This years attempt at  hopefully growing some exhibition quality veg for showing.

This coming year as well as growing my usual Show onions and now Long and Stump show carrots,I've decided to have a go at trying some more veg specifically for showing.

At the moment I'm going to concentrate on some show shallots, potatoes and maybe some of the show peas if I can manage to get hold of the seed.

December 22nd.

Well,It all starts today folks.

I decided to plant the shallots into pots today as this is generally regarded as the ideal time.

These were some kindly supplied to me by "Smithyveg" and are probably originally from the Hative de Niort variety.

Anyway the first thing to do was to trim the tops a bit so the emerging shoots aren't constricted.

Then I simply planted each one in a pre watered 5" pot of compost.

These will be put into my polytunnel once the snow's gone and really just left to their own accord for a while.

Hopefully quite soon they should send out some roots and start to sprout.

Jan 10th.

Well,It was about time the shallots were put into the polytunnel since they've been in my porch since planting due to me being unable to get to the plot due to the snow.

As you can see they're all sprouting now

The night time temps aren't as harsh as they have been of late (-17 c the other night !!) so the shock shouldn't be too great for them being shoved into the tunnel..

Jan 21st.

My seed potatoes arrived today so I needed to "Chit" them.

Chitting is really just a way of preserving them until planting time because if you were to just leave them in the bag in the dark then all you'd get is long spindly shoots appearing which are of no use.

This way by standing the spuds eyed end upwards in either a seed tray or egg box and then placing them in a cool,frost free,bright place you end up with small dark green shoots which help the plant to grow away faster when it comes to planting.

The varieties I'm trying are Winston,a white potato and Kestrel a purple eyed variety.

March 13th.

Well,just a quick update.

The shallots are all doing well and sprouting nicely with a good set of roots on 'em and the potatoes are chitting away well too.

Only a few weeks before they get planted.

March 28th.

Well,I decided it was time to plant out the Shallots.

There was plenty of top growth and the roots were right to the bottom of the pots.

So I just added about 4oz blood fish & bone to the soil and bunged 'em in.

That's it,job done.

April 19th.

Well,I decided it was time to plant up some of the potatoes in bags this evening.

This method is roughly based on the technique of my veg growing guru Smithyveg.

With the potatoes well chitted the 1st thing to do was to take out a trench about 5-6" deep and add some blood fish and bone into the bottom (Ideally you'd add some well rotted manure too).Hopefully the roots should grow through the holes in the bottom and get some more nourishment from the soil whilst the spuds develop in the compost.

With the riddled compost I filled the 17 litre poltpot bags half full and then added about 2oz of Vitax fertilizer and then mixed this in well.

Then I filled the bag to the top with more compost and planted 1 potato about 2/3 of the way down the bag.

And finally once the trench was full of bags just pulled some soil around them to keep them secure.

So that's the Winston potatoes done,I'm only doing 9 bags of each variety this year due to lack of room.

Next to do the Kestrel when I can get hold of some more compost.

May 1st.

Well,I got all the potatoes planted in the bags so we'll have to see how they fare.

And the Shallots are doing well apart from the odd one which have decided to go rotten ??

But on the plus side of the remaining healthy plants the majority have split into 4 which is good as there won't need to be any separaring needs doing.

May 22nd,.

Well,the shallots are all splitting well but I am a bit concerned about a bit of yellowing on the leaf tips,probably just down to the odd frost and then the roasting weather.

All the potatoes are through in the bags too.

June 2nd.

Well, after the rain and sun we've had over the last week things are really starting to move.

The potatoes have gone mental and the shallots seem to be doing pretty well and are about an inch in diameter at the moment.

June 20th.

Well the spuds seem to have recovered from the wind battering them and have grown like crazy.

Plenty of tops but will there be 'owt underneath ?

And the shallots are starting to swell,I must measure them to see how big they are as I only need them to be over 1.5" for my classes.

June 25th.

The shallots seem to have stopped throwing any new leaves up from the centre so as I have learned this year this is as far as they will get.

Leave them any longer and they will probably divide into 2 and be mis-shapen.

Anyway they aren't quite as big as I would have liked,mostly around the 40-45mm diameter,but hopefully as the majority of my shows have an over 1.5" class these should be fine.

They're all pretty equal in size and shape and given that we haven't had any rain up here for 3 months I can't really complain for a 1st attempt.

I have 72 to go at so hopefully I should get a couple of decent sets of 12 out of them.

That's it for this week folks.........

Thanks a lot for looking.

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