Medwyn Ambushed!

An ambush? Well, sometimes extreme measures are called for! If someone won’t come and see your grow room voluntarily you might have to take them there by force. So it was with Medwyn Williams MBE. 

Whilst on the road to peruse someone else’s vegetables, Medwyn and his good lady wife were waylaid by a mysterious, dandy highwayman. Disguised in his finest blue silk britches, eye mask, and ‘kerchief, AutoPot MD Jason Ralph-Smith spirited the champion veg grower away to his lair.

That was atmospheric wasn’t it?! If not entirely factually accurate. Anyway, cut to Medwyn at the AutoPot R&D facility taking his very first tour. It was our absolute privilege to play host to the multiple RHS Chelsea Gold Medal Winner at HQ this September. An energetic, enthusiastic, and dryly witty character, Medwyn never fails to bring cheer and inspiration wherever he goes. This time he also brought a little treasure, reunited with a tropical friend, and got on camera for some brand new videos from our place.

Bananarama 

It was Medwyn who gave us the Red Banana plant which has rapidly come to dominate the entrance to the R&D facility. Just three months ago it arrived, a mere 18 inches tall. Now it stands at well over 8ft, its huge maroon-green leaves like vast sails, raised towards the top and reefed gracefully lower down. It’s been on quite a growth journey.

Starting out in a 15L / 3.9 gal 1Pot system module, the plant had to be cut free within a month. It moved into larger lodgings in the shape of a XXL50 module, this time with a 50L / 13 gal fabric pot. That held for five to six weeks but it’s looking increasingly likely that it’ll soon have to graduate to a 150L / 40 gal pot in an open garden tray. In order to automate watering and feeding Jason will place an easy2GO in the tray and connect to the reservoir. Medwyn’s verdict? ‘Absolutely fantastic.’ 

Blue Velvet 

Thrilled by the Red Banana, Medwyn was only to pleased to deliver a Blue Banana plant to Jason and see it primed for similarly stratospheric growth. This involved potting the new plant in Biobizz Lightmix which has been one of the secrets to the Red banana’s success.

Much beloved at the R&D, Lightmix offers a really nice aerated, free draining structure. As the name suggest there is just a gentle fertiliser content, which gives you lots of scope to define your own nutrient regime. Our choice of feed for the plants has been AutoPot All Purpose Plant Food throughout. That’s a single-part all-stage mineral fertiliser which is delivered via the reservoir and pipework. 

Medwyn was most intrigued by the grit laid across the topsides of the banana leaves. As Jason pointed out, this is the carrier for lacewing larvae. Alongside parasitic wasps, the larvae make up the mainstay of our aphid-busting countermeasures, a great way of doing the job naturally.

Where the Sungold meets the sky

Ah the venerable Sungold, ’tis but a year-old, behold! Medwyn was blown away by our Tray2Grow-growbag-grown tomato plants. ‘I can’t believe these vines, they must be about twenty years old!’ Not so maestro! The Sungold toms were planted up only thirteen months ago at time of writing. 

Their scale is more astonishing still when you consider the depth of soil in which the plants have developed. The common-or-garden grow bag that we’ve used can only be three inches or so thick. And yet the plants have found ample media from which to sprout huge looping vines. This is a genuinely exciting prospect in terms of the sheer efficiency of the system with regard to grow media. 

Not only has the Tray2Grow has kept the grow bag viable for a really long period, it has also produced an immense amount of fruit. Frankly, the only reason we’re cutting down certain of the vines is hunger for new varieties to harvest. 

One of the plants will be preserved for a very special secret assignment (which Jason’s sure to put on Insta before we formally announce it). Meanwhile the longest of the cut-down vines will take a starring role in a new competition coming soon @autopot_global. Next up for the system itself is a multi-variety tomato array.

Chilli to the bone

One thing Medwyn did not like the look of was our chillies. Not for reasons of diminished quality or yield, quite the opposite. It was their abundant strength and number that made him shudder. 

Daring not partake of the 7Pot, the champion was nonetheless appreciative of the Primo’s shape and colour. Devilish long tails belie the heat within the reddening pods. Once they’ve attained that screaming scarlet hue they’re ready to bring you the entirety of their approx 1.5 million Scoville heat. These are another hit for the Biobizz Lightmix, this time used in a Tray2Grow in planter configuration.

Bunnies, bunnies, bunnies, party!

Likewise grown in a Tray2Grow Planter are the carrots Medwyn came to admire. We’d love to tell you the variety and Medwyn would love to grow some of these exquisite Chantenay-style carrots himself. But sadly Jason’s lost the tag, so no-one’s quite sure what they are!

Still, the snub-nosed little morons (Welsh for ‘carrots’) were much admired for their show-worthy smooth skin and incredible progress over just 3-4 months.

On your way!

Satisfied that he had fully appreciated the grow room Jason released Medwyn back into the wild / to judge veg at the NVS National Championships. Hosted at the South of England Agricultural Show the event was a stunning success of which you can read more here. We’d like to offer our profuse thanks to Medwyn for his cooperation and look forward to welcoming him back in future times.