Allotments 4 All

I thinking of entering the village show, next week, for the first time and looking for advice on how to prepare for this. The classes I would like to enter are:

Novice class
3 Runner Beans
Marrow
3 onions
3 tomatoes
3 potatoes
3 carrots
2 cucumbers
4 blooms of sweet peas
A selection of 6 vegetables in a basket

Special vegetables
Longest runner bean
Biggest marrow

I am being optimistic as a lot of these vegetables are still growing. I would like to say that I've got as far as I have with help from Allotment4All members giving me advice along the line so a big thank you to you all.

We have some hints and tips on our (new) website

http://www.granvilleparkallotments.org.uk/show-hints-and-tips.html

Website isn't complete yet, some areas are still under construction  :)

Having just judged a local show I'd stress reading the schedule..
The best plate of Tomatoes got nothing.. because the entrant hadn't put their name on the slip. The best onions were trimmed not "as grown" so couldn't win either..  :-X

good luck!

   Apart from the expected quality and shape of the veg and fruit,  I would imagine that presentation

   is a key point too.       You need to get a ' that looks good  '  reaction on first site, not  '  which

   way up are they '  , very best of luck robinaber,   :D

QuoteI'd stress reading the schedule

I couldn't agree more.

I have seen many a sad exhibitor who found they were disqualified for not adhering to the schedule!

The same applies to the novice class!


This article might help;

http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Show%20Schedule/Show%20Schedule.htm

In every case the judge is looking for uniformity and freshness rather than size!

Novice class

3 Runner Beans - Basically as long and straight as you can. When snapped in two the should break without any sign of stringines so try a few mis-shapes of a similar age and size to see how they break!





Marrow; This should be as asked for and not an overgrown courgette!

Leave a couple of inches of stalk on it to prove that it hasn't been bought at the  greengrocers!

Give it a good wash and a polish before staging!

3 onions;

Ensure that the schedule does not indicate a weight e.g. under 8oz, Large, Heaviest etc.

This is three under 8oz;



Large;



Heaviest;




3 tomatoes

Leave the calixes on!!

These also tell the judge how fresh the Tomatoes are!

The redder the better without being soft.



3 potatoes

Check schedule if washing and polishing allowed!

Check if they are to be coloured or not!

Uniformity is more important than size



3 carrots

This is a minefield!  For example are they to have tops on or off. Have the tops to be cut to three inches long.

Are they short, stump, intermediate or long.

Again go for uniformity rather than size.

2 cucumbers

A bit like the marrow, leave a bit of stalk on and if you can, leave the remnants of the flower on then all the better!

Again same size & colour!



4 blooms of sweet peas


Go for self colours, bi-colours are difficult to match.

If you can get them with five florets on all the better but it is better to have three with three on than having a mixture of 3/4's & 5's

A selection of 6 vegetables in a basket.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder so if allowed fill the gaps with parsley or similar, but make sure that the parsley is not considered as one of your veg!

It asks for six so make sure it is six not five or seven.

Special vegetables
Longest runner bean
Biggest marrow

Nuff said on this one but again a marrow not a courgette!!

Finally the 'Best of Luck'

If the class is for 'tomatoes', will red ones beat other colours?

Not necessarily... unless of course it specifies red...  :-X

Thank you everyone for taking the trouble to reply. Tee Gee: could you let me know how I get my onions to look remotely like the ones in your link please?

QuoteTee Gee: could you let me know how I get my onions to look remotely like the ones in your link please?

Ah!!  ::)

All is not what it might seem!!  :o

In the under 8oz category very often the onions displayed are 'Japanese Onions' rather than the maincrop summer onions.

Generally jap onions are of a consistant size so it makes it easier to keep within the weight restrictions!

The other thing is you can dress them back to remove all the cracked skins/layers and still have time to ripen them to a nice sandy colour prior to the autumn show/s

I'm sure you have seen exhibits that are green topped white bottomed specimens along side the sun tanned ones so now you know the differance.

So until they change the schedule and ask for 'summer maincrop varieties' you will be faced with this anomaly.

BTW it is not cheating a jap onion is an 'onion' and thats that!

Regarding the large onions these are generally seed grown varieties and even here there are ways of growing for exhibition as opposed for just culinary use.

That is the seed you start off with and the time you sow and where you grow them all comes in to play.

Generally speaking you will be unable to obtain such seed from the regular seed merchants i.e. top specimens are grown from specialist seed with possibly Robinsons 'selected seed' being the easiest to obtain.

Then when you come to the heaviest onion well thats just what it is but again you need seed with potential.

So you see using 'jap onions' ends up (in my opinion) the fairest category to exhibit, simply because we all have access to the same initial stock!

Finally this is what I hope all you exhibitors on A4A aspire to this, this year;



Best of luck to you all!!

How long should you leave the onion to turn brown? I tried this last year (the onion fly got them this year), but didn't leave them long enough.

QuoteHow long should you leave the onion to turn brown?

Difficult to say plus a lot depends upon how much dressing you do before hand.

But contrary to what most books say of cracking the roots and leaving them on top of the soil to ripen is certainly not on if you want them for exhibition.

Plus how they are grown is another factor e.g outdoors or under cover!

If they are outdoors you have got to get them under cover at least two-three weeks before the show you are aiming for.

If grown under cover you generally find there is less dressing to do so you don't throw away some of the naturally covered layers, so they ripen quicker.

Once dressed you want them in a light cool place (not hot or they will cook) and you turn them at least once a day to get maximum light to the whole circumferance!

So planning is essential if you wanted to succeed, I usually started my preparations for a Saturday show  on the Tues/Wed before.

This was needed  in case you had to force things, or hold things back!

Too often I had what I called 'wednesday plants' i.e. they were at their peak the Wednesday before the show or the Wednesday after! Which is no good!!

I have known cases where say I wanted a vase of three Dahlias for Saturdays show and I would pick one on Wednesday and keep it in the dark, another in a room with the heating turned up and the light left on at all times and the third I picked around an hour before going to the show in order to get three matching flowers.

So a lot of planning went into showing. It was no wonder my blood pressure suffered when you consider I was on a buzz for three or four days at a time some weeks.

Worse when you consider that I might fit three shows in on one weekend.

On weeks such as those I was cream crackered by Sunday evening...............but I loved it!!

I pulled mine about 6 to 8 weeks ago and have them where the sun gets them all day, but without the sun they don't turn..

For anyone who wants to try

What i do is.........long before they flop over i have a scout round my onions and try and get as many as i think i will need all about the same size and shape.
Being very careful not to catch the skin with my thumb nail (this will mark them ) i peal off each layer of skin to the white, i then trim off the roots to the level of the outer skin with a Stanley knife.
Line the onion up and look at them side on turning them, then from above, discard any that is out of shape.
I then size them off into the amount i will need for the show IE 3 or 4, Measure around the onion with a tape measure as this is soft and wont mark it if i have any that are slightly to big i remove the layer of skin from it till i have 3 onion the same size and shape. Iff need be i will go and pull some more.
Dry them off with talcum powder then place them up sidedown through a hole in underfelt in a sunny spot with plent of ventalation in the GH to drain any badness out of the neck. After a couple of weeks i then turn them onto their base. i turn the onion if i can every day.
When you come to frap the stalk always use the propper straw frapping (presentation).
When you come to bench them give them a very light wipe with olive oil then wipe the oil off with a dry clean cloth to give them a nice shine.
For me the first basic rules are........Presentation try to catch the judges eye.....If you cant be bothered to dress them the judge wont be bothered to judge them.

Wonder if anyone could help again please? In the Novice Class there is Selection of 6 vegetables in a basket. Would this mean six vegetables in total or can it be more than one of each particular vegetable?

Also I'm a bit confused. I bought a packet of Courgette Defender F1 seeds which state on the packet to cut them when they are 6" or leave to mature as marrows. Any comments?

I would guess that it means one each of six different veg  - it does on our show schedule.
You could always check when you hand your entry form over.
And good luck ;D

The key word is 'selection' meaning six different genus.

Then the difficulties begin!!

Do you just put 'six' items in?

In my view this depends upon the size of the basket which wants to be 'full' so you may have to fill your basket with more than six items and then it is a case of how do you lay them out?

As with plates  of veg 'uniformity is key' so for example it is probably better to have two groups of three tomatoes rather than say six scattered throughout.( same number but 'uniform'!!)

So its really a trial an error thing as how to place your exhibits so prepare it at home so that you can have a few attempts at it if needs be. You might not have the time to do this at the show.

Robinaber your copy of the show schedule should have the name and phone number of the show secretary. Why not gave them a ring and clarify any queries you have.  They usually don't mind and are only too happy to help.

I'm unsure why you're confused about courgettes and marrows. If you cut it at 6" it's the former, but leave it to keep growing and it'll be a marrow.

Good luck with the show. It's good fun even if you don't win anything, as I well know, and there's always next year!

Had a look through my pictures for examples and found this example;



A trug makes a good shallow basket and it is also associated with gardening.

If your basket is quite deep it is sometimes better to fill the bottom with crepe or shredded paper.

I have also used Parsley (which counts as one of you veg) as a cushion for laying my items on.

There are no particular rules for such the subject but always remember the judge will still expect a degree of quality in your veg. So hide any blemish on the bottom and keep best side up.

Generally beauty is in the eye of the beholder so there is no specific advice I can give you. Basically if it looks nice to you and yours then thats the best you can do and all you can hope for is that the judge is on the same wavelength as you!

What ever you do I wish you the best of luck........a picture of your exhibit will be appreciated so we can all picks the bones from it!  ;) ::) 8)

Had another look at the picture and lo and behold I see the sweetcorn I entered and won with in the 'any other veg class'

I left it for the auction after the show and lo and behold the following day I saw it entered in another show so that shows you how unscrupulous some people can be.

BTW the above basket wasn't mine I only pictured it and I would have to say I don't particularly like it. Its too busy & untidy to my mind!

QuoteI'm unsure why you're confused about courgettes and marrows. If you cut it at 6" it's the former, but leave it to keep growing and it'll be a marrow.

Not strictly true Flighty I have seen such practices disqualified. A lot depends upon what rules the event is being judged with. With National rules it would/should be disqualified.

Having said that a courgette is a vegetable and there is nothing to say that they can't be huge its just the conniseurs that say 4"-6"

So if you use one don't say what it is and just let the judge decide what it is!!

I think I will stick to tennis, anyone what to see my cups, in a drawer in the bedroom.  I just like to grow the food and eat it, everyone loves my runner beans which I pick very small.  Manuel is still on about who grows the biggest pumpkin, will only stick it in the front garden with candles in, I just love the small vegs. also my beetroot is so small but it cooks very quickly and is quite tender.  Actually if Enfield show was earlier I think my sweet peas might have won a prize, thank you for the seeds Betula.