This is the sight that greeted me this morning looking out from the front door when i was about to go to work, it was quite a shock allthough the forecast had said their was a chance of snow i was still suprised just how much of it their was. Luckily it hadn't frozen before snowing so the roads were no bother. I had fortunately taken the chance on Saturday to get on with some digging on the veggy patch and managed to get next years Onion and Leek bed turned over incorporating a lot of the compost that i made this summer as i went along then i gave it a splash of magnesium lime which i consider to be better than straight lime it seems as though the magnesium helps plants utilise N P and K more efficiently and then a bit more compost on top, hopefully the cold weather and the worms will do their bit and it should just need a quick forking and be ready to go without much work come spring. It is my intention to have a soil test done about end of February just to check how things are, the P H i suspect may be still be a bit on the low side after the 2 wet summers we have had so if i get the results back by beginning of March there will be plenty of time to get it sorted. It was inside work today and i have been trying to knock up a growing box i have a soil warming cable so if i can get some lighting sorted i may try starting some leek seeds of nice and early (first week of December?) to see if i can get them a bit bigger come August, i know most folks who show leeks start with bulbils but they seem quite a price for someone who is just learning so i think if i grow them from seeds, i might learn a bit as i go on and maybe next year if all goes well i might buy bulbils. The leek variety i have got is Windermere F1 from Medwyns it seemed an appropriate choice considering it's where i live.Sunday 23 November 2008
Is this the start of winter
This is the sight that greeted me this morning looking out from the front door when i was about to go to work, it was quite a shock allthough the forecast had said their was a chance of snow i was still suprised just how much of it their was. Luckily it hadn't frozen before snowing so the roads were no bother. I had fortunately taken the chance on Saturday to get on with some digging on the veggy patch and managed to get next years Onion and Leek bed turned over incorporating a lot of the compost that i made this summer as i went along then i gave it a splash of magnesium lime which i consider to be better than straight lime it seems as though the magnesium helps plants utilise N P and K more efficiently and then a bit more compost on top, hopefully the cold weather and the worms will do their bit and it should just need a quick forking and be ready to go without much work come spring. It is my intention to have a soil test done about end of February just to check how things are, the P H i suspect may be still be a bit on the low side after the 2 wet summers we have had so if i get the results back by beginning of March there will be plenty of time to get it sorted. It was inside work today and i have been trying to knock up a growing box i have a soil warming cable so if i can get some lighting sorted i may try starting some leek seeds of nice and early (first week of December?) to see if i can get them a bit bigger come August, i know most folks who show leeks start with bulbils but they seem quite a price for someone who is just learning so i think if i grow them from seeds, i might learn a bit as i go on and maybe next year if all goes well i might buy bulbils. The leek variety i have got is Windermere F1 from Medwyns it seemed an appropriate choice considering it's where i live.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I think thats a wise choice as its a learning curve and could be an expensive one. Its best to learn how the leeks actually grow and how to look after them before you jump in at the deep end.
Leek bulbils are expensive but I feel they are actually cheap when you consider it takes 2 years to get them and in that time require a lot of effort and money spent..(I don't think you would get your money back to be honest unless you had a few 1000s to sell. Also you are near guaranteed a perfect leek from everyone of them if you look after them.
From seed will definitely produce more bad attributes such as bulbing, bending etc.
When looking for a new strain, leeks are actually selected from field trials of leeks planted from seed which could be as many as 100 leeks and select 1 with the best attributes to breed from to produce a decent new strain to collect bulbils, not many have made the grade. Probably why we don't see many different strains at the shows. Bulbils of course contain the same attributes as the mother plant so will grow the same, seed is random but this doesn't mean you won't get good results by sowing many seed and be extremely selective at every stage only potting on the very best specimens.
I think this is the best way to learn and is the way I learnt growing from seed, so I wish you luck. Windermere F1 is a good choice to start with.
Post a Comment