This is ‘one of the leeks I have been trialling this year. I won’t publicly mention the name because I am sure this one will not make it into general seed production. I’m afraid it has not performed too well. In fact it is probably the worse leek I have ever come across. As you can see some have grown all out of shape, some have thrown out suckers, they are prone to rust and the growth of the flags is very loose, so you don’t get a good solid barrel. And worse of all they are running to seed.

Not every hybrid turns out to be a super leek.

Now this leek I am happy to name, it is ‘Conway’. So far it is behaving itself. It has been bred as an early bulking leek. I sowed it in mid March so I’m hoping that it will stand through the winter months. And so far there is no sign of rust.

‘Conway’ Another leek on trial.

In the last article I mention the three varieties of French Bean I have been growing. Well there are four because I forgot about the ‘Satelit’ variety that we NVS members had free from Marshalls. They are now just coming to an end. They were ok and tasty to eat but being fine and quite small you needed a decent row of them in order to pick enough for a meal.

Now this one is my all time favourite, ‘Prince’. Lovely straight beans with a bit of meat on them, so you can harvest enough for a meal off just a few plants. And in my opinion this is a better eating bean than ‘Hawkesbury Wonder’. ‘And it has won quite a few shows in its time’.

East Meon Show Sunday 13th August

The raspberries I recognised as being ‘Polka’ and I gave the dish best in show. But like many other judges and visitors to the shows we would like to see more exhibitors nameing their dishes.

That said I was pleased to see one or two of the exhibitors had named their entries.

East Meon is typical of an enthusiastic well run village show and its always a pleasure to be invited to judge there.

A new name cropped up on the bench, a good grower by the name of Steve Amos. Along with local man Dave Wyatt they put up some very good vegetable exhibits. The

carrots were the best I have seen at a village show this year. Last year I gave a talk to Steve’s allotment society, so I am pleased that some of the advice I gave out had rubbed off on him.

The Courgette Trial

We are now far enough into the season to make a fair appraisal of which of the seven varieties did best in the trial.

Bottom of the list came ‘Patio Star’. From early on this plant did not look as healthy as the rest in the trial. It was a poor grower and the worse producer. And now it looks very sorry for itself.

‘Green Bush’. This is a good producer but it was the first plant to succumb to mildew. It was also reluctant to being trained up a central stake. It will do better trailing on the ground. Next best was ‘Tuscany’ The fruits are a good dark colour but they tend to be long and thin. Not the best producer and it now has a touch of mildew.

“Midnight’ This one was a reasonable producer early on but with the wetter weather it is now coming into its own. Dark fruits with better disease resistance.

The Top Three. ‘British Summertime’. A good producer. Took well to being trained up the stake. No sign of mildew infection. This rates a recommendation from me.

The courgette that came second in the trial is ‘Defender’. A good old favourite and rightly so. It got second place because it turned out to be the best producer. It also shows no sign of mildew. But its not the best for training up a stake. Probably another one that is best left to trail along the ground.

Top of the list, ‘Black Forest’.

Now I know this was my favourite courgette even before the trial began. But growing it against six other varieties has just confirmed to me what an outstanding courgette it is. Especially if you want to train it up a stake or a trellis fence. As you can see from the foliage it has very good disease resistance, even when grown alongside another courgette plant infected with mildew. The fruits are high quality and it produces very well.

Around the allotment site other plot holders are growing the featured varieties and the consensus of opinion is that ‘Black Forest’ came out the clear winner. They also liked ‘British Summertime’.

I should point out that I only had room to do a mini trial and I know there are several other very good varieties of courgette out there,

‘Tosca’ being an excellent choice if you want to grow for show.

Kohl Rabi

I was going to plant out both varieties of my Kohl Rabi in the polytunnel. But I am hedging my bets by planting a row outside.

The potatoes to the right of the picture are ‘Picasso’ they were left to dry off for a few hours on the surface of the soil before being stored in paper potato sacks in the garage. It’s a process called Wind Rowing.

‘Aquilon French Beans with a row of Butterhead lettuce’.

With the recent rains it has become quite a job to keep the slugs and snails off the crops. Especially a tasty treat like a young lettuce. The net at the rear of the deep bed is pulled over the hoops when I leave the allotment. Then in the morning I pick up at the dead slugs so that the birds won’t be tempted to eat them.

One job for this weekend will be sowing seeds of ‘Greensleeves’ my favourite choice for spring cabbage.

The leek heads will be trimmed of their seed, this will encourage growth of mini leeks on the heads that will be used for vegative production.

I am very fortunate than an allotment holder that had some of my Pendle leeks has allowed a few to grow on for seed. Those did not pick up the yellow streak virus that infected my stock. So with a bit of luck I should be able to raise some clean plants for next year.

Last week I picked up my new NVS judges guide. I must say that I am impressed. Well done to the members who spent a great amount of time putting such a professional guide together.

This weekend it is more of the same ‘Show Judging’ for me. Though in a couple of weeks I shall be at the Dorset County Show where I shall be putting a few exhibits on the bench. It’s a lovely show with a real emphasis on the rural side of life.

Next time we shall see how those leek heads are coming along.

John Trim