Hairy stock levels

Morning all,

OK we are now suddenly struggling for stock. I think a few other suppliers have also run out of some lines as we have been incredibly busy with sales at double the usual level for the time of year. We have had several potential new customers knocking on the door looking for stock which unfortunately we have had to turn away to try and preserve some level of supply to our existing set. It adds a whole new level of stress and frustration as it has been a situation impossible to plan for. The manic sales are a great thing to have and I'm sure we will look back and recognise a good season in the end after a sticky start. Sadly we have been unable to react quickly enough with the resources we have, to get enough extra potting done to keep stock levels up, especially after spending most of the week in despatch or on a bank holiday! Hopefully things will quieten down a bit now and we can get on with some clearing and potting and catch up again. It would be nice to feel a bit more in control after such a busy time. I'm sure you are all feeling the pressure too, so keep up the good work, we will all get there in the end.

Desperately hoping this sunny, windy dry spell breaks soon, especially with the likelihood of higher temperatures to add to the fun this weekend. We had a major panic on Monday when the main irrigation tank ran completely dry, not the sort of weather you want a shortage of water! A fault with the borehole pump was to blame, a new one is on the way, to be fitted next week. Luckily we have the mains supply as a backup but it's not ideal and a tad expensive. Might get some heavy showers our way over the weekend which might help. We suspect we had some sort of power surge/blip as at the same time as the pump fault occurring one of the wind turbines tripped out and a small phone charger died. Could be coincidence but 4 years for a pump is not long, the previous one lasted 30+.

Onto some more positive news, our electric car has rolled off the production line in Germany (finished, not rolled into a pit somewhere along the line). It is on the way to the port and by the time all the pre -sales checking and prep has been completed we should get it in the last week of this month. A 12 week predicted wait ended up being 23 months but  I'm sure it will be worth the wait. Now we just need to find the time to go somewhere.

We passed our Plant Health inspection this week which is always a relief. Checking our sticky traps and stock for invasive critters in all 36 tunnels is quite a task but luckily we seem to have most pests under reasonable control at the moment, despite the variable weather conditions over the past months. The vast array of predators released every 4 weeks must be doing their job even if we can't see them out there. In the past I have been quite tempted to put out more yellow sticky traps as they seem so effective at attracting the bugs but the danger is that we may also catch the predators. So we just put out just two in each tunnel as part of the monitoring programme rather than as a curative technique. We do use more of the red sticky traps above those plants susceptible to leaf hopper which doesn't have any specific predators available to effectively knock them back. It isn't perfect but it gets quite a few and suppresses numbers fairly effectively. We do also put extra lacewing larvae in these crops, which are a generalist and quite aggressive predator which will have a go at them.

Availability list SUSPENDED FOR PERENNIALS.

Demand for perennials and herbs has been huge over the last four weeks and this past week has suddenly cleared a whole load of lines. The perennial list in particular was already shorter last week and has now got to the point where it is not worth putting a list together at all. The number of lines shown would be very short and I know how it goes, everyone will pick multiple trays of the favourites and we will instantly run out of those.

We do have quite a bit of stock available in smaller quantities which isn't worth putting on the list for exactly the same reason as above, but I can usually slip those into the orders where we are making a yummy selection ourselves.

We are assuming things will quieten down significantly over the next few weeks when compared with the last few weeks, so hopefully the stock will have some time to recover to more normal levels to tempt those summer sales.

Perennial orders will be our selection only for the next couple of weeks or so.

For the next couple of weeks we can only realistically offer to put together orders of our own selection from the stock we have available. We are happy to take some guidance on lines not required as part of the order make up. Just let us know how many trays you require and we will do our best to put together an attractive selection. We put together orders like this for many customers already, so the idea will be familiar to many of you already.

Herbs are also a bit short in range and may head in the same direction if demand remains at current levels, but for now there is still a list available. If you chose to take our own selection of herbs you may well get a few lines included that are not currently in this week's list which could be a bonus!

Best wishes  from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.