Veg4Show

With all the heavy rain forecast I decided to lift most of my largest shallots to avoid disaster. The problem being is the sudden uptake of nutrients from the rains can destroy your shallots in a matter of days.

The main problems being:

*Extra risk of botrytis, neck rot and slug attacks
*Uptake of nutrients at such a late stage causing double growth, bulging (pregnant bulbs)
*Bulbs generally being to big and out of shape.

The shallots that i felt were still growing and needed a few weeks i left in.

Most of the shallots measure 5-6 inches around, a pretty good size. I could have left the shallots in for a lot longer but this year i really dont want to risk them going out of shape or even worst losing them all for greed.

A few of the shallots measuring 7 inches around have gone out of shape so i think i have timed this perfect but until they dry (as they keep growing when drying) i wont know for sure.

Perfect size and shape 6 inches around:


Slighty out of shape 7 inches around:


Pickling shallot:

Well the leeks outside are looking pretty good now, amazing what a few days of rain then sun can do. These leeks are a good 3 inches in the ground and even tho they are well behind the pendle leeks i feel these will be the leeks i select for the shows. (Yes i weeded this bed after i took the photo)

My first sowing of celery (yeah the ones that didnt die) have been planted out in some large pots that is bascially a john innes no.2 mix with added manure. Its not really ready to collar yet but i might stick some small pipes over them for now. The rest of my decent celery which is my second sowing will be planted in the raised bed in a couple weeks time and any left overs will be planted in more pots.

My first 20 or so cauliflower's have been sown and the variety is "beauty". I will sow 20 seed every 10, then 5 days for the next month to ensure they don't all come at once. Cauliflower's normally take 100 days to mature depending on your growing conditions and variety, some are ready in 70 days. I just squashed all these with some water, so don't worry they aint dying.

A lot of growers this year had problems with carrots, especially getting them to germinate. The combination of extremely wet, extremely hot and extremely cold I'm sure contributed to this. Mine are finally starting to grow. Last year we had massive long carrots but to be honest they were a bit to big for my liking, maybe these will keep longer and have better quality as they are a good 3-4 weeks behind.