2013 Growing Season

I know they need more time but Christina was pestering me. Will they get longer with time?

 

Hiya folks.

Excuse my ignorance, but will Leeks continue to grow for much longer?

 

I thought until Feb time myself, could be wrong though.

 

I've not known mine to make any appreciable growth from end of December until March - and then come March the growth they are making is towards flowering which can make them tougher, tastewise.

We grow an F1 for early Leeks - they are fatter, sooner, than the Musselburgh we grow as the "main crop" - although I sent some spare seed to @JWK a couple of years ago and he said he didn't find much/any difference compared to his normal ones.

 

Went to our veggie plot this morning. After 3 hours of weeding, I can now see our leeks and celeriac properly.


Maybe because of the amount of weeds limiting air fow, some of the leeks are suffering from rust, I had to take out 2 badly effected ones, after trimming they still weigh 1lb, so quite decent sizes.


This is the 1st year I've grown celeriac, not sure what to expect, but I followed the advise of giving them enough room and watering them at least once a week during the dry periods, and the result has been excellent. Some of them already as big as the large ones one can buy in the supermarket.


Took a medium sized one out for dinner, delicious.


Also picked another red cabbage. It was so heavy that it had tipped over by its own weight and was beginning to be attacked by slugs. This is the weight after trimming - 4lb 13oz.


Cleared away french beans (they'd developed rust), and more harvesting of courgettes (they are near the end of their season), runner beans and beetroot.

 

That celeriac for soup Hsuh....aaaahhhh

 

That one went into a giant veggie stew with homegrown carrot, turnip, courgette, aubergine, red pepper, chilli, tomatoes, onion and basil. Next one might be cut into chips, braised in olive oil and served with Parmesan cheese.

But if you've got any good recipes for celeriac soup...

 

I couldn't do a soup to BETTER the vegetable one you've made with your first Celeriac Hsuh. I would just sweat off onions and garlic and celeriac in butter for about 2o minutes, turning from time to time, Add 1/2 pint of stock ( chicken preferably) and blitz after 5 minutes.
Then I would make a roux sauce ( with butter, plain flour and milk) and stir in the blitzed mix and adjust seasoning to taste. Add a swirl of cream to individual table portions with a sprinkling of finely chopped parsley. Lovely with freshly made croutons of course,
Jenny

 

Do you remember what variety they are?

 

My celeriacs are doing quite well actually. I will post some pics when I get a chance.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

 

@Kristen, they are Celeriac Giant Praque. I've read that celeriac can fail to bulb up sometimes. Maybe because of the hot summer this year, spacing and watering, plus lots of 1st year luck for me, they are doing well.

Now I'm starting to think about how to over winter them? There are about 30 plants, a bit too many for digging up to store in sand or peat even after leaving plenty to the landowner. I'm probably able to beg some hay from landowner's stable to cover them, or would it work if I just pile soil over the bulbs?

 

Thanks. I have always grown Monarch - being the only variety offered in my local Garden Centre. This Spring the seedlings failed (can't remember if germination, or an "accident" after that!) and I bought some Giant Prague seed as a replacement (simply because I was buying other seed online from Moles Seeds, and they offered that variety). However, the replacements were then sown very late, we had a dry spring, and they were not watered (time constraints) so not a fair test. I shall look forward to having Footballs, instead of Tennis balls of previous years , in future.

 

I've never covered mine, and never had a problem. Dunno if Monarch is more hardy than Giant Prague though, and I have certainly read that they need covering. The original seed packet for Monarch does not suggest that it is more hardy than the type.

My copy of Joy Larkcom says that they will survive -10C if the roots (i.e. around the leaves) are mulched with straw/bracken. We've definitely had colder than that, albeit only for a night or two during the whole winter, and soil-level temperature may have been warmer than my weather station on an 8' pole.

 

My Monarchs will be coming out this weekend....no sign of them bulbing up....i've had them bolt but never a no show....it'll be Giant Prague for me infuture