Veg4Show

Not happy with my leeks, I just feel it has taken way to long for them to move since I planted them out. Maybe its just me, but when I look at them, take the collars off etc I don't see any difference from a few weeks back. Obviously a concern as this happened last year and the leeks just didn't do any good. I think the leeks do not like this ground, fingers crossed they will start to grow soon.

Tomatoes planted out about 4 days ago, again same as last year I have planted them really deep. These plants were twice the height of what you see in the photo. Planting so deep encourages new root growth from the stem that is below ground, resulting in a sturdy strong plant that has more roots to pick up nutrients and water. Don't worry about removing any lower leaves, I have taken a good two or three off each plant already.

As the plants get going I will support them, spray them for blight, and remove the lower leaves.

Disappointed that non of the 10 or so longest runner bean strain germinated, must have been bad seed for them all to fail, especially when all my others have either come up or are just showing in the compost.

I shall plant another 60 or so beans this weekend in the hope of picking them a little later in season.

All my celery is now sitting outside, especially due to the fact its been so hot inside the greenhouse. Very happy with this batch and I shall plant them out at the weekend.

Pretty much the size I'd expect my onions to be at this time of year. All pretty much the same size, the really hot days have not helped.

My parsnips are growing great despite being covered in fleece to keep bugs at bay...But look closer; at this time of year you may well start to see the first signs of leaf spot. Yellow-green spots that appear that will eventually destroy your parsnips, as the spots enlarge turning brown and almost burnt in apperance. I will spray mine now every 10 days or so for a month at least with a good fungicide as I have noticed a few spots. No spider mite as yet.

Picture after being sprayed.. What I find interesting is the size of my parsnips compared to last years. If you view "2009 May Parsnips" pictures you will see that the above parsnips are actually better and bigger despite going in a good month later. I think this is mainly due to the fact I have no spider mite (yet?) and this time last year I had plenty. It goes to show how much damage they can do, the hard winter combined with the fleece must have helped keep them off...for now.

Managed to get most of my potatoes in today..Gee i'm pretty late this year but I'm sure they won't be fine anyway so who cares.

I have planted
12 NVS Sherine
12 NVS Amour
12 Kestrel

and if I can be bothered I will plant 12 harmony on Friday.

Slightly different to last year, I'm still using 17 litre polypots but I have put a layer of Peat Plus in the bottom (its like manure really and holds moisture extremely well). Peat plus stinks so bad its worst than putting your head inside those dog shite bins on the side of the road, its not for the faint hearted. On top of all this I have a mix of peat and multipurpose compost.

I have found a supplier local to me of a multipurpose compost called Erin that contains peat (thank the lord) and I was so impressed by it I decided to add it to my potatoe mix. Erin comes in a green bag and has 70 litres of compost in it..yes 70 litres of compost, not 70 litres of bark. When I opened the bag you could see the peat in the mix, it just fell apart in my hands. It is such a light airy compost, nothing like the crap I normally have to use because of peat free zone around here. Even pure peat these days is mostly rubbish and fury things, I sieved the erin compost with minimal waste, and even the waste broke up in my hands..Yeah I have fallen in love with a green bag of compost.

Anyway back to potatoes... In the end I decided to sieve all my compost and to this I added about 1 handfull of vitax q4 and 1 handfull of calcified seaweed (because measuring is boring and Simon said it works so he must be right lol). I think everyone has gone crazy with the sudden OMG dont use calcified seaweed as its lime and potatoes hate lime...err we have been doing it for years with no problems, if you are worried then jump on the bandwagon and use seaweed meal.

My first sowing of Blyton Belle marrows are really starting to move now. Hopefully it will start to warm up soon so I can harden them off. I Decided this year to do two sowings and my second sowing is only just comming up, this will hopefully give me some better options when it comes to picking them for show day.

I have also sown my pumkin and giant marrow selection. I'm sure my giant marrow will recieve more attention if they germinate.

Again perfect germination on these and I will thin them this weekend down to 3 and eventually 1 per station. I haven't grown any where near as many as I did last year, A: because we are only going to do two shows and B: My dad did the bed so didn't do it as I would have, never mind they are in which is better than nothing as I wasn't going to plant them.

My leeks and onions have been planted for just over a week now and have rooted well. I am going steady on the water as they don't seem to like a lot when first planted out, assuming the beds were fully charged with water and left a few days prior to planting. A good tip is to spray now with fungicide, especially if you suffer from mildew like me. I will also be putting up the sticky tape traps again this year to get those thrips which worked so well last year.

Night temperatures have been horrible again and with the added wind it has been so cold, even during the day we have had some pretty cold days for this time of year. Has set me back with hardening off my sunflowers which need planting now.

Some early cabbage that we put in some time ago are really starting to move now and hopefully we shall be soon eating them.

My first sowing of cauli are nearlly ready to hardened off and planted out now. I have 3 sowings at the moment of beauty which can been seen in the photo (3rd sowing right at the back..came up 2 days ago). Each sowing is 10 days apart and my 4th and final sowing went in today. I find cauliflowers will grow very well in our soil but will go to seed very quick if they lack water..this will be my big concern, having the time to water them in the allotment as I do not have room for them in the garden.

Despite actually sowing my celery later this year it seems to be growing faster than ever before and opon checking the pots they are certainly ready to be potted on. I'm hoping to keep them inside the greenhouse a little longer this year and maybe get the first collar on when they are in there final pots. My beds have been prepared with compost, manure and peat plus, which I will top dress with BTD fertilizer. I will also be adding nitroform to the beds this year after doing some tests in pots which was a success.

Still haven't managed to get my potatoes planted due to a few wash out weekends. Managed to get the bags filled and despite having an electric rotary sieve I have decided to use peat straight from the bag as it goes further. One bag of peat contains 70% rubbish, so is just not economical enough for me. What I have been doing to encourage root growth and to keep in moisture is to use a layer of "peat plus" in the bottom of the bag that I buy by the pallet.