Parsnips and Tomatoes

I have had a very successful season with my vegetables from the greenhouses at Bangor, winning a Gold Medal at Hampton Court and a Gold and the Best in Show award at the Llangollen Gardening Show. The picture however is far from perfect in my own garden with the damp cold weather causing havoc to many of my produce.I have never had to spray my potatoes at home here for the Potato Blight disease, I think it must help that I am surrounded by the sea with the salty air possibly being a help. This year I had it with a vengeance, and I had to remove the haulms immediately it started to spread out. The only redeeming thing is the fact that it happened during the middle of July, just at a point when I was preparing to remove the haulms anyway.
My short carrots are not doing as well of late as I would like, I have a few yellowing leaves around the base and I am sure it’s more to do with all the wet weather they have had to put up. I have started to spray them with some Nutrimate liquid which should help towards giving me some decent roots.  If you would like to order some Nutrimate, whether it be in the powder or liquid format, you can phone Medwyn’s direct on 01248 714 851
My onions in the 25 litre pots certainly haven’t performed to expectations and the problem has nothing to do with the pot system.  It has more to do with the delay I had waiting for pots when the plants were really getting pot bound and by now they have probably run out of steam with the best onion around 18 inches in circumference. On top of that I suffered badly with Botrytis on the side of the onion and I had to remove around ten onions from the bed.
<A number of my tomato plants, the variety Goldstar Re Selected, have got signs of Botrytis affecting them so is very doubtful if I shall be showing any of those in competitive classes.  Its particularly annoying when this year, for the first time, I grew them on both sides of the greenhouse.This was to give the plants more room to develop and to allow plenty of air to circulate through the plants.
My parsnips, Princess, are probably my best bet of a card this next week end at the Welsh Championships, the foliage look very powerful and were really romping away until I noticed the first signs of a disaster on the 2nd of August. Having been away for nearly a week sorting out for the Llangollen show I was shocked on my return to find that the Red Spider Mite had cause devastation. I couldn’t’ believe how fast this menace could travel and I hope that I have stopped it just in time by spraying with Bifenthrin, sold as Polysect. As I had stopped watering the barrels about a fortnight previously the dry conditions were certainly helpful towards its establishment. The webbing was clearly visible and two barrels had been severely affected, I just hope I can control it’s spread from now on.
The Mites are barely visible to the naked eye and can be found on the underside of the leaves. If left to their own devices, they can absolutely ruin your crop. They are green in colour during the Summer months and bright red later on in the year. Don’t be depressed therefore if you are having problems, you are certainly not the only one with many top growers being in the same boat