The fact that the country has election fever does not change the fact that the sea buckthorn plants on the farm are almost in open leaf. It has been a full three months for Klaudia to develop from its buds breaking through to being in full leaf.
Simon Parfey came to the farm last week to take soil samples and discuss the coming season of management. The soil samples are still establishing a base line of understanding the ecology of my clay soil. The soil quality varies across the site and this was evident when we first planted the sea buckthorn. There were areas that were poisoned with wild oats. There still are areas where drainage is poor, but with two applications of green waste mulch each year the soil health will change.
Simon left a bag of compost for brewing tea. This year the plants will get a foliar feed of tea every three weeks. This is not easy as I still only have a 100 litre brewer. Using conventional methods, I use 2lt of compost per brew; it is fed with a starter and then brewed for 24hrs – the process is slow.
I am still applying the tea with a back pack. Application rates are approximately 10 plants to a litre, so one brew does 1000 plants. Clearly the larger the plant, the more compost tea it needs.
The brewer has two aerating mechanisms – The principle one as the base of the tank. The second being a pipe that is placed into the compost basket itself. The air is blown through the compost to circulate the water in the tank through the medium and extract microbes and nutrients from it. The process unfortunately also blows a lot of organic particles into suspension in the resultant tea. The larger particles tend to block the nozzle of the sprayer with annoying regularity. Additional filters will reduce the problem but it will be essential when I move to a tractor based system.
When Kirsten Jensen came to the farm In February she had a number of issues with pests. Voles was one – hares another. I have had a muntjac deer in the site this winter. It was not in the plantation for long, but it grazed many plants – nipping the branches in two and reducing many of the 2013 young plants by 50% down to 30cm high. This I think will have the result in new stems. The damage to the more mature plants by comparison is slight.
There are also a number of nests of vapourer moth (Orgyia Antiqua) caperpillars. As reported last year, these have a capacity to strip a mature plant in a week. Vigilance is the tool but as the moths are a common insect within Hamford Water this is a pest that will always be an issue. There also appears to be a number of months when infection arrives through the summer.
The spotted wing fruit fly ( Drosophila suzuki ) is seen as a potential serious problem for the whole soft fruit industry. It will also impact on hedgerow fruit, cherries, grapes and even olives. ( Apparently there are now olive farms in the UK). Talking with some one from the Horticultural Development Council yesterday it is good sometimes to put these things into perspective. Agriculture always has had a “new” weed or pest that has arrived and posed to be a threat to the whole of the industry. In the past these threats have been met by chemical solutions. Now however there are issues as many chemicals have either come to the end of their production license period or have been withdrawn as a result of EU regulation. Bio-science is looking to create natural alternatives but as with all development this will take time. Spotted wing fruit fly poses the current threat to the whole of Europe so there is a significant focus upon it. I grow sea buckthorn at Devereux farm using organic methods so meeting this challenge is daunting.
The revolution for Devereux farm this year will be putting the back pack sprayer; the shovel and monkey claw away and mechanising all field operations. When one looks to having equipment designed for the purpose timing is sometimes an issue so patience is required. The first of these will be the arrival of the green waste mulch spreader with its tractor. The tractor will spawn a series of purchases through the year so allow mechanisation to fully develop. As a sustainable crop there needs to be thought put to reducing the use of fossil fuels as much as possible and i look forward to the time when electric vehicles will become an option for orchard work.
The other development this year has to be in mechanically assisted harvesting. Branch cutting and freezing is going to be the area of development but again for sustainability purposes there needs to be a focus in the long term on how to optimise resource use in harvesting and processing. This year the crop may be around 1-2 tons of berries allowing for experimentation. So investing in a freezing facility may not be the right option. Hiring in is probably a better solution. Branch cutting needs to be as efficient as possible, allowing branches to be cut to fit into freezing boxes that can be carted off field for chilling down as soon as possible to prevent nutrient loss.
All this comes at a time when new product development is also in the mind. Over 1 ton of berries may not be a huge harvest but it is also a real opportunity for getting some taste testing done in the market in 2015.
It looks like a busy year ahead.