As I walk the rows of my sea buckthorn plants this April there is a level of excitment and anticipation as to what they will produce this year. After a dry month the weather has broken and we have had a refreshing weekend of rain. Klaudia always has been the most advanced of varieties, along with Elizaveta; Chuiskaya; and sudarushka. Inya, a variety that stands tall and straight when compared with the others is starting to develop a head of leaf. Altaiskaya is the furthest from the others, showing a tight brush of leaf on each stem head.
Following kirsten Jensen’s visit in February the advise was not to give the plants their spring fee of Chicken manure pellets. Frankia should provide the nitrogen that the plant needs and by providing the pellets it might even reduce the potential of Frankia to perform. The concept is good because these organic chicken pellets are expensive, but there may be practical drawbacks if frankia has not developed in some individual plants.
Not unsurprisingly it is Elizaveta that is an area for concern. This variety has been the one that has been most vigourous in growth. It was also the one that was most open to disease back in 2013. So looking at the plants now in spring 2015 the leaves are fully developed but slightly yellow by comparison with others. This is across most of the elizaveta mature plants, So next week I will provide some of the replicate groups with pellets and some without.
The current focus is to give all plants a dose of compost tea. This takes time. The tea brewer that i have contains 100 lts, in which I place 2lt of compost. On immature plants 100 litres will cover between 800 and 1000 plants. On the more mature ( planted in 2011) plants this reduces down to 600. Iam still using a back pack sprayer, filling it with 10lts of tea per spraying. I had a problem to start with with the larger particles of compost blocking the sprayer.I have now solved that problem by decanting the tea into buckets and letting it settle for 30 mins before pouring it into the sprayer. A full 100 lt tank of tea is sprayed over the plants in a day.The other job on my list is to prune all dead wood out of the plants. For most, this is a cosmetic excercise. There are a few which although 90% of the plant has died back, there is fresh growth coming from both the lower branches – but also in the upper parts of branches that look completely dessicated. These dessicated plants are occasional, but without exception are individuals surrounded by health plants with no apparent reason for dieback.
Last week I walked the rows and destroyed ( by hand ) 8 nests of vapourer moths. This week as i have been spraying compost tea i have yet again found that I had missed another 5 small webs full of caterpillars that are on the verge of starting to break out onto the branches. Experience from last years showed that these voracious feeders can strip a plant in a week. Reports are that within the National Nature reserve adjacent to the farm these insects have become a major infestation. As small back furry caterpillars they are not palletible for birds.
This week was also highlighted by a trip to Germany to investigate harvesting processing and analysis. Options for freezing the branches are under investigation as the prefered option. I am looking to develop a system that is affordable and simple without a heavy need for capital investment. Branch cutting will mean only taking half the crop this year but it will provide an opportunity to prune out plants into a form that makes future harvesting easier.
I have a design for a berry seperator which will need to be built during the next two months. A simple tool but essential one that utilises components that are similar to parts on harvesters for other berry crops.
Over the past three weeks my laptop has been plagued by a virus
. I had not appreciated how aggressive these could be. It regenerated three times before now finally seeming to be destroyed. It makes one wonder what the people that create these viruses find as any justification to inflict them on others. Three weeks without a computer allows for more fieldwork and less office work so there are always some silver linings to gray clouds.
Finally, Nepal is a country that is renoun for its sea buckthorn. The news of the earthquake there carries a resonance as of the fragility of our lives within the natural environment. Living in a country the other side of the world from this crisis it is frustrating not being able to help, and the thoughts of how people recover from such an event are painful. At a time when some politicians talk of reduced aid going to foreign countries, this type of event goes to show how vulnerable we are and how important it is that all countries must work together to reduce the impact of these issues when they happen.
