight but not better than gladiator so won't grow again.

Peas: Show perfection, own selection.

Shallots: Hative De Niort, aristocrat: Own selection and some mail order.

Tomatoes: Goldstar and Cedrico