4th February

 Last week I had been talking about seed germination, and that the Leeks and onion seed’s take forever to germinate. Well with all the unseasonal temperatures that we have been having, some days over 14 degrees, The tunnels are roasting hot inside, and the Leek and onion seeds are up and away.

This mini February heat wave, has also meant that I have been watering the tunnels every day, very unusual at this time of the year.

In the tunnels, which have been full over winter with crops, we have had two crop failures, these are the Tatsoi, a oriental Lettuce and Red Pak Choi, both have bolted, probably due to very high fluctuations in temperatures.

All the other crops are looking great, and we have been harvesting Pak Choi already, the other crops that are looking well are, Spring onion’s, Spinach, Giant red Celery (a trial this year) Chicory and two herbs, Flat leaf parsley and Coriander which we will be starting to harvest this week.

Last week I rotovated in the Tatsoi and Red Pak Choi, and the beds are rolled, and I ordered mixed baby leaf Lettuce and Early Beetroot, these will get direct sown this week.

Rab has been thinking about hand weeding  in the tunnels, not that he is looking forward to it, but he hates it, Tunnel weeding is all about being on your knees all day and pulling the weeds out, No matter how much you use hoe’s, rakes, harrows or brush weeders, in the end we always still need to hand weed to finish it off.

His idea was a small Go cart bed weeder, as the tunnel beds are only 44 inch wide, it will only be a one person job. We use a bed weeder in the field and it makes the job much easier.

So This week hopefully, I’m picking up four old bike wheels, and I’ll make up a small tunnel bed weeder, and at the front we will have a crate, where we can put the weeds in, then take them out of the tunnels, the idea is we lie face down like the bed weeder, pulling out the weeds as we go, far easier on the knees, and you get a wee lie down as you work, I’ll keep you up to date as I go.