Hairy hoses

Morning, 

The unsettled cool summer continues and personally I love it. It hasn't been a washout by any means here, with a lot of the rainfall coming overnight, temperatures are sensible for working and there has been minimal disruption to despatch and production. The main summer disruption is about to descend on us with a loads of holidays being taken. It's a good job we are reasonably together with the potting as I think the next month or two are going to be a bit of a juggle to get it all done. We have started an irrigation refurbishment project in our spare time after we noticed that a lot of the mini tunnel sprinklers were falling apart after years of UV degradation. The mini tap handles break so you can't turn individual sprinklers off and on, the bit that whizzes round loses one or both of its little arms which throw the water around and many of the non-drip valves drip! They are tiny plastic components but the total cost of well over £3,000 for the replacements was a bit of a surprise. It will take a few days to install them too, but the ones we have started on are already showing improved more even water spread so I'm sure it will be worth it in the end. One really irritating thing at this time of year is a certain small spider species which loves making its home inside the tiny hole at the base of the sprinkler head causing uneven patterns, despite the nozzles being used on a daily basis,. Most of the time the sprinklers clear themselves after a while, but the thrashing about of the sprinkler heads quite often results in them becoming detached and needing further attention. With over 900 sprinklers on the nursery it can be a big job and you know it will probably need doing again in a day or two. A good job to do when it's hot, not so much fun in the cold and damp as the water always runs right down your arm inside your clothes and gets absolutely everywhere.

Erigeron Stallone sales this year have been hitting levels we have never seen before, possibly because I managed to keep availability fairly steady across the season. Previously I have bought the seed which is tiny and very expensive especially as I direct sow it quite generously it into our big peat-free plugs. Even when I try to be mean with the sowing volumes it still doesn't go very far. Last year I thought I would try and harvest my own seed from a few selected stock plants and I found out why they were so expensive. Firstly the flowering and seeding are continuous right through the summer and well into autumn, so there is no right time to harvest you just have to pick them one flower-head at a time once it reaches the right stage. I picked everyday for probably 3 months in order to get enough and even then they weren't in the nice clean condition they arrive in inside the proper seed packet. Mine still have their fluffy feathery bits attached for potential wind distribution and a load of old petals too, but they still germinated really well after keeping then in a sealed seed packet in the fridge. Having the fluffy bits makes sowing a bit of a challenge as not only do they have the tendency to try and leave the area but you can't always be sure you are sowing the seed or the old petals! I am about to start harvesting this year's crop and I'm hoping it goes as well as last year despite the very different summer conditions.

Another home collected seed crop is our Wild Primrose which is a bit hit and miss on harvesting too, but for different reasons. The seed is ready for picking quite a long time after the flowers have disappeared and the timing works out to be right in the middle of our hectic sales season. Get it wrong and the seed has gone, or get there too early and it hasn't ripened and doesn't germinate. Luckily I got it right last year so this coming winter and spring we should have a great crop of flowering primroses. They are already potted and growing away well. We harvest from the 'new' farm woodland next to the nursery, where we originally planted several thousand primrose modules about 35 years ago. Where does the time go?

Availability list.

The available range is steadying as sales slow a bit and extra potting volumes work their way through the system. Numbers available are still a bit limited on some lines as batch sizes tend to be smaller at this time of year but with reduced demand the pressure isn't quite so manic.

There are now a few more buds showing up now and there are still more new lines growing nicely which will be appearing on the lists fairly soon. Our list constantly develops over the season so it's always worth just keeping an eye out for the new appearances.

Wooden box collections

Don't forget that all our wooden boxes are the property of Kirton Farm Nurseries so will need to be returned at some point. It will take us a while to get round everyone, but if you have any of our wooden boxes ready to return and aren't expecting to order anytime soon, then please do drop us an email and let us know. A rough idea of numbers might be handy but not essential. We will get to you as soon as we have a vehicle with space in your area. Thanks

Take care out there,

from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.