Veg4Show

Well my leeks turned up on the 10th Dec this week and this is really where my season starts. As soon as they root they will stand bolt upright and I will start to gently manipulate them to ensure they are straight. They look poor at the moment but this is to be expected as they are delivered it stands to reason they get a check. Also one point of note: I water my leeks with tap water at the grow room temperature, Rain water is acidic and not always clean so I prefer not to take the risk especially with leeks that are prone to all sorts of virus and fungal diseases that will spread and ruin your season.

I thought long and hard about what compost and mix to use this year and finally i decided to go for something that I could easily get hold of and have opted for Levington multipurpose with added vermiculite. I did consider levington m2 but this is expensive and only available via mail order. You can of course just buy westlands Irish moss peat and mix it with chempak potting base to the recommended amount and this in theory gives you m2. As I pot on I will add soil to the mixture, again I'm going for the levington organic range.

Also this year I have used chestnut compound, watering before and after potting the leeks. I also spray the leeks with this and mix half strength diathane and half strength bug clear to a sprayer for a final spray.

In the grow room the air temperature is ideal at 60f, with a bottom heat of 70f. I spent a week messing about with the light, heaters and fans to achieve as near as possible. Have run into a few problems with this; No heater is required from 4pm-4am as the light is on and provides a constant 60-64f with the greenhouse ventilation system opening at 66f. The heater decides to come on anyway now and again for no reason and I have tested 3 brand new heaters..hmm. If i set it on a thermostat during the day at 60f it will still heat the greenhouse another 15f when the light comes on at 4pm for no reason. If i turn the heater down then day temperature drops to 50f but the night temperature stays even 60f with a max of 67f. Really struggling to work out why this does this.

How I set it up:
With no light on during the day:
Heater on maximum until 61f is achieved
Heater turned down until click is reached for cut in point (below 61f cut in)
Day temperature minimum: 60f Maximum: 61f.

4pm Light cuts in (goes off at 4am)
Light provides the heat required for the grow room (may not as weather gets worst)
Heater doesn't realize light makes heat and still cuts in lol. Heater then proceeds to heat greenhouse up to 70f???.

I thought these bloody things were suppose to know when a temperature is reached, caused me hassle all week. Only thing I can think of is maybe a draft somewhere? The heater is about 3 foot off the ground, maybe its colder down there?.