As you sow , so shall you reap goes the saying. There is an undercurrent in the world of dis-satisfaction to a degree that we have never seen before. The rise of Donald Trump in the USA, in spite of his maverick status and uncompromising retoric is ruffling the feathers of the conventional political system. The world has racked up layers of issues which will require immense diplomacy to solve. These are not problems that money can solve but one’s that will require working together, compromise and wisdom. The world is always changing and there is nothing to fear in change. Change though needs to be anticipated, understood and managed so stability and progress through changing times is positive.
So where will 2016 take us. The US elections will probably result in a more conservative outcome as happened with the Scottish referendum. As I drive around my local area and see other farmers with “Vote leave” posters up in their fields I see this as a protest vote. A vote of dis-satisfaction. No one can predict what leaving the EU means, so understanding why one would want to leave the EU is not easy. Migration through open borders in a small country such as the UK is emotive. But unfortunately we also need most of the migrant workers to do jobs that need to be done. EU legislation is cited, but these laws are ratified by Westminster, so they have become UK law and if agreed by UK politicians then is the problem EU or UK regulators. Democracy and sovereignty are emotive issues, but when it comes to elections there is often a poor turnout in the UK. All this together comes from an underlying dis-satisfaction here, as in the US. Dis-satisfaction that will only become worse if the outcome of the EU referendum ends up with less stability rather than more.
Which just goes to show that life is not simple. Over the last week at Devereux farm the sea buckthorn is enjoying the sunshine. The last varieties – Inya from Siberia, and all the Latvian varieties are flowering. This could be a concern as the males across the site have looked poor with yellowing leaf. They have all been fed with compost tea and the leaves are responding, but whether this will impact upon pollination it will have to be seen. The compost tea I am using this year is “Liquid Life” provided by Simon Parfey at the Soil Hub. The rapid response from the plants is proof of activity. But it is the fact that it comes in a ready to use form that has made so much difference. In the past, the compost tea has had to be brewed. A time consuming process. As the tea brewer here only has 100lt as one brew is finished, spraying has to wait another 24hours until the next one is completed. With 5000 plants to feed the whole process becomes protracted and untimely. The new process, one litre of Liquid Life is diluted to 20lt of water and that covers some 120-140 plants depending upon size. The whole job has been halved in time, even though it is still manually applied from a back pack.
The plants on the whole look well, but walking the lines shows a variety of issues. There are the odd plants that have died. A few that have whole branches where leaves have just started to show, then not developed. There are some varieties that have shown to be disease prone that are already showing problems. It would seem that an additional second dose of compost tea a week after the first, is helping with this problem. These diseases are variety specific. To identify the disease would be possible, but add another cost to our development. As the site is being managed organically, the options are limited, but they are working. knowing what the disease is would be interesting, but it is the management outcome that is important at this stage.
Vapourer moth have been trying their best to infect the site. Spraying on the Liquid life compost tea has provided the opportunity to inspect every plant and around 30 small infestations have been pulled off the plants. There will be more to come.
It was in late May last year that the Siberian variety Altiaskaya was attacked by aphids. The worst affected lost branches and look weaker plants this year. Now the plants look well and strong new growth is coming up from the centre of many plants. It is the nature of a trial that each year one becomes aware of issues and how to manage them. Unfortunately the farming cycle is annual, so the learning curve is long.
The next focus is on marketing. Turning a new crop into sales is more than an art. Sea buckthorn is not only highly nutritous, it has a unique citrus sour flavour. This month will need our marketing plan to develop in order that the 2016 harvest creates a stir, that a new ingredient should. So although the world has problems with change, all is well at Devereux farm and I look forward to finally seeing how UK grown Siberian sea buckthorn performs – particularly the sweet varieties.