Celery & Onions

We have had a fairly cold week and the ground is frozen again, so not a lot done on the plot.  Saturday we had snow and I was playing rugby in the North Regional Bowl which we were lucky enough to win.  That along with Scotland winning against Ireland has made it a pretty good weekend.  Anyway to garden matters.

As you can see my celery is at a stage where I will prick it out and pot up in 3 inch pots.  Probably do that tomorrow night.   

This is my exhibition onions that I got from Niall Currie from Rothesay. I got these plants on the 2nd of January and they have not looked back since I got them.  The most of the plants have 5 or 6 main leaves and are about 20 inches tall.  I'm really pleased with them.

I have also put 9 inch collars on my most forward leeks (HV) also 9 inch collars on the leeks from Alistair Grey.  My HV leeks are growing on strongly and have nice broad leaves on them so as soon as my 2 ltr pot arrive I'll get them into them.  I gave all my leeks and onions a drench of epsom salts to day this helps with the up take of nutrients and keep the foliage a good dark green colour. (or so i've been told)

Valentine Onions!!!

This week has been variable with sunshine at the start of the week and then snow and frost mid week and sunshine at the weekend. I also received a Valentine's gift from a fellow grower.  I must admit its the first time I've ever received onions on Valentines day.  Helen Vincent my very good fellow grower sent me 24 onions via the postal system.  I potted them up straight away and they are starting to settle in nicely.  If I manage to grow them half as good as last year I'll be delighted.  They are a very nice high necked variety so here's hoping.  I'll post a picture next week once they have settle.

Below is the onions I got on the 2nd January they are growing on strongly, with most now having 5 or 6 true leaves and standing about 16 to 18 inches tall.

Here are Red Barron onions I sowed my self they are coming along nicely and I hope that I'll get a set of three and a set of 5 as one of our shows looks for five large five red and five from set.  This is the first time I've attempted to grow for this class.

Here is some of my BC20 Stur onions from set.  Asyou can see I've started them away in fibre pots.  They are in Levingtons M3 and I the roots are already coming out the sides of the pots. 

 Below are my Hercules onions from set.  They are also coming on nicely with good root structure within the pots.  I've never tried starting sets off in pots before so it will be interesting to find out which one do best between the fibre pots or the actual pots.

Below is one of my most furthest on Leeks.  They are in 1 ltr pots and have 7 inch collars.  At present they are about 6 inch to the button and about 45- 50 mm in circumference.  I'm planning to pot on into 2 ltr pots next week and by that time I'll have 9 inch collars on them.  All my leeks have really started to stretch recently. I have added 7 inch collars to my other two batches as well, however the first batch that I received from Helen are looking really good just now.

Leeks & Rugby

It's been a wee while since I last posted.  we have had some very poor weather and I still have not managed a lot of ground preparation.  Saturday was a decent day but I was away playing rugby in the Regional Bowl semi-final in Aberdeen where we managed a 19-15 away win and now face Moray in a local derby final.  This has added spice for me as I played for them lasst season.

Anyway a quick up date. My onions from sets are starting to sprout and as you can see the Hercules are looking ok and the 20 BC Stur are similar.  I hope to plant out mid to late March depending on the weather.   

 As you can see the celery has germinated.  Not as strong a germination as I would have liked but there will be enough plants for me to get 12 strong ones to plant out for my late July show.

Here are my onions.  These I got as seedling on the 2nd of January. As you can see they are growing on strongly and will soon need potting up to 1 litre pots.  

I re collared my most forward leeks last weekend with 7 inch collars.  The lagging I had was 15 mm which I felt was a wee bit tight round the leaves so put 7 inch 22 mm lagging on today.  The most of these leeks are at least 5 inch to the button and between 40 to 45 mm in circumference round the barrel.  So really pleased with them.  They will be getting potted on into 2 litre pots next week or the week after.