Diana Cole, one of our horticulture tutors shares more about giant vegetables!
“I recently visited a seed and plant nursery which is the home of the Mammoth Onion (and also a selection of other Mammoth vegetables!). The nursery is based in the north west of England and seeds which the nursery produces are supplied to seed sellers and growers on an international basis.
This visit provoked much thought about plant selection. The nursery was founded in 1860 by William Robinson and many crop plants were grown at that time (ranging from soft fruit, apples, pears, plums, to the usual vegetables of the time). When his son, also William Robinson continued the nursery, the vegetables which gave real inspiration to the nursery were the onions and leeks. The process of creating giant vegetables (though not so large as to lose flavour and good texture) had started!
This process of improving the size of onions and leeks in particular uses ‘selection’, that is, only the best onion and leek specimens were allowed to seed. (As opposed to techniques associated with genetic modification). The nursery now supplies a good range of ‘Mammoth’ vegetables all grown by the selection method to achieve the size desired.
Developing the characteristics of these Mammoth vegetables has taken over 100 years …. even now, as onions are biennial plants the process of producing a generation of onion seed which can be selected from takes three years:
December/January Year 1: sow onion seed in the glasshouse
Spring: plant out onions in fields
Summer Year 1: lift onions for storage over the Autumn
December/January Year 2: replant onions of only the best specimens in the glasshouse to provide a controlled environment. This is because cross pollination would be a problem otherwise.
Bumble bees are brought in to pollinate the flowers as they are less aggressive than honey bees and pleasanter and more efficient than using maggots which produce flies….
Summer Year 2: collect seed from chosen robust specimens
December/January Year 3: sow selected seed and repeat the process
Other characteristics can be selected for in other plants. For example, a brighter pink Pelargonium, a black tulip, a blue rose.”
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Geraniums & Pelargoniums
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