23rd April
As I was saying last week we have started blocking of the Courgette, Pumpkin and0 Sweetcorn seeds, and as I have said before they grow at a amazing speed, we blocked the first of them of on the 16th of April and by the 21st theyare up and have two leaves. We now have only two thousand five hundred left to do.
Also another amazing fast growing seed are Oriental salads I direct sowed five different varieties in ten rows in a tunnel on the 18th and they came through on the 21st super fast but it has been warm in the tunnels.
One huge problem we have always had in the tunnels is slugs and aphids they love the warm clamy tunnels,and the juicy crops we grow, and after googling about them I came across Garlic spray, So I spent Friday night mixing up the recipe which was putting a garlic clove in the food proccesor then adding water, cooking oil and liquid soap all Organic, then wizzing them together, I eventually made up 20 litre, and was so excited to try it out I had to go and water 2 tunnels with it, and YES its very smelly, time will tell if it really does work.
This Week coming is going to be a busy one with some long hours each day, our compost hsa been spread in the field so that needing all bed formed, and all the plant that have been blocked in both tunnels have come on supper fast with the heat and are all needing to come out of the tunnel to get hardened of, this takes a week then they are ready to plant.
On top of all that we still have one tunnel needing to be re sheeted, and the problem with that is that last week we planted seven thousand five hundred little Gem lettuce in the un sheeted tunnel as they were needing planted. So that will make the re sheeting slightly harder, nothing like a challenge.
As I was writing this, Jacqui came through and said a customer had phoned and asked how do we harvest the salad bags, well I direct sow a few rows 50 meters, long of different varieties of oriental salad, then when they are ready we harvest them with a knife and mix them up in a crate then bag them up it is a time consuming job but worth it for the taste.
One last we wee story to tell, we have a new start called Ruaridh, and at peice time Rab was telling him about all the hard (bad jobs) i would have them doing, because he has had it easy up to now.
Well as I was planning to plant the lettuce and direct sow the salads, I thought i'd better get the compost in first, and who better to give me a hand than Ruaridh, first we get a half tonne box on the back of the auld fergie and take it to the nice smelly compost heep, then spade it in till its full.
Well the first spade is ok, then your in it and it's very warm with it sitting and the steam rises and i'ts pretty smelly, Ruaridh hasn't had this oromatic smell ever in his 23 years, but lucky for him he has had this experience now, Ruaridh wasn't coping all that well but managed, then asked me if that was that.
I said almost just to get it spread now, but the problem with that is that the spreading part takes place in a tunnel, that is around 15 degrees warmer and no wind to blow away the smell, I was at the back doing the spreading and Ruaridh was driving the tractor, well i could hardly spread the compost for laughing at the noises coming from Ruaridh
