Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 144 Entries. Tuesday, January 11 View Page First of all “Happy New Year” to all our fellow growers. As usual we thought we had run out of ideas to improve our patch last year but were totally wrong and this year there will be a lot of changes. First of all we ve decided to cut down the number of plants in the polly tunnel from four to three, which will give us bigger plants. We will be making our hoop houses at least three times bigger. This is to give our plants higher night temps for longer in the spring and avoid “checking” the growth. The biggest change of all will be steam sterilising all the soil on the patches. We’ve had to do a load of pipe work over the winter and we have a special heat resistant plastic sheet on order. Anyway more of that later in the spring. Here is our patch with a load of second hand peat ready to rotavate in.   Friday, January 14 View Page Today I planted my final fifteen onions. As I was planting them out one cracked a leaf so I decided to put just one ring support on for the time being which will come off when I think the time is right. Although the light is not quite as good in this chamber I have the advantage of CO2 which is huge plus.   Friday, January 14 View Page 2400 Watts for 15 plants and a nice 16C (62F) temp. I don’t really want the temp to get much higher as I’m after good solid plants and I feel that this is the max temp I should give for the light available.   Friday, January 14 View Page To keep the onions cool in the summer a have an old cold store cooler set up in a box on the north end of the onion pad. This is the condenser and the compressor is outside. Along with some top notch shading material and a little whiting on some of the glass this is the place to be on a hot summers day.   Friday, February 4 View Page I was looking at a diary entry on the 6thFeb that I posted last year and my onions are streets ahead in size and more importantly quality. When I tested my CO2 burner with no onions in the grow room it was looking like the levels would be nice and high. However I’ve noticed that the levels have dropped dramatically since the plants have started to put out quality leaves which can only be good news.   Friday, February 4 View Page Three and a half months from sowing and I’m really happy with my onion crop.   Friday, February 18 View Page Every Friday I probe the pots, top and bottom. It gives me a great idea of the moisture and feed content, but I’ll still send a soil sample every month.   Saturday, February 19 View Page I wasn’t going to put any photos of the onions on the diary until March but I’ve had a load of people asking and to be honest they look great. This one is just over 5 inches in cir.   Saturday, February 19 View Page And one more   Sunday, February 27 View Page I’ve been welding up some new hoop houses ready for the spring. Every year we have to take off the covers because the plants out grow them which means the night temps are lower than we would like. The days temps are fine but we want to keep the night temps up for a few weeks longer just to try and iron out the highs and lows.   Sunday, February 27 View Page We’ve just put a new burner on the boiler which cost a small fortune but it should pay for itself fairly quickly in fuel savings   Tuesday, March 1 View Page Here are all 15 onions and on the whole I’m very happy the way things are going. I’m not sure if the compost has too much feed in at the moment so I will have to wait and see. This is the way I see the light levels, I will have better light than the northern growers for the next couple of months and then they will have better light after that. Anyway the lights were put on to 11hrs today and I know the sodium lights will be making a big difference. All the measurements are in inches So Pot 1 6.5 ht and 5.25 Cir   Tuesday, March 1 View Page Pot 2 6.5 Ht and 6 Cir   Tuesday, March 1 View Page Pot 3 6.5 Ht and 5 Cir   Tuesday, March 1 View Page Pot 7.5 Ht and 5.75 Cir   Tuesday, March 1 View Page Pot 5 7.5 Ht and 5.75 Cir   Tuesday, March 1 View Page Pot 6 8.25 ht and 6.5 Cir   Tuesday, March 1 View Page Pot 7 7.75 ht and 6.25 Cir   Tuesday, March 1 View Page Pot 8 7 Ht and 6 Cir   Tuesday, March 1 View Page Pot9 7.75 ht and 5 Cir   Tuesday, March 1 View Page Pot 10 6.5 ht and 5 Cir   Tuesday, March 1 View Page Pot 11 7 ht and 5 Cir   Tuesday, March 1 View Page Pot 12 7.5 ht and 5.75 Cir   Tuesday, March 1 View Page Pot 13 7.5 Ht and 5.25 Cir   Tuesday, March 1 View Page Pot 14 6.5 Ht and 5.25 Cir   Tuesday, March 1 View Page Pot 15 7.5 Ht and 6.5 Cir In my mind I’m hoping to see 4 or 5 of these tape 12 inches cir by the 1st March. I’ve also been pushing down all of the support collars as much as I dare and already I have a lot more height on the plants than last year.   Monday, March 7 View Page My onions are looking absolutely fantastic at the moment, so here’s a photo now while they look so good. That said I still have seven months to go but I’ve done a huge amount of research and work and enjoyed every bit of it. What I would say is that there are a lot of big improvements I could already make and I’m only four months in. I think the CO2 is even more important than I originally thought as five of my onions that are closest to the burner are (like last year) bigger and stronger than the rest. So many ideas just got to push the boundary.   Thursday, March 10 View Page I don’t know why we haven’t done this before but we were asked how do we sterilize our soil? We were talking about chemicals and then Stuart and I thought of steaming the soil. So over the winter we’ve been extending a steam pipe to all the patches. This is our first steam and we need to do two on each patch.   Tuesday, March 15 View Page We just got back from an amazing trip to Niagara and thank you everyone for making us so welcome. It’s a long trip but a great bash and great to here all the new ideas being past around. Anyway this is our line up for next month with our 1096 DMG (1161 x 1385) going in as back ups for them all.   Wednesday, March 16 View Page Well after a few measurements we are moving the boards out by 12inch each side to give us four patches of exactly 600sqft in the poly tunnel which means we are back to six plants. The other two patches are 720sqft and 780sqft. That means we get to plant one more seed which will be yet another 1421. So this years line up is 4 x 1421 Slelts and 2 x 1725 Harp I’m also putting in two Cantaloupe plants for light entertainment. My good friend Marty has kindly sent me a few top seeds, so more of that latter in the year.   Friday, March 18 View Page One bigger patch. Done   Friday, March 18 View Page Cooking   Friday, March 18 View Page Cooked   Friday, April 1 View Page I just got back from my holiday and I can’t wait until we sow the pumpkins on the 7th April. Stuart is out of action for the next few months as his knee operation didn’t go quite to plan. He’s getting this years programme for feeding and P&D control sorted out and I hope he can join me in the patch soon. The onions look very good at the moment but I’m not convinced that I’m in control of the crop and feel I need more grow years under my belt. When you see all 15 onions, check out numbers,4,5,6,7,14,15, these six plants are closest to the CO2 and on the whole are the biggest so there is work to do there for a start. Also I’m not sure I can keep the temps down in the summer to a level that I would like. Don’t get me wrong I’ve done a lot already but I think I need to do a lot more. So pot 1 is 9.25ht and 10.5 cir   Friday, April 1 View Page Pot 2 9.5ht and 12.25cir   Friday, April 1 View Page Pot 3 8.75ht and 10.25cir   Friday, April 1 View Page Pot 4 10.25ht and 12cir   Friday, April 1 View Page Pot 5 11ht and 11.5cir   Friday, April 1 View Page Pot 6 10.5ht and 14cir   Friday, April 1 View Page Pot 7 10.25ht and 12.5cir   Friday, April 1 View Page Pot 8 9.5ht and 9.5cir   Friday, April 1 View Page Pot 9 10.25ht and 8.75 cir   Friday, April 1 View Page Pot 10 9ht and 10cir   Friday, April 1 View Page Pot 11 9.5ht and 9cir   Friday, April 1 View Page Pot 12 10ht and 12cir   Friday, April 1 View Page Pot 13 10.5ht and 10.5cir   Friday, April 1 View Page Pot 14 9.5ht and 12cir   Friday, April 1 View Page And pot 15 9.5ht and 13cir   Friday, April 1 View Page So that’s it, all fifteen onions look fine at the moment and I have a way of keeping the grow room a little cooler but more of that in the next few weeks.   Friday, April 8 View Page At last all the pumpkins and cantaloupe seeds are in   Wednesday, April 13 View Page All of our top line up pumpkins are up so we will be planting them in about a week. The onions still look fine and when it was 25C (80F) in the glass house it was 21C (72F) in the onion pad. I turned the CO2 off at the beginning of April to keep the temperature down but if I had the choice I would still have it on Also my lights are set to come on at sunrise and go off at sunset (during most days they are automatically turned off with a light censor). I’m not 100% sure this is a good thing in hindsight after doing an extraordinary amount of research. It’s an extremely complicated topic and not one that I could write about in my diary but it’s exciting for the future.   Thursday, April 21 View Page Well they are all in and hopefully will enjoy perfect temps in the new hoop houses. Stuart and I are not 100% eco friendly but be careful when you start to throw on chemicals; they will tend to have an adverse effect on growth of plants. This is a nice selection of biological products were using.   Thursday, April 21 View Page This year we are going to turn the heaters off and open up the hoop houses at first light in the morning. When plants are growing they tend to stretch in the morning due to the high amount of “Red Light”, if you cool the metabolism down in this period you will get a more compact plant with a stronger stem. So that’s what were after, a really strong compact plant that will stay in the hoop house for a little longer than usual   Sunday, May 1 View Page It’s just watch them grow time in the onion pad and at the moment and they look amazing. In June last year I lost most of my crop and hope that doesn’t happen again. However I have changed how I grow them this year and removing the high supports has made a big difference to the height of my crop. I had to make some new supports for some of them as the shear weight of the leaves started to pull the plants over. So here are all fifteen pots. Pot 1 15.75inch Cir 13inch Ht   Sunday, May 1 View Page Pot 2 18.25inch Cir 14inch ht   Sunday, May 1 View Page Pot 3 16.5inch Cir 14inch Ht   Sunday, May 1 View Page Pot 4 17.5inch Cir 12inch ht This one has got it's leaves stuck in the neck so I've made a small cut on both sides of the leaves to try and free it up. Thanks for the help Peter.   Sunday, May 1 View Page Poy 5 17.5inch Cir 16.5ht   Sunday, May 1 View Page Pot 6 20inch Cir and 14.5inch ht   Sunday, May 1 View Page Pot7 19.25inch Cir 15inch Ht   Sunday, May 1 View Page Pot8 16.5inch Cir 15.5inch Ht   Sunday, May 1 View Page Pot9 13.5inch Cir 14inch Ht   Sunday, May 1 View Page Pot10 16.5inch Cir 14.5inch Ht   Sunday, May 1 View Page Pot 11 14.25inch Cir 14inch ht   Sunday, May 1 View Page Pot 12 17.25inch Cir 14inch Ht   Sunday, May 1 View Page Pot 13 15.75inch cir 15inch ht This one looks almost to tall   Sunday, May 1 View Page Pot 14 18.75inch Cir and 15inch Ht   Sunday, May 1 View Page Pot 15 18.25inch Cir and 13.5inch ht   Sunday, May 1 View Page So that’s it all fifteen and they grew about 6inch in Cir in the last month. Now I don’t really know what to expect but I would be happy to see them as healthy as this and 6 inches bigger next month. The pumpkins all look fine and I’ll put some photos up when the get going.   Saturday, May 7 View Page A very healthy looking 1041 and just what were after.   Monday, May 9 View Page Two of my onions have got their leaves stuck in the neck of the plant which I find really frustrating. There doesn’t appear to be any way of avoiding this happening to a percentage of a crop which is a shame   Monday, May 9 View Page I guess I can expect to lose one or two more but on the whole I’m very happy with them. In the last week I have seen some of them get to 17inch in height and I counted 24 leaves on one which is great. I also have put the CO2 back on during some cooler cloudy days which will really help growth.   Monday, May 9 View Page My cantaloupes are in and you should just about be able to see their nets I have put up for them. I know this is not the way most people grow them but because they don’t appear to root from leaf nodes I see no reason to grow them on the ground. I like the idea of the plants getting full sun and the melons will be supported in nets.   Thursday, May 12 View Page As all pumpkins are just doing their thing I thought I would post some photos of my garden   Thursday, May 12 View Page My shed   Thursday, May 12 View Page Some nice leaves   Thursday, May 12 View Page And nice and fresh   Sunday, May 15 View Page like this and it’s not great for my moral to say the least.Well it’s happened again and I’m going to lose a load of my onions like last year. As I don’t know why I’m getting this problem I’m going to have to send out a leaf sample to check on the nutrition and also a sample to find out if it is a fungal infection. It won’t be cheap but I can’t waste another year   Sunday, May 15 View Page At least I have my fish to calm me down.   Friday, June 17 View Page I’ve been without a computer for over a month so here is a quick update on the Paton patch. We’ve been pollinating females for about 2 weeks and here is the 1725 in the glasshouse.   Friday, June 17 View Page The 1421 in the glasshouse   Friday, June 17 View Page A 1421 in the poly tunnel   Friday, June 17 View Page The 1725 in the tunnel   Friday, June 17 View Page Another 1421   Friday, June 17 View Page And the last 1421. You can see that the plants with no automatic vent control in the poly tunnel are a lot smaller esp. as this year the last month has been colder and wetter than average.   Friday, June 17 View Page I’ve had a torrid time with the onions and after stripping a load of leaves off managed to save eight plants. After taking the leaves off I lost between 1.5 to 2 inches of the circumference and the plants immediately decided not to throw up any more leaves. The plant pathologist found no bacterial problems but did isolate a Penicillium species which is the most probable cause. I have given myself a pat on the back, as last year when I had the same problem I put in my diary that I felt that that was the problem. The biggest bulb is 25.5inches in cir   Tuesday, June 28 View Page When the sun is out we have to shade the young leaves to stop them burning so we made these covers a few years ago and they work great   Tuesday, June 28 View Page We have a couple of pumpkins on the way in the glass house and this is the 1421. The 1725 plant in the glass house has a pumpkin about the same size and the plant is fantastic. However we have a feeling that we can see a Dill ring, already! Hey ho the fun is just begining.   Wednesday, June 29 View Page Here's our three step guide for setting up our pumpkin for the rest of the season   Wednesday, June 29 View Page After choosing out pumpkin we trim off leaves, side vines etc   Wednesday, June 29 View Page Next a little carful adjustment and some sand which will just leave some small adjustments in the next ten days or so.   Wednesday, June 29 View Page The plants look better than ever this year and the roots are all over the place   Monday, July 4 View Page It's not been the greatest of starts pumpkin wise as the 1725 in the glass house aborted and there is not enough time to set another. The 1421 in the glass house is also a little slow but on day 29 tapes 151LBS   Monday, July 4 View Page The first 1421 in the poly tunnel on day 20 tapes 61LBS   Monday, July 4 View Page The 1725 17 Days old   Monday, July 4 View Page Another 1421 on day 20 tapes 50LBS   Monday, July 4 View Page And the last 1421 on day 16   Wednesday, July 6 View Page After an extremely crap week at work I took my self off to a local lake which I had all to myself.   Wednesday, July 6 View Page After a few hours and a loaf of bread I felt much better and even had a couple of nice carp which were around the 10LB mark.   Monday, July 11 View Page I have to say it’s been another iffy week in our patch and we have weeded out our last 1725 and one of the 1421’s. Both were growing very slowly and deformed but the plants looked superb. So after getting that news out of the way the 1421 in the glass house of day 36 tapes 314lbs up 163lbs this week.   Monday, July 11 View Page On day 27 the first 1421 in the poly tunnel tapes 107lbs   Monday, July 11 View Page And the other on day 27tapes 86lbs   Monday, July 11 View Page The melons are great, the foliage smells nice and I have never been so chilled about growing a giant veg. I know this is a different way of growing them but they seem to be happy. Reading between the lines it will take 30 days from start to finish(so for me probably 40) so I’m going to start leaving females on from now.   Monday, July 11 View Page My biggest onion now tapes 27inches in cir and is a nice shape. So fingers crossed I will get a new PB   Wednesday, July 13 View Page The carp are getting bigger. This beautiful common carp was just over 19LBS and caught just using a lump of bread free lined.   Monday, July 18 View Page Well were not exactly setting the pumpkin world on fire in the patch at the moment. On day 43 our 1421 in the glasshouse tapes 487LBS up 173LBS this week. To be fair the weather has not been great and to have three of Dave’s 1421’s in the patch can only be good.   Monday, July 18 View Page Both of the 1421's in the poly tunnel were pollinated on the same day and it looks like they will be a nice orange colour which is always a bonus. On day 34 the first one tapes 202LBS up 95LBS this week   Monday, July 18 View Page The other one tapes 197LBS up 111LBS this week. These are my favorite pumpkins this year to look at and it will be fascinating to follow these two pumpkins for the reat of the year.   Monday, July 25 View Page Were still just about doing ok in the patch and although we can’t see any records being broken this year we are really happy with the quality of all our plants. The 1421 in the glass house on day 50 taped 641LBS up 154LBS this week   Monday, July 25 View Page Watching the first one in the poly tunnel is like pulling teeth On day 41 she taped 310LBS up 112LBS this week   Monday, July 25 View Page The second one in the poly tunnel has developed some nice cracks and on day 41 tapes 329LBS up 132LBS this week   Monday, July 25 View Page The most important thing of all is that our plants all look great and better than other years.   Monday, August 1 View Page I would say we are down to just one pumpkin as the one in the poly tunnel that had cracks looks like it may have developed a terminal one. The other in the tunnel is not really worth recording. The 1421 in the glass house is doing ok and put on 156LBS this week to end up at 797LBS on day 57 I now have a melon set on both my plants and I’ll put up a photo in a few weeks time when hopefully there is something to see. My best onion is now 28.75inches in cir and grown 1.75inches in the last three weeks.   Monday, August 8 View Page We only have two pumpkins left and the only one worth taping has a small crack in the stem which is not great. On day 64 the 1421 in the glasshouse is 923lbs up 126lbs this week. My best onion put on .75 of an inch this week and is now 29.5inches. I obviously have been looking after them well but I didn’t expect to get one this big after my problems earlier this year. Here’s a nice calming photo of my koi.   Monday, August 15 View Page On day 71 the small crack on the 1421 in the glass house has not got any bigger but we are not sure if it will stay that way. It put on 96lbs last week and is now 1019lbs. The 1425 in the poly tunnel is only 647lbs after 62 days The melons look ok and this is a photo of one in the orange net.   Friday, August 19 View Page Good news first. On Wednesday we had our Italian patch tour Sergio and his family dropped in to see us as part of their holiday and Stefano and Benedetta came all the way just for the evening. They are all lovely people and their enthusiasm is amazing. If get the chance to go and see them next year I will be of like a shot. As usual I spent too much time talking and cooking on the BBQ and forgot to take a load of photos. But here’s one of Sergio Stuart Stefano and young David.   Friday, August 19 View Page And now the bad news First of we owe Dave an apology for wasting one of his seeds. You remember that small crack I was talking about. Well, if we have a problem like this we use what comes to hand to use as a probe. Yep you got it one of those lovely long tendrils is normally perfect. I checked it out on Monday and thought it had got deeper so got Stuart to look at it on Tuesday. When he did the tendril must have curled up inside and he thought it had gone right through to the cavity. We decided to keep it on the plant until our Italian friends had been and today put the plant and pumpkin on the compost pile. The photo says it all and there was another 12inchs plus of flesh to reach the cavity. Now I know there are going to be a load of growers that will be thinking what idiots we are and rightly so but this is my diary and I’ve always said, good or bad you get the truth. On a brighter note my biggest onion made it to 30inches cir today and only a hand full of people in the world have done that.   Monday, August 22 View Page Well there you go then, were down to just one pumpkin ,but to be fair it is just plodding along and doing OK. On day 69 she tapes 756lbs up 109lbs for the week and if she tapes between 900 and 1000lbs at the end we will be more than happy. When we chose a seed, the way we look at it, is this. If there are 100 seeds in a pumpkin 10 will be amazing 10 will be rubbish and the rest you can work out for yourself. The thing is, no one knows which off the 100 seeds you will get which means you have no control of that part of the deal. What we do have, is control of how well we grow the plants, so that is our main priority and our plants are getting better and better ever year. So at some time in the future it should be “Happy days”. I had a go at taping the melons for Mehdi but just got frustrated, so I hung up one of the nets and I recon they are about 15lbs ISH.   Friday, September 16 View Page Here are the top onions from my patch this year the biggest one on my left only weighed 12lbs but the smaller one was just under 13lbs. Peter Glazebrook absolutely smashed the world record with a 17lb 15.5oz onion and a very well deserved record at that.   Monday, September 19 View Page On day 97 our one remaining 1421 tapes 962lbs and will tap over 1000lbs for our show. The plant is in good shape for the time of year which is great for next year.   Monday, September 19 View Page And a photo   Monday, September 19 View Page And here’s the really exciting news, this is our new patch for next year. Room for 6 full on plants with proper venting. We will have to move a load of old pea shingle out and move all of our patch soil from the other areas in. The soil we then be steam sterilised again next spring and we will be in great shape.   Saturday, October 1 View Page Here we go again the onions are in,third time lucky (I Hope) and two weeks earlier than last year. I have some new better lights from Keith Foster and some of the best seeds possible from our new world champion Peter Glazebrook. The lights are on for 24hrs a day at the moment and the temp is 20C until they have germinated after that I will drop the temp too 16C.   Sunday, October 2 View Page I have a new lighting programme for the onions this year which will start some time (I’m not saying when) after they have been planted in their final positions. It’s not some whacky idea I have dreamt up but it is based on all the information I have found from experiments on photoperiodism. I have spent weeks researching this and I mean weeks so I quietly tried one plant this year and it showed me exactly what I wanted to see. My two worries this year are plants that get stuck in the neck and the penicillium problem I have had for the last couple of years. Now, you lot who have read my diary for I think six years, know that I normally tell the whole story about our patch good or bad, but this will have to remain a secret for the time being. I’ve put a huge amount of effort in to this and I would like at least one year on my own.   Sunday, October 9 View Page On day 116 we weighed in our 1421 at 1173lbs and she taped 1052lbs which is about 12% heavy. She had still put on 4inches in the last 5 days and it kind of pulled a difficult year up to somewhere around respectable.   Friday, October 14 View Page The onion seeds have not germinated as well as I had hopped and as soon a Peter sent me some more they started to pop their heads up. I have a feeling that the problem is with seed compost but I put a new batch of seeds in on the 12thOct and I should be in good shape by the time I get to 2liter pots.   Friday, October 14 View Page Here are a couple of photos of my Koi carp that I take out of the pond once a year to make sure they are in perfect condition for the winter. Millie who is 57cm and just stunning   Friday, October 14 View Page Chloe just two years old and the black is beginning to develope, she is 50cm   Friday, October 14 View Page Long before I got any fish I spent two years getting the pond and more importantly the filler house ready which is all totally under ground. When I get the dosh and time I will build a sun house over the top of the filter house.   Friday, October 14 View Page The fish have a UV light,heater and fillters more than big enough to look after them.   Sunday, October 16 View Page As we have been using Bonzi growth regulator in the new pumpkin house we put a seed in a few weeks ago just to see if all is OK.   Monday, October 24 View Page Christmas is just around the corner and we have about 60000 Points in this house alone. Will I be happy when they are gone or what.   Friday, October 28 View Page I potted up the second batch of onions today and put the first ones on the compost pile. In the different compost the second sowing was much better so thanks again Peter for the extra seed. Here is a nice little Pike.   Tuesday, November 8 View Page The onions are doing fine.   Thursday, November 17 View Page I had to pot the onions up into 2L pots today which is 13 days sooner than last year. They look about 7days more advanced which will be down to the more powerful lights I have this year.   Wednesday, November 30 View Page I’ve been stuck in bed for the last couple of weeks with a bad back so Stuart has been looking after the onions for me. They look absolutely great and he helped me pot them up into 4L pots today as they are about the same size as last year on the 17thDec. It looks like he will be looking after them for a little longer as I have to have an operation on my back next week. Tomorrow the lights will be changed from 24hrs on to 10hrs.   Thursday, December 1 View Page Here's a better photo   Monday, December 12 View Page I’m back home and can walk at little but it will some time before I will be back to normal. Thanks for all the emails and best wishes everyone has sent it really makes a difference. I got a look at the onions this morning and they look very good so thanks for looking after them Stuart.   Saturday, December 17 View Page All the onions are taken out of the grow room every 5 or 6 days to mix them up. This week the ones at the back nearest the light had clearly grown a lot more than at the front which can only mean that the front ones are getting shaded. So there is only one thing for it and that is to get them planted in their final positions. Stuart is starting to get the onion pad cleaned and covered with new plastic.   Monday, December 19 View Page Stuart cleaned all the glass round the onion pad with acid today and sterilized everything , which I hope will get rid of the penicillin problem I had last year.   Wednesday, December 21 View Page All the onions got planted today 24 days earlier than last year and about the same size as the 14th Jan.   Thursday, December 22 View Page The new lighting programme started today as they are potted in their final positions. I set up a fan to blow the CO2 around the room but the biggest onions will still be the ones near to the generator. I also have white plastic up on the north side to reflect and light back onto the crop.   Saturday, December 24 View Page Wish you a very happy Christmas   Saturday, December 31 View Page The onions are doing OK, I think. I lost one that has doubled up which would probably be some thing to do with a change in conditions from the grow room to the final pot room. The onion pad is a few degrees hotter this year as I'm not using the chiller unit and I'm seeing thinner growth because the light is not as good as the grow room. Hopefully this won't be a problem and as the light will be improving quickly every week, fingers crossed I will see better growth at the end of Jan.