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Weather conditions have proved very difficult over the past week, with temperatures well below the seasonal average, heavy thundery downpours of rain and strong winds. Any sunshine has been intermittent at best!
Temperatures have been relatively consistent throughout the week with maximum daily temperatures of 16-17oC, which compare unfavourably to the historical average for early June of 20oC. Night time temperatures ranged from 4-5oC during the first half of the week, well below the historical average of 10oC, but reached the average during the latter half of the week. Rainfall occurred on five days and was mostly in the form of showers, with totals of 2-5mm. Exceptionally strong westerly winds remained a feature of the weather and were in excess of 18mph, on Saturday, Thursday and Friday - also the days on which heaviest showers occurred.
The plants are now sufficiently well-established not to require any supplementary watering, and daily timed irrigation is adequate, providing approximately 3 litres per planter per day. For us, this is operated by a Rainbird controller which has an adjustment for rainfall. The plant training system helped in minimising damage to plants due to the ‘buffeting’ of winds.
We promised we would own up when things went wrong, but assumed it would be because crops that didn’t turn out as expected rather than due to human error! Nonetheless. it turns out our bean labelling was erroneous and we’ve actually out-planted Runner Bean ‘Hestia’ rather than “Dwarf French Bean ‘Purple Teepee’. Now that the plants have started to flower, the error is obvious! Hestia has white and red bicoloured flowers and ‘Purple Teepee’ has white and mauve bicoloured flowers.
Although not quite what we’d intended, the Runner Bean ‘Hestia’ continues to be slow to establish and the leaves remain light green, rather than dark green. Despite this, or more possibly because of it, the plants have started to flower (which is likely to prevent any substantial improvement). While this has been a bit of a ‘catalogue of errors’ we are going to stick with it at least for another couple of weeks. We have, in the meantime, sowed the correct Dwarf French Bean ‘Purple Teepee’ - so at least we’ve got the option of making a switch should the need be!
The three lettuces in Planter 2 have continued to be harvested every couple of days. Lettuce ‘Solix’ remains the most productive but Lettuce ‘Salad Bowl’ and Lettuce ‘Red Salad Bowl’ are more than holding their own. Regrowth continues to be really strong. The approach to harvesting has altered due to damage caused by the wind and heavy rain which has caused some leaves to snap and others to be flattened. These have been removed first to maintain the form of the plants after which leaves which fill the voids between the rows are removed to assist in maintaining air circulation. The care and attention paid to picking has ensured that the lettuces are capable of continuing for at least the next couple of weeks, at least until the root trainer herbs that have been sown to replace them are ready.
Hearting Lettuce ‘Little Gem’ and Hearting Lettuce ‘Amaze’ have both germinated in Planter 3, but with different results. The first seedlings appeared on the third day after sowing and germination was completed on the fifth day. Germination of Hearting lettuce ‘Amaze’ has been excellent with 40 seedlings (all evenly spaced), but strangely, just 6 seedlings of Hearting lettuce ‘Little Gem’ have emerged. The failure of the Hearting lettuce ‘Little Gem’ clearly points to poor seed quality, despite this being sown from an unopened packet, being within date (expiry December 2020) and having been stored correctly (cool, dark conditions). While this is an all too common occurrence (viability of lettuce seed under the Vegetable and Seed Regulations 1993, Statutory Instrument No. 2008 should be 75%) the option exists of either over-sowing the row with new seed (if available), or pricking out seedlings of Hearting lettuce ‘Amaze’ from alongside and respacing those amongst those seedlings of Hearting lettuce ‘Little Gem’ which have emerged (these have good colour) - in order to achieve the required stocking. Swiss Chard ‘Bright Lights’ has steadfastly refused to increase its growth rate despite the more equable conditions. However, the plants remain in good condition with bright coloured glossy leaves and no sign of leaf spot or downy mildew - which can often be a problem in changeable conditions. ‘Bright Lights’ should be ready for selective harvesting next week (plants in the centre of the row remain larger than those to each side).
The growth rate of carrot, spring onion and beetroot in Planter 4 has slowed slightly but is still acceptable and the condition of plants is excellent. The carrot and spring onion are both on track to commence harvesting on schedule but the beetroot may be delayed by a couple of weeks on the basis the bulbs are currently only around 20mm in diameter.