The rooks may have pillaged my Siberian berries, but the German varieties are still ripening.
Sirola has again been the earliest – a July variety. My Orange Energy are still my favourite variety. This year particularly the berries are larger although the crop does not look so good. I would put this down to a very wet winter. The leaves on these plants are also remarkably bold and large this year. The berries are still a little sharp and I expect that I will start to pick the week after next.
Askola seems to provide a larger crop, but for my taste I still prefer the Habego. I will try this year to combine the varieties when making some products – but taste is always king. Selling berries is fine to those that know seabuckthorn but introducing them to new customers comes through quality product. The best tasting produces the best results.
Having taken a week’s holiday in July the last fortnight has been catching up with routine mowing and then spraying with another foliar feed.
Up until now I have been using a conventional compost tea mix which has been pre-mixed with starter for 72 hours and then allowed to brew in the aerator. With a 100 lt brewer I am finding that one mix will provide enough spray for 600 of the larger three year old plants. Since i am hand spraying with a back pack sprayer I expect the plants get a larger dose than if I was applying from a tractor sprayer. All leaves get a good soak plus a dose on the ground – probably a metre square around the plant. I have also been using tap water which then introduces another delay as it has to be aerated for a hour to bubble off the chlorine that is added to the water by the water company.
The whole process is protracted and with 5000 plants to spray it means each week spraying is a routine operation of one block of plants.
Alternatively I was offered a pre-brewed product, along with a hydroscopic seaweed product. This removes the whole brewing process – although it still requires a brewer for mixing. As a live product it does require efficient delivery from the supplier and then it needs to be sprayed within 24/48 hours of arrival.
This can be a problem if the weather turns against you, but as a soil health product rain just makes it an unpleasant job.
I have now rigged up an IPC to collect 1000lt of roof water, so that has removed the delay on using tap-water.
Is the process better? Having now tried both I think as with most things in life, nothing is perfect. Strangely I still like the back pack spraying process as it allows every plant to be closely inspected.
This last week I have removed a number of catepillar web cocoons from plants that would have meant trouble in the future. It also alklows assessment of how each variety is behaving. How young plants are progressing. Whether there are any signs of discolouration or disease.
It does take time and as a single operator time is often a precious commodity.
Trying to spray all 5000 plants with a back pack sprayer within 48 hours has just proved impractical unless I am going to hire in help. So I will cut the job in two.
But at the same time I will keep some conventional compost in stock so that I can give some additional boost to some areas where the soil is poor or the varieties are weak.
This time of year the hot weather bakes our soil hard. This is a real test of which varieties have adapted to the local UK conditions. Sadly, of the Siberian varieties Elizaveta is suffering. Last year Elizaveta and the male Gnom were the worst varieties to suffer from my disease problems.
This year Gnom look really good, with strong lush leaves and strong growth.
Elizaveta however cannot make its mind up. Its leaves have retained colour but they have curled as if they are suffering from lack of moisture. At the same time however they are also sending up long new shoots which show a complete contrast to the curled leaf on the old branches.
I assume that the growth characteristic of this variety is to rely on surface roots which will be most susceptible to desication as the clay soil becomes hard as a rock.
So the plants may be surviving, but from a commercial perspective for me I do not think I would plant them on in heavy soils.
Chuiskaya looks superb. Altaiskaya is also a favorite; Inya had large berries on it ( before the rooks had their feast); Klaudia and Sudarushka both have needed some extra care. Klaudia is the variety that is hardly dormant at all, so it has not really adapted to the UK climate. If ity produces a good crop and does not demand extra management then it still may be a viable option.
Etna; Rosinka and Jessel have all established well and responded to the Compost tea/seaweed management regime, but they are all young plants as yet.
I have to say that the Latvian varieties – Sunny; Mary; Tatjana; and Goldrain have all established well and are strong good looking plants that produced a few berries this year. There are some thorn issues which may make harvesting interesting. Certainly they have adapted to my local environment without a problem.
So that sounds like more of the same.
Plans for the future – over 100 tons of compost coming in next month to mulch the plants/ hand operation is too time consuming but I want to find a low carbon option/
harvest method – hoping to develop a hand tool over this next year/ processing – I need to set up an environmental health agency kitchen so product development can progress out of the farmhouse kitchen!
And finally – it is only fair to you the reader to start to include some photographs of the site.
And – if anyone reading this wants to come to the site please email me on cottonmist.eagle@virgin.net
