Articles About Growing & Showing Vegetables from Medwyn Williams MBE FNVS Chairman of the National Vegetable Society - 1996

These articles were originally published in 1996

Ten-times Chelsea gold medal winner Medwyn Williams is an expert vegetable grower with decades of experience. He has kindly allowed the National Vegetable Society to re-publish them.

The individual article links will open a new window with the article on the NVS web site.

Planting leek bulbils or pips from 6th November

The actual pricking out of the pips is simple - carefully remove them from the head and visually examine the root plate to make certain that they are pearly white and free from any corkiness or basal rot. Any suspicious heads will be discarded as they simply will not root effectively and inevitably they will collapse on you at a later date. The pips will be spaced out in large seed trays full of Levington F1 compost and then placed on a propagating bench with a bottom heat of 70°F and the air temperature will be maintained at a minimum of 55°F. As soon as they are visibly seen to be established and growing away, the artificial lights will be switched on and maintained for 24 hours a day right through to planting out time.

Seed or Bulbils from your Stock Leeks from 13th November

If by now you have removed all the seed heads containing either seed or bulbils from your stock leeks, there is one other task you can carry out prior to throwing away the old growth. If you look very carefully around the base of the leeks, you may well find some young growth coming through at the side of the old stem. This is another opportunity for you to be able to continue the same leek selection that gave you this years bulbils.

Re-structuring the Back Garden from 20th November

The beds were three courses of concrete blocks above soil level and the proof of the pudding came when I starting turning over the beds ready for the Winter months. The root structure of the onions and leeks could be seen way down into the soil, so it must mean that both the onions and leeks are quite capable of searching out nutrients to over two feet or more provided that the soil is open so that some air gets down amongst the soil particles.

Artificial Lighting and Heating - Leeks and Onions from 27th November

The growing cabinet has been completed and this weekend all the leeks that I started away a few weeks ago will be placed there. They will from this point, right through to planting out time, be given artificial lights for the whole period. This means that they will be growing away for twenty four hours every day of the week.

Seed Heads - Large Exhibition Onions from 4th December

If you happen to have had a particularly good onion and you want to save it for seed do remember that if you plant it now in a pot, it will need room to grow and it certainly means growing it indoors. After the risk of frost the heads can be moved outside for a while but they must be brought indoors again before the flowers start to open up.

Re-selecting Seed for Long and Short Carrots from 11th December

If you have re planted your own carrot for seed production you should have chosen a specimen that has all the right characteristics to match the criteria as laid down in the Royal Horticultural Show Handbook.

Winter Solstice - Shallots from 18th December

The 21st of December is, of course, the shortest day and traditionally the date for planting your shallots but, as the ground conditions are often heavy and wet, it's better to wait until early Spring for planting directly outdoors.

Christmas - Sowing your Onions from 25th December

One thing to remember is that when sowing this early in the season, you must have heat and ideally you also need artificial lights and adequate ventilation control.

Allotment Articles
Help & Advice

Medwyn Williams said of Vegetable Growing Month by Month:

Forget about any glossy pictures, what’s in this book is solid words of advice, written in plain to understand English from a grower who’s had frustrating years of experience behind him in trying to grow nutritious vegetables, whilst at the same time running a business and raising a family.