Start of another years growing

Well we definitely had a white Christmas this year and I thought I'd take a picture as they don't (thankfully) come along that often. The snow may not show up too much on the picture but believe me it was chucking it down, and we got another 3" on top of what we already had, luckily it turned to rain on boxing day and now we are having quite a rapid thaw. It's not possible to get on with anything outside but at least it is heading in the right direction.

So yesterday seemed a good day to get on with potting on my leek plants, I was given a nice head of pips (Pendle Improved) at our local NVS meeting in November and after a slow start they have started to do well, recently I think they weren't getting enough heat so I notched it up a bit and put them on to 24 hour daylight. I intend to knock them back soon to 12 hours once they have settled from repotting. If you look closely you can maybe see some of my shallots in the background they are not on any heat but it was a bit rough to put them out in to the greenhouse, so I have started them off inside the box and intend to move them into the greenhouse as soon as a couple of trays of Kelsea Onions and one tray of Pot leeks germinate that I sowed this morning. I don't think my shallots will take a lot of harm if it gets cold out in the greenhouse, if it does get really cold I will pop them on my heat mat at a low temperature and put some fleece over them. Below is a shot of the grow box I knocked up late summer when I was a bit out of sorts and needed something to keep me busy. It's built into some old industrial shelving I had, I lined it with 1" thick hardboard all round and covered it all with reflective foil. Then set 2 separate lengths of heat cable into 4" of sand so now I have enough room to hold 6 standard seed trays with the option of heating just 3 or all 6 depending on whats needed, the lights are 125 enviro lights. The main thing I made sure of was that there was plenty of headroom to raise the lights as my leeks grow. If you look closely you might be able to see a bottle of provado, as yesterday when I was potting on the leeks I noticed there were a few black flies on the leaves which I suspect may have been hibernating on the shallots and the warmth has woken them up so I gave them a quick blast and today they seem clear.

Greetings

Not a lot to say other than Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year to everyone. James

A thumb twiddling sort of day

Some days its just to cold and snowy to go out side and today is one of them days so it seemed an ideal time to get some seed out of the marrow (Blyton Belle from Smithy) that I set to one side early October it was the best one on the plant. I managed to collect about 100 seed that were good and plump so once I have got them nicely dried and stored in the fridge with any sort of luck I should get enough for my needs (3 Plants) to germinate next May. It is my intention to start them of a 3 weeks sooner next year as i did find starting them beginning of June just left it a bit tight for the earliest shows, Normally they do grow fast but with all the very dull cool and wet weather we had here from July onwards it held them back plus pollination was hampered with lack of insect activity. Quite a lot of the seeds that i have ordered have arrived now but im still waiting for Medwyn to send out the Kelsea his own selection I hope they get here before Christmas as I planned to sow them before the new year, that reminds me talking of Christmas I haven't even started any shopping yet.