WEEK 1 WEEK 2 WEEK 3 WEEK 4 WEEK 5 WEEK 6 WEEK 7
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Weather conditions have been variable in the last week, although the trend of temperatures remaining considerably higher than the seasonal average has continued! Temperatures fell on Friday and Saturday to 150C, but quickly returned to 21oC on Sunday and have built during the week to 25oC, considerably above the historical average for late May (of 19oC). Nighttime temperatures have ranged from 8oC to 12oC, with the exception of Monday night with a low of 4oC, but remained broadly in line with the historical average of 10oC. Some rainfall occurred on Sunday with a succession of short heavy showers, but totalled less than 2mm and so conditions remain very dry. Exceptionally strong westerly winds, in excess of 18mph, occurred on Friday and Saturday.
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 (reduced from 4 litres previously as soils were found to be overly wet when cultivated following removal of radish). 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.
May 2020 has been confirmed as the driest May on record with just 6mm of rainfall, just 10% of the historical average for May of 58mm!
This week, the three radishes in Planter 1 have been removed and replaced by Dwarf French Bean ‘Purple Teepee’ root trainers. These were sown on the 26th April (4 weeks) and have reached 160-200 mm in height with a basal diameter of 4-5 mm. The root trainers are well rooted through to the bottom of the fibre pots used, and into the damp sand at the base.
The planter was cultivated following removal of the radish crop with all detritus carefully removed together with lurking weeds. While it is normally helpful to leave plant remains in situ to decompose (and this is beneficial to soil in the mid to long term), the risk of these harbouring pests and diseases means it is better to remove and compost these (even if none are evident).
A total of 8 Dwarf French Bean ‘Purple Teepee’ root trainers have been transplanted with three in the inner row, 2 in the middle row and 3 in the outer row. This arrangement allows the position of plants to be staggered across the three rows and maximise the space available to each plant.
The plant training system has been fitted to support the beans following outplanting which are otherwise prone to collapse with leaves touching the ground surface prone to rot, or suffer slug damage.
The three lettuces in Planter 2 have continued to be harvested every couple of days. Lettuce ‘Solix’ is the most productive, followed by Lettuce ‘Salad Bowl’ and Lettuce ‘Red Salad Bowl’. Harvesting is carried out by carefully removing the outer leaves and these are snapped off as close to the base of the plant as possible. The leaves desiccate rapidly after picking and should be placed in a bowl of cold water for 30 minutes to cool, and to allow them to rehydrate. Harvesting lettuces by breaking the stems at the base creates a small wound that rapidly heals and is far better than cutting the leaves (which is more likely to cause disease and to thereby increase the incidence of pests). Cutting damages new growth and is also wasteful as up to 25% of the leaf is left, while cut leaves desiccate far more rapidly and don’t rehydrate as well. The addition of the shade netting has certainly benefitted the lettuces and prevented the ‘bleaching’ of the ‘Red Salad Bowl’ which often occurs in full sun. If it’s at all possible to move your planter out of full sun, we’d definitely recommend it at the minute, or perhaps fashion a similar parasol as us using our plant training kit? As you can see, we’ve got a new system under-development, but sadly this won’t be available for general sale until next year.
Planter 3 contains a mixture of crops with different maturity dates. Harvesting of Turnip ‘Tokyo Cross’ F1 has commenced one week early than anticipated as plants were beginning to deteriorate as a result of the continued high temperatures and flea beetle attack, which showed signs of spreading onto the rocket (which is also susceptible). The globes are slightly small at 20-25 mm but otherwise in good condition. Rocket ‘Serrata’ continues to be harvested regularly with larger leaves removed in turn which is ensuring the plants remain relatively compact. A couple of plants have begun to bolt (flower); rocket is notoriously intolerant of high temperatures which means it isn’t suitable for sowing during the summer months, but it is usually possible to grow it successfully during the early autumn. The size of new leaves declines dramatically after bolting and the leaves become hotter and bitter in taste. It is definitely not a case of pinching out the flower and keeping going! Swiss Chard ‘Bright Lights’ continue to grow far more slowly than normal and plants are also more variable in size than we’d like. However, the leaves show no sign of flea beetle attack, which is a benefit of it not being a brassica!
The intention exists to curtail the harvesting of Rocket ‘Serrata’ and Turnip ‘Tokyo Cross’ at the end of next week and to replace these with the hearting lettuces ‘Little Gem’ and ‘Amaze’. Swiss Chard ‘Bright Lights’ will be retained. We think these will do much better as the climate continues to warm.
The growth rate of carrot, spring onion and beetroot in Planter 4 has increased considerably with the height of the plant training system increased to accommodate this. The condition of plants is excellent.
Turnips are a bit of an acquired taste but braised turnips in marmalade are good and works well where the turnips are a bit smaller (like ours) and can be left whole. This recipe uses rosemary but is better (in our view) with a summer herb such as dill or tarragon!