It is remarkable how life can change. There has now been ten days of dry, sunny weather. The nights remain around 4-6 deg, day temperature starting to climb and the ground is drying fast. Not only does the seabuckthorn site look better, it makes working so much easier.
Of the plants that were imported from Lisavenko in November some have gone to other sites. The nest priority has been to infill plants that have died. These are either first year plants that have not survived the wet winter; or those that suffered fungal disease last year. There were very few lost to the disease, most have had to be replaced because I cut them back to hard.
Of the first year plants I have had to replace 11% of Jessel; 10% Elizaveta; 6% Klaudia; 5% Augustina; 4% Dewdrop (Rosinka). To the disease area which were plants established in 2011 – Elizaveta 26%; Chuiskaya 15%; Klaudia 18%; Sudarushka 18% Altaiskaya 4% ; Inya 8%. Elizaveta certainly was affected worst, but it is a vigourous growing variety here on my farm. The Altaiskaya figures I would suggest indicate they have come through the season well – so maybe one can attribute that to a level of resistance.
New planting this year will focus on a block planting of Altaiskaya. My attraction to it as a variety is its declared figures for sugar (9.7%)/ acid (1.1%); a good oil content (7%); average vitamin C (98mg/100g). It has a medium sized berry at 75g/100 berries, and a declared yield of 13t/hectare. I still like Elizaveta for its large berry size (100g/100 fruit), and its vigourous growth.
It will be interesting to compare the declared figures with actual analysis figures when these varieties produce their first few berries this year.
Muntjac deer are starting to become a concern. A camera was installed this month in a lane between the two seabuckthorn fields and it caught a regular visit from these little deer. They have been in both fields and just nibble the ends of the branches. They started to tear at the bark in the winter, but I have stopped that by fitting the plants with rabbit guards.
I have bought a compost tea maker as a means of applying both a foliar feed and a level of anti-microbial action against fungal disease. This has not come yet so i am going to apply an application of seaweed to start the season off. This will be applied next week, once the planting is completed.
Actually it won’t be totally completed. One new site is too wet and has some weed contamination which I want to get on top of before planting. I still have not completed by organic farming registration yet – although it is a priority for this month. As i look at the forms on my desk I also consider how best to control the nettles in this site. Do I spray or not? As a conventional farmer i should have no issue but do it. But I am also sympathetic to soil health management and using any chemical runs against the grain. It is also an issue when controlling weeds around plants. I am not convinced that mulches of compost are going to prevent weed growth around plants. Limit their growth maybe, but not a total elimination.
Not controlling weed growth has certainly reduced the plants growth, but they are all successfully getting away now.
I have had my soil sampled for biological health and the results should be back very soon which will be the measure by which I start to develop my compost development.
As i came off the field tonight I noticed that of the four Latvian varieties on the farm ( Goldrain; Tatjana; Mary; Sunny ) Sunny is starting to open some buds together with a few Goldrain. The plants have developed well with very few losses. They were planted in 2012 so it will still be another year before i see any berries to compare with the Siberian varieties.
The other bit of news was the announcement of the Euroworks conference that is this year to be held in Finland. It provides a valuable opportunity to network with other seabuckthorn growers, processors and researchers. It will also be an opportunity to push the debate for the establishment of quality standards for seabuckthorn berry production.
So it really feels as if 2014 is now underway. A year that is important for British Seabuckthorn as it will be the first year of producing some seabuckthorn berries off a UK farm.
