Page 8 - Simply Veg Issue 2 2016

This is what the Marshall’s team tell us on how to grow it...
Tomato ‘Montello’ F1 from Marshalls: full- avoured and free-fruiting, easy-grow bush-tomato variety. Sweet enough to enjoy straight from the plant, or reduced for rich delicious sauces. Harvest handfuls at a time throughout summer.
April’s the perfect time to start sowing your tomato ‘Montello’ indoors. Just follow these instructions to get your tomatoes off to a ying start;
• Fill a 9cm (3 1⁄2 in) pot or module tray with seed compost – which is light and contains a small but balance level of nutrients in the soil. Strike excess soil off with a board and lightly rm the lled container with the base of another pot or tray.
• Submerge the seed tray into a tray of water beneath so that the soil slowly absorbs the moisture from the bottom without disturbing the soil on top.
• Place 1 seed per pot or module cell and lightly cover with 1cm (1/2 in) of vermiculite or sieved compost.
• Label and date the seeds.
• Cover the pots or tray with cling lm or propagator lid and place in constant warmth of 18-21°C (65- 70oF).
• Check the seeds twice daily. As soon as the seeds have started to geminate and you can see small leaves, remove the cling lm or lid
and grow
on in a light environment
at a constant 18oC (60°F). Water when soil surface feels
dry to touch.
Pot onto larger containers
when roots are showing at the bottom of the modules or pots. Place outdoors after risk of frosts have past.
Exhibit at the Malvern Autumn
Show 2016 and you could win
£250
Show off your prized crops of Tomato Montello F1 at Malvern Autumn Show and win cash prizes from a £500 prize fund at Malvern Autumn Show on 24 and 25 September 2016.
We recommend sowing Montello
F1 from 23 April in the north, to 7 May further south to give a good yield of fruit for 16 September, just in time for the Malvern Autumn Show the following week.
First prize £250, Second £100. Third £75, Fourth £50, and Fifth £25
Not to be outdone , our other major sponsor, D.T. Brown have also agreed to provide members with a free packet of seed in the July issue, watch this space for further details.
D.T Brown have also kindly agreed to continue with providing every
new member with 5 free packets of vegetable seeds, and Kitchen Garden magazine, who have supported us for a
number of years now continue to provide each new member with a back copy of their magazine. We are indeed indebted to these organisations for their continued support.
Enjoy your gardening and the challenges it brings to many of us. David, Chairman.
P.S. a nal note from a long departed gardening presenter, who’s comments still hold good today.....
You Can’t Let Go
Gardens ... start with months
of sweat and toil, big ideas and aching joints, excitements and disappointments, successes and failures, laughter and tears.
Until one ne day you realise that you’re hooked and your home plot/ allotment has become a part of you that you simply can’t let go. Geoff Hamilton
Keep up to date with our tomato ‘Montello’ trials and lots more on Marshalls Seeds Facebook and Twitter pages. We’ll be sowing our ‘Montello’ seeds from March and posting regular updates on our pages.
Attention all Judges and Schedule makers?
There appears to be some confusion among members and Judges on what our NVS Silver Medal and award card should be awarded for at both DA shows and Af liated Societies who award this prestigious medal, so I hope the notes below will provide some clarity.
The NVS Silver Medal and Award Card is awarded to;
“The Most meritorious exhibit of Vegetables in the show”.
You will note that the wording says exhibit and not dish, it follows therefore that if a collection is deemed to be the best exhibit, it can be awarded to that exhibit, but not to a single dish in a collection, i.e. it has to be awarded to the whole exhibit. This varies with shows judged to RHS rules which do allow their award to be given to a single dish in a collection if that is the best dish, hence the confusion.
However, overriding all this is that judges must abide by the show rules, which should set out clearly what the NVS Silver medal is for. In our National Championships the collection classes, no’s 1,
2, and 3 are excluded from being eligible for the award, so it has to be awarded to a single dish class. Some Branch Championships follow this example, others don’t, so it really depends on the schedule makers.
I have to agree that this sometimes can lead to inconsistencies, but the wording on the award card is quite speci c, and should be followed wherever possible.
There is no problem in schedule makers saying that the award is given for the best exhibit in Class XXX to Class XXX., whether or not this may include collections, as long as it’s the best exhibit and not best dish.
We are due to up-date our NVS Judges Guide later this year, so hope fully we can incorporate the above notes to avoid any further confusion.
Hope this helps,
David Chairman, NVS
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