The leeks have arrived...

When I know i'm going to be potting on any exhibition leeks or onions I like to warm the compost up by leaving on the heated bench overnight:-

This year i'm using John Innes compost rather than a 'lighter' peat compost. I think this will slow the growth down but the end result will be a better quality plant. Hopefully!

Potting on from plugs to 3 1/2" pots I shall use this:

To which I add vermiculite. 3 parts compost to 1 part vermiculite. At this stage i'm not going to add any fertiliser as there should be enough in the compost for the young plants.

These are the 9 blanch leeks 'Pendle Imp'. These have come from Bob Carr.

I normally have my leeks delivered before Christmas and they are at least twice the size of these by now. However, with these being a little later i'm hoping they will make it to either Shrewsbury or Malvern. Only having 9 to play with who knows....

At this stage of potting on I add a pinch of mycchorhizal fungi to help establish a secondary root system.

Then finally I add a wire support ring to hold the plant straight and upright.- Nobody likes a bendy leek!

Along with the blanch leeks came these two Yorkshire giant pot leeks. I am going to grow these in mind of entering them into the heavy weight side of Malvern.

I'm told they will not be suitable for the showbench as they are prone to holes/splitting on the rootplate.

The plants are then returned to the heated bench under the lights that are on for 12 hours 7am-7pm. They were then watered with a maxicrop solution made with TEPID water!

 

ALLOTMENT

Popped down the plot this afternoon. (not the new plot). Watered the garlic and elephant garlic in the top tunnel. Doing a trial in there this year. One half has been mulched with straw (which I used last year to good effect) and the other half I have mulched with shredded paper (I have a contact with an endless supply!) The paper didn't sit on the soil as well as the straw so I watered overhead again to 'wet' it down.

I hadn't got my camera with me so I took the pictures on my iphone but I've got to figure out how to get them on the laptop. Will post them at a later date if I can figure it out!

Planted a dozen lambs lettuce to go with the others in the big tunnel which were sown 11th November.

Came away with another two duck eggs... Thanks girls!