This week is the week for starting harvesting. I had thought that the first berries I would pick would be Sirola, the early german variety, but these are at least two weeks off being ripe. Surprisingly Sudarushka; Inya; Chuiskaya; are all going to be ready for pickling over the next week. Klaudia will be the end of next week. Altaiskaya is the last of the bunch.
I still have a suspicion that berries are disappearing to a silent pest. I am certain that birds are not an issue this year. Rockets, kites, scare crows and foil tape has formed a continuing campaign to warn off winged pests. But I am looking to the ground for this issue. Mice or voles are in the grass stripes in the middle of the inter-row passages. Etna berries have been targeted; Klaudia too. The issue is that these areas also contain the beneficial insects that I look to bio-control pests in the spring and early summer. So do I cut these areas out? Altaiskaya have reasonable yields of berries and I will look to these areas to be completely mown so rodents have to cross bare ground to reach the fruit. I have a roving barn owl, and small rodents are nervous when there are magpies and similar omnivous birds in the area. I need to solve this problem for next year as I will see that as the first commercial crop whereas this one will only produce some tasters of what is to come.
I have not mentioned the Latvian plants much. Of the four varieties they are all well covered in berries – much more successful than the Siberian varieties. But they do have thorns. They will not be ready for picking for another three weeks I suspect. It looks like Goldrain will comes first, with Sunny close behind. Mary and Tatjana coming maybe a week after that. With the thorns in mind these bushes will be harvested through a cut and freeze process, which will be the same as the german varieties.
The second field with the german varieties is covered in berries. In fact every bush is loaded down with fruit. But certainly these look at least a month off yet, with the exception of Sirola which I mentioned right at the beginning.
It might be of little interest to some readers but the really exciting thing this year is that the few remaining Finnish plants have also burst into action. These plants arrived in the UK in 2009 as tiny seedlings: three female varieties, two male. The males, Rupdolph and Tarmo have done better than the females. All are dwarf varieties by comparison with the german counterparts. Of the females Raisa and Terhi probably could be said have been more successful, but most of these failed to survive. So it is gratifying to see some produce and it seems fitting to find a Scandinavian in London to enjoy them.
So having planned for harvest to start mid July and go through to mid September I now expect it to be all over by the end of August. It sounds early, but until this process has run through for five years it will be difficult to gauge.
in the background with this I am still looking for grant support for development research. Analysis is the way forward that I have chosen. I have two forms of sea buckthorn plant here. The german plants which seem to survive with little or no management; and the Siberian which require managing with kid gloves. Commercially the former is clearly the way to go, but for want of market diversity finding a way to grow the Siberian exotics with no thorns, larger berries and new taste still remains a goal. To achieve this will need monitoring what I do, and fine tuning it on the basis of results – both good and bad. That will be a funding drain and a high risk venture. Funding assistance will speed up the process and allow that all important holy grail of seeking to develop consistent quality with consistent yield.