Sweetcorn, Tomatoes and NVS Talk on Cauliflowers

Down on the plot on Monday  where I got another few kilos of tomatoes. Although an old variety, Ailsa Craig tomatoes have come through for me this year. They have great flavour, maybe not as sweet as many modern varieties but tangy. With the complete loss of the San Marzano plum tomatoes, I’m glad we’ve had these.

Popped down to plot 5 and got 18 really nice sweetcorn cobs off. Straight home with them where they were stripped, blanched and the kernels cut off and frozen immediately. It’s true that sweetcorn off the plant is far sweeter than that bought from the shop and freezing keeps that flavour for use throughout the year.

Larry  whose sweetcorn is somewhat smaller than mine would love to know the secret of growing tall plants with two fine cobs per plant. I’d reveal it here but then he’d read it and have sweetcorn as good as mine! Only joking Larry, it’s just good luck.

Tuesday was the NVS meeting and we had a talk  by  Ken Galbraith from Manchester about growing cauliflowers. He grows his on his Manchester allotment and he can really grow some fabulous Cauliflowers and has won prizes for many years at the highest level. We’re not talking about huge monsters here, just perfect specimems.

Despite most of the speakers being show growers and me just trying to grow for the pot, as they say, I always pick up a tip that helps me do better. The one that stuck in my mind tonight was planting deep. Ken starts his cauliflowers off in modules, moving them up to 3″ pots and then 5″ pots with 14 days between each stage. When he plants he actually covers the seed leaves, which is deeper than I thought.

His results are all the more remarkable when he explains that he has clubroot on his plot. He’s gone to great lengths to try and get rid of it but to no avail. What is concerning is that he had clubroot develop on some plants that were grown in commercial compost and hadn’t seen the soil. It’s a brand I use as well.

We’ve not got a speaker sorted for the next meeting yet but if we don’t then we’re going to have a quiz apparently.

Posted in Allotment Garden Diary

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