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Welcome back to our weekly follow us! If you missed the last eleven weeks, the links to them are above - and as usual - the key is at the bottom: scroll down now!
Weather conditions have been overcast and blustery for most of the week, with rain and moderate-fast winds. There have been occasional sunny spells but day and nighttime temperatures have been well below the seasonal average for late-June/early July.
Daytime temperatures were 16-19oC compared to 22oC for the historical average, with nighttime temperatures at 9-10oC compared to 13oC for the historical average. Rainfall occurred on Saturday, Wednesday and Thursday - but amounted to only approximately 2mm on each occasion. Moderate to fresh winds occurred at the beginning and end of the week.
The newly published weather data for June testifies to the wildly fluctuating temperatures experienced over the course of the month. The maximum daytime temperature was 34oC and the minimum 15.5oC, giving an average of 23.8oC which is a couple of degrees above the historical average for June (21oC). Nighttime temperatures displayed a similar range with a maximum of 15.5oC and a minimum of 6.1oC; this gives an average of 11.5oC, close to the historical average of 12oC. Rainfall totalled 45.3mm which is approximately 70% of the historical average for June (64 mm). Rainfall occurred on 13 days, slightly less than the historical average of 15 rainy days!
Pea ‘Half pint’ (syn. ‘Tom-Thumb’) has been sown in Planter 1 and is one of the most interesting varieties we’ve encountered - with a back story that is well worth retelling! With its compact habit, prolific cropping and production of close to full size peas - it could well be the product of a very successful modern breeding programme designed to produce varieties perfect for container growing, but it is actually a reinvention. Pea ‘Half-pint (syn. ‘Tom-Thumb) is a British Heritage variety that was first recorded back in the mid 16th Century, and had been considered sufficiently unpromising (because of its small stature and compact habit), not to warrant improvement. These traits make it perfect for container growing. The variety is an extra-dwarf early pea with dark green speckled foliage, white flowers and light green pea pods. It is a traditional English shelling pea and the pods are stringy and fibrous even when not fully formed, so cannot be eaten as a snapping pea. However, the pods are 50-60mm (close to full size) and contain six or seven medium sized peas (7-8mm). The pods need to be picked as soon as they are fully swollen as the peas turn starchy quite quickly (breeding has attended to this in modern varieties!) While often advertised as growing to just 15-20cm in height, our experience is that 30-40cm is more typical - and that some light support is beneficial as the plant has a tendency to collapse under the weight of the mature pods! We have chosen to sow directly and have utilised all three rows in a 5, 4, 5 formation, which means the peas in Row 2 are slightly offset from those in Rows 1 and 3. We sow 2 peas at each position alongside each other, one at approximately 30mm depth and the other at 50mm depth; we use a training rod to create the hole and to gently tamp the soil back, you can (but we don’t think it’s strictly necessary) soak the peas beforehand to speed up germination. Germination should take no more than 7 days. A short video show the sowing method is available in ‘Beginners Guides’ within our Owners area.
The three lettuces in Planter 2 have been removed and replaced with a combination of four annual ‘summer’ herbs. Lettuce ‘Solix’, Lettuce ‘Red Salad Bowl’ and Lettuce ‘Salad Bowl’ proved more tolerant to the high temperatures (340C experienced during mid June) than expected, which might have caused them to bolt and run to seed. The reason they didn’t is probably due to a combination of factors. Firstly, plants were sufficiently well established with root systems which extended within the moister, cooler core of the container (250mm below the surface); secondly, the plants had been picked to maintain a good overall root to shoot ratio (top heavy plants transpiring large amounts of water are more prone to ‘bolt’), and finally because leaves had been picked carefully from the base of the plant - reducing stress. The problem with growing lettuces during the summer largely relates to the difficulty of achieving acceptable germination rates in high temperatures. While the lettuces continued to grow well, the quality of the leaves had deteriorated and they had become slightly bitter. This reinforces our view that summer line lettuces are at their best when harvested for no longer than 6 weeks (and if taste is everything - for four only!) It’s worth adding that the hearts of the lettuces we used and were fine sautéed (as you would a ‘Little gem’), and that the remainder of the leaves were composted as we do with all residues (contributing to the closed-loop organic system we follow).
While we sowed six annual summer herbs in root trainers, we’ve decided to use ‘British basil’ instead of ‘Lemon basil’ in order to test the claim that the former has been bred to withstand British conditions (this will be a challenge if the weather in July is as mixed as Junes was). We’ve also chosen to use the curly Parsley ‘Afrodite’ in lieu of flat-leaved parsley. The quartet is completed by Coriander ‘Confetti’ and Dill ‘Dukat’, both of which stand out in terms of their flavour.
When growing herbs, the planter is laid our differently, with the area divided in quadrants rather than rows. Defining the quadrants is easy and involves placing a training rod in each of the four corners of the containers and running two elasticated cord diagonally across the container. This four triangles are not quite equal with those at the front and back having a longer length and those on sides. Our rootrainers are 60ml in volume and each quadrant provides sufficient space for ten plants, which are planted in four rows (from the outside in towards the centre) of the container. The first row contains 4 plants, the second 3 plants (staggered between those in the first row), the third 2 plants staggered between those in the second row, and the fourth 1 plant centred between those in the third row (imagine the layout of bowling pins!) The first row should be 50mm from the side of the container, and the fourth row 50mm from the intersection of the cord lines at the centre. The root trainers should be overplanted by 10mm to allow a light covering of soil to be placed over the tops (to prevent drying out). Root trainers are very fragile and great care needs to be taken in removing them from modules, which should be pushed out from the base. A short video show the transplanting method is available in ‘Beginners Guides’ within our Owners area.
In Planter 3 Hearting Lettuce ‘Little Gem’ and ‘Amaze’ have both continued to grow well, and have rapidly infilled the gaps left by last week’s first thinning. A small number of additional seedlings have been removed to achieve the correct stocking ahead of the second thinning next week. These are now more inaccessible to slugs and snails but frequent checks for damage continue to be made. Swiss Chard ‘Bright Lights’ has been picked twice during the week with older leaves on the margin of the plant removed as close to the base of the plant as possible. This is carried out with a sharp knife to achieve a clean cut and is better than snapping stems by hand - this rarely produces a clean break (the stems are slightly fibrous and are inclined to tear up the stem).
Carrot ‘Sweet Imperator Mix F1, Spring Onion ‘North Holland Blood Red’ and Beetroot ‘Chioggia’ in Planter 4 are no longer increasing in height but are increasing in girth / bulbing-up well. While all three could be picked immediately the crops will be far larger (possibly 30% or so for having been left for the last 3 weeks) and no less tender. Picking all three together all provides more opportunities to do great things from a cooking perspective, and will ensure the planter can be replanted at the earliest opportunity!