Onions,Shallots,Leeks & First Show Schedule

Well pushed on this week and sowed my Globo onion seeds and I'm trying some Matador shallot seeds as well.  The Globo onions are for the under 250 gms class.  I've grown this variety  for the last two years and have had some success with it. I particularly like the shape and straw coloured finish that I've managed to achieve.  So here's hoping I can get some good size specimens for the NVS branch show in September, plis Dufftown and Nairn. 

I also re potted my leeks this week and they are now in 1 ltr pots. I've reselected my plants down to 20 from 50 and the rest will go to our NVS DA meeting tomorrow night Thursday the 30th January at the Chiefton Hotel To the plant sales table to raise funds for the DA.  My leeks are now as thick as a pencil and seem to be growing on quite strongly. They are getting 10.5 hrs of light just now which I will slowly increase over the next few weeks.  As you can see they do not have collars on to draw them but  are coming away by themselves.  The tallest are about 20 to 21 inches to the flag tip and the leaves are started to widen out.

The first show schedule dropped through the letter box this week.  The Black Isle Show is held in-conjunction with the annual agricultural show.  This is a two day show and is very popular in the North of Scotland.  It is on the 6th and 7th August which is early for veg but does attract a number of the top growers in the area.  I'm aiming to plant/sow a number of veg with it in mind and will keep you informed of their progress.

North of Scotland DA (National Veg Society)

Not a lot happening with my plot at the moment.  Leeks are still ticking over and are starting to grow on after repotting them.  They are now on 10 hrs of light per day.  This is probably a lot less than some growers but I had a really problem last year with all my leeks running to seed so I've decided to take things a bit slower this year.  I will be on leave over the last week in January and I hope to constuct new beds and sort out my growing mixes then.

On Sunday we had the first comittee meeting of the newly formed North of Scotland District Association of the NVS Scottish Branch. All committee members were present with the exception of one who is unfortunatly is unwell just now.  We set our sylabus for the coming year with proposed meeting dates and hopefully a away day in July.

With this in mind our first open meeting will be at the Chieftain Hotel Inverness on the 30th of January at 19.00.  There will be a slide show presented by J MacKay showing some of the main shows in our area plus pictures from the 2013 Scottish Branch championships. This will be supplemented with a panel night in the form of a Q & A.

This is open to all interested parties, there is no requirement to be a NVS member so please feel free to come along and enjoy the night.    

Leeks, to pot on or not!!

Well here we have the root structure of one of my Leeks. As you can see there is a fair amount of healthy white roots starting to bottom out of the pot.  The pots they were in were 7cm square pots so I've moved them up to 1/2 litre pots.

Here they are in the growing area.  This is just a box constructed of "sterling board" with insulation foil stapled to the inside.  My T5 light is suspended from the top, and is on a timer giving 9 hrs of light. The thermostat you can see in the photo control's my tube heater which is at the bottom of the chamber and is set to come on when the temp falls below 12 degrees C.  The leeks are growing steadily and most are three inch to the button.  As these leeks are not Pendle or Pendle Improved I have been advised by a number of more experienced growers that there is no need to collar them at this time.  They currently are getting one spray of SB invigorator  per week. So fingers crossed they keep growing on.