11th September

 What a change in the weather this week.

Most of July and August were not what wee or the tunnels are used to, and the cucumber tunnel felt it.

Usually through July and August we are harvesting up to two hundred cucumbers a day.

Plus taking off side shoots and tying up almost daily.

But we were just having to do that once a week, and it was not that big a job.

Until this week with temperatures over 20 every day and wall to wall sunshine.

With that heat and Sunshine, the watering of the tunnels was back on to three times a day.

And the cucumbers by the end of the week had burst into life.                                                       By the end of the week, we were harvesting around two hundred per day.

And the side shoots have went crazy.

Out in the field the purple sprouting broccoli has started producing.

But not enough for us to put into every net we deliver, last week we harvested 6 crates.

Hopefully this week we will be harvesting around ten crates per day.

In the tunnels this week we direct sowed another six rows of mixed salad, hopefully the heat stays, and they come on quickly.

We also direct sowed Broad beans in one tunnel, Broad beans are usually sown around September for an early crop the following year.

But one other great job they do, is that they put nitrogen back into the soil, and when they are eventually rotovated in, the stalks are great for soil structure.

Last year I sowed two tunnels with broad beans, both the tunnels looked like they were needing a wee bit of a kick start.

And what a difference it made to the tunnels this year.

The only downside was we did not get a crop of off them.

By the time it got to march, we were needing in the tunnels to get them ready for planting.

But the difference they made was amazing.

So, every year I will do half of the tunnels, even if we do not get a crop, it did make a huge difference.

We always do sow some in the field around September / October time.

But what usually happens, is that we always get hit with severe frost which kills of the broad beans that have come through.

So next year I am going sow them outside in April and get a summer crop.

I had planned to do that this year, but I forgot.

Luckily, I had not, because with the drought and heat at planting time, all the direct sown seeds did not germinate.