Jacquie Wedge

July 18th 2010

Jacquie tragically passed away in the early hours of Friday 16th July, leaving a massive hole in so many peoples lives. In over a year of working here she made a big impression and will be remembered for her honesty, laughter, hardworking dedication, vivacious style and spirited attitude to life. We are creating a pink and black themed border at the nursery to remember her by and our thoughts are with her family and friends at this difficult time.

Strings Attached

July 11th 2010

Many of our summer glasshouse crops need support and are trained up strings. This ensures we use space efficiently, maintain good airflow (thus avoiding disease) and it makes the crop easier to pick. On the other hand the job of winding the growing tips around the string, side shooting, selecting and tying in the plants seems never ending. If we get behind crops can collapse, branches bend and the job becomes even more time consuming. There is a lot of discussion about natural climbers such as beans which, here at Hankham, train themselves by spiralling in an anticlockwise direction (looking down on them!). This is dictated by the genetics of the plant but it is thought that the correolis effect, which also influences the vortex of water down a plug hole may play a role. Human trained plants such as tomatoes are usually wrapped clockwise so they are encouraged to follow the sun as it moves across the sky. More importantly, when you are growing thousands of plants it’s important everyone knows to do it the same way! This support is important for crops that will be harvested up to early November. Many people forget that although the good weather runs from perhaps April to September, the harvest season doesn’t really get going until July yet runs well into the start of winter. We have picked peppers almost up to Christmas in a mild year!

Some like it hot, some not!

June 14th 2010

Our summer crops are performing well with all this sun; tomatoes, courgettes, peppers, aubergines and beans are all looking healthy and productive. As the first yield is harvested and the glasshouse temperatures soar we yearn for outdoor work in the cool breeze of the field. Most harvesting is done early to ensure produce stays cool but crops need maintenance and spent spring beds are cleared and set up for summer salads and herbs such as purslane, rocket, and the heady range of basil varieties. Outdoors a succession of lettuce continues and we are underway with leek planting while the autumn sown broad beans and spring spinach are being picked. Cucumbers have however been problematic this year. We had a wilting problem with the cucumbers 2 years ago identified as ‘fusarium’. It gets into the base of the stem and clogs up the water channels, but as we practice a long rotation (no cuc' has yet returned to the same spot!) last years plants were free of the disease and we had an excellent harvest. However the problem has returned this year and with the hot weather they are struggling. Compost tea and a beneficial bacterium ‘bacillus subtillus’ seem to help to keep it manageable but yields are lower and we have to be extra vigilant with hygiene to prevent it spreading further.