Page 22 - Simply Vegetables Winter 2022/23

Sweetcorn Kiewa – harversted – Peter Booker
great germination with all the seed types supplied. The Aubergine, Patio Baby produced numerous fruits which he was able to harvest in October and reports that these will definitely be on his list to grow in 2023. Graham also liked the Carrot called Topweight and will be growing it again
too as they overtook his carrots which were sown earlier. Graham’s sweetcorn, Mirai Gold caught up with his earlier sown plants and advised they were small cobs but tasted good. His spinach, Rubino, didn’t fare so well and went to seed, but Graham says he normally struggles to grow Spinach though. The Runner Bean, Prizewinner didn’t crop so well, but Graham thinks this was probably down to
Celeriac – Neon – Graham Roberts
his insufficient watering. Graham has two other crops still on the go at time of writing, both of which he has been battling pests. The Celeriac “Neon” seedlings were loved by slugs; however his six remaining plants are doing well whilst his brassicas are all fighting back after many attacks of pigeon and caterpillars. Good luck Graham.
Phil Wells sadly had a hosepipe ban in addition to the heatwave, so his veg did not fare too well this year.
Phil Braithwaite from Darlington had
an initial bad start with germination but re-sowed everything in the second week of July with good germination second time around. The Aubergine, Patio Baby in pots and the first ones were picked in August
with good compact plants, good size fruit and a nice
taste which didn’t go mushy.
Crokini Tomato – Bridget Thomas
Cabbage – Tourmaline – Graham Roberts
Phil also grew the Broccoli, Babilon and reported that it had large dark green heads which stored well in the fridge and tasted very nice. The Carrot, Topweight grew to
a nice size and a good colour but not so much flavour. The Cabbages Marques
has good size compact heads, the Hispi
F1 was also a good compact head a little larger than Marques, tourmaline F1 has large crinkly leaves and smaller compact heads, all nice Cabbages. Phil also grew the cauliflower, Dionis which grew well with smaller compact heads and a good flavour and grew the Runner Bean, Prizewinner which cropped well with lots of beans
on each plant, stringless and very tasty and grew to a good length. The two lots
of spinach sown by Phil, namely Rubino and Monteray, both went to seed on two attempts – maybe too hot, last Summer? Lastly, Phil grew Sweetcorn, Mirai Gold and found it to be a very good crop with large cobs and the flavour was outstanding. He will definitely grow this again.
22 Simply Vegetables
Tomato – Orange Paruche – Peter Booker