Veg4Show

Just a quick follow on from my previous post about growing leeks from bulbils. Here you can see one of my Peter Clarke leeks that i kept back from last year that has just opened up. Already it has a few grasses showing from the bottom. I will leave this a lot longer before i cut all the seed off the head to produce a head full of grass/bulbils. You really want your bulbils showing sometime late Novemeber ready to take off and plant up, timing is crucial.

My main batch of celery that has been planted out in the raised bed at the weekend are looking strong and healthy. Before planting out i applied a good amount of vitax Q4, and stripped all the celery back to the strongest sticks to promote more growth from the heart. Small, cracked sticks are useless and will only be pulled off later so I'm pretty savage about it, and will continue to do this thought out the season. I water all my plants with slug clear once every 2 weeks along with some slug pellets. My celery is also fed everyweek with chempak no.2 high nitrogen feed and also some calcium nitrate. I will switch to a low nitrogen feed no.8 in about a months time.
This celery will be collared when i feel its ready, maybe a weeks time it grows pretty darn fast.


The celery in pots with there first collars on. Yes i collar from an early stage, others prefer to leave it a lot later but this method works for me. On hot days i will remove the collars and provide them with extra shading to help avoid heart rot.

Well most of my onions have gone to pot to be honest for a variety of reason, mainly due to the weather and i might struggle to make a decent set up this year. Next year i really need to think about planting all my onions inside in a well ventilated structure. The few I have planted inside are looking pretty decent, I just hope i can get enough of them.

The main problems i have had this year are the onions going double necked, being as i had no re-selected seed from last years crop and couldnt buy any due to the rains we had destroying crops, I suspect the shop crap is to blame.

Well i have lifted the remaining of my shallots and have had a count up, and have over 160 to choose from. This sounds a lot but you would be surprised how many you need just to make a really decent set up. Not all of these shallots will make the grade and i suppose i have at least 90 that are perfect size and shape, anything under 4-5 inches around i wont really consider.

I also have a fair amount of pickling shallots, could have done with some more but my shallots really didnt split much this year with only 3-4 bulbs on each cluster.

Why do i keep the foliage and roots on my shallots as they dry?. Well i have seen this technique used by Graeme Watson, a master at growing shallots and if it works for him it must work for me. I do find keeping the foliage on helps the bulbs to swell out evenly, even when drying a slight imperfection can grow out as the goodness from the foliage goes into the bulb. I leave the roots on simply as i find they come off much cleaner when fully dried avoiding any marks.

The only concern i have about the shallots this year (so far) is some have roots that have decided to grow upwards while they were growing in the bed into the skins. Thankfully this has only happened to a few of them.

These are looking a tad early mainly due to the fact I'm growing them in a different tunnel this year and I have not grown this variety before not realising they grow so fast.

I have 10 or so cuttings of these planted in the other tunnel incase these are to early to get the best tomatoes, along with 6 cherry and 5 Goldstar.

These tomatoes have had all the side shoots removed, been tied up and also all the bottom leaves have been cut off to save energy for the top growth. Bottom truss of fruits are set so i have been feeding at least once a week, maybe twice as the season progresses due to the fact these are in grow bags.