Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 35 Entries. Saturday, January 1 View Page Last season, I was lucky enough to have won a first prize for the Giant Celery class at Malvern. Also, a spare plant that I gave to Martin Workman won the second prize, so I was really pleased, especially as I had only grown 2 and hadn’t really put much effort in. Today, I started off some of Gary Heek’s (The WR holder, and twice the size of mine) hybrid seeds and I’ll be growing these with a little more care. Gary says he will be sending me some more, so they will be good for next season.   Thursday, January 27 View Page Time to do an autopsy on the 18” Chilli. Dismounted and opened the chilli up from the back and recovered 35+ seeds. Managed to keep it in one piece and re-mounted it. Hopefully, the seeds will be viable. I won’t know until I plant them in a couple of weeks.   Tuesday, March 8 View Page With my sceptical head on, I would say that these two lots came from 2 different gourds.   Saturday, March 26 View Page This year’s Long Chilli plan. Looks like I’ll be growing: 43.9 Workman. The mother seed that grew the UK Record. 45.7 Barratt. This is seed from the actual pod. Managed to get 38 seeds from it and I germinated 10 this year. 45.7 Barratt. This seed is from the same plant but from a different pod.   Saturday, March 26 View Page Last season. I obtained some giant celery seed from Gary Heeks, the world record holder. So I’ll be growing his seed this season. I won at Malvern in September with commercial seeds, so hoping for another win and a PB with Gary’s hybrid seed this year. Really happy with progress so far. I’ll keep them under lights until summer (or, until I run out of space). I might grow 2 close together so that I can double hybrid them and produce some nice seed myself.   Thursday, April 7 View Page Started off the Squash and Pumpkins today. Pic shows the seeds in shot glasses of warm rain water warming up after the edges were filed a little. Compost in the pots is also warming up. Not sure if I’ll be able to care for them properly though as I have another heart operation on 22nd April and I’ll have to take it easy for a while after.   Thursday, April 7 View Page After 3 hours soaking, I tucked them up nicely in their warm compost. SQUASH line-up this year is:- 5 x 1000.5 Barratt......2 x 1025 Barratt..... 1109 Jutras..... 1620 Theil..... 1377 Segaert..... PUMPKIN line up is:- 2028 Bryson...... 1997 Boonen Herman..... 2004 Vanderwielen.....1624 Helsel.....The pumpkins are for a special project with a new solar heat controlled polytunnel and it is looking as though it may not get completed in time, so I have kept some of my best team on the bench....   Wednesday, April 13 View Page Only 2 miss-fires so far with the Cucurbita Maximas. The 2004 Vanderwielen (pumpkin), and one of the 1025 Barratt (squash) did not show. The 1025 was only 50% germination on testing and the 2004 was around 6 years old, so I’m pretty happy with the results.......... So far!   Friday, April 15 View Page Really pleased with the Growroom and the T5 lights. I have purchased 3 x 275W solar panels today, so next year, I should have the growroom and the bar off-grid powered   Wednesday, April 20 View Page 4.72 Brown Aubergines. First and second sowings. I’ll be keeping them in the heat/light of the grow room a little while longer.   Saturday, April 23 View Page Field Pumpkins and Butternut Squash started off today. Not sure what my growing plan will be. Will see which babies decide to germinate. I have a 211 and another former world record, both very old seeds now. Also, some recent fruits with great genetics, so it will be very interesting to see how it all pans out.   Saturday, April 23 View Page The 1000.4 Barratt squash are doing best of all C-Maximas at the moment. With 1109 Jutras x 1282 Kline genetics, I might even decide to take a chance on them.   Thursday, April 28 View Page   Thursday, April 28 View Page Really pleased with the latest soil test. Two years ago, the PH was seriously high at 7.8, now 6.8 and at a far lower level which should help with access to other nutrients. Just a correction with Potash, dusting of Manganese and more Nitrate and we should be good to go.   Monday, June 6 View Page D-Day update: Giant onions are around 20.5 inches circ at the moment. I am also hoping to produce giant onion seed for the UK Seed Exchange this year.   Monday, June 6 View Page Giant celery is the same as last year’s Malvern winner, but more advanced so far. Hoping to beat 50lbs   Monday, June 6 View Page I am growing 3 Kholrabi and they are all very close in size. Growing nicely. Fingers crossed for no splits or melt-downs.   Monday, June 6 View Page Beetroot is from Ian Neale and the UK Seed Exchange. Leafage is huge at the moment. Had an early attack of leaf-miner lavae but have sprayed the blighters.   Monday, June 6 View Page Long Chilli. This is from the pod of the UK Record, so hoping for something a little better this year.   Monday, June 6 View Page Giant green cabbages are looking lush. Just need to take care of them more than I did last year lol   Monday, June 6 View Page Very proud to have been invited by the Dean to Westminster Abbey on Wednesday. Looking forward to having a chat about recent events in the cloisters.   Tuesday, June 14 View Page Wandering Glider dragonfly in the polytunnel yesterday. Apparently the most common dragonfly worldwide, but it doesn’t populate the north of the UK. Lovely to see.   Sunday, July 10 View Page 211 McKinnon FP is doing really well now that I’ve sorted out the weeds. I’ll let the plant grow until I pollinate in early August. My Atlantic Giants are a right off this year.   Monday, July 11 View Page I haven’t really set out to grow large celery. In-fact, I only grew-on one plant, but it is doing really well. Must be over 20kg now and there is still 10 weeks until the weigh off. WR is 42kg. I don’t think that It will do that well.   Monday, July 11 View Page Onions are fun to grow and this year is probably my best so far. Only grew-on 5 plants. Biggest tapes at 27” circumference at the moment, and the necks are very high too. A world record would need to be +30” in circumference.   Monday, July 11 View Page Chris Brown Butternut Squash. I think this was the 65lb seed. It is not as advanced as I would have hoped, but fingers crossed, the great weather will bring it on.   Monday, July 11 View Page There seems to be a shortage of giant onion seed at the moment. I put some of last year’s down to seed and they are doing really well. Pollination has been excellent and I should have a lot to share in the seed exchanges at the end of the year.   Wednesday, July 27 View Page One Kohlrabi has melted. 2 are left, fingers crossed   Wednesday, July 27 View Page I have grown on 10 giant tomatoes. Mainly Domingos from Jeff Warner, Chris Lyons, Chris Brown, Curtis Leach and my own stock. All 10 so far have a megabloom, so good progress so far.   Wednesday, July 27 View Page My bell pepper growing tends to be a little hap-hazard, and this year is no exception. It’s been difficult to get fruits growing in the correct position (off the main cordon). This strain won me a second place at Malvern last year and doing much better than the ‘Big Bertha’. I call it Canary-Red, because it came from a fruit in a Fuerteventura supermarket a few years back.   Tuesday, August 2 View Page 211 Mckinnon Field Pumpkin. DAP 7. Pleased so far, and nice looking stem. 2 other fruits have been pollinated, so will see which is the most vigorous. Sea weed feed and foliar feed completed today.   Sunday, October 2 View Page Great to meet Adam Frost at Malvern. Picked up a First place for Celery. 60lb.   Sunday, October 2 View Page Another First for Bell Pepper 580g.   Sunday, October 2 View Page It was a bad year for cucumbers for me but happy with 32” at Malvern   Sunday, October 2 View Page Happy with the Field pumpkin. 211 Mackinnon x self. 162.5lb. Almost 600 seeds in it too. Hopefully we can convince the sponsors to make the Field Pumpkin a permanent official class.