Hairy healthy biome

Hi

An on and off week, with glorious weather one minute and damp and grey the next. Weekend looks similar but a little warmer, which might help springtime feel closer. Quite a few orders went out over the week which was good, although perhaps not quite as busy as we would have liked. Better to get the rubbish weather out of the way early to leave more perfect weekends later on.

Still loads going on over the nursery site with the electrician promising to be definitely finished next week. To be fair he was elsewhere for most of this week so unsurprising that not everything got finished. At least the light comes on in the gents loo now which is safer and cleaner for all!

The mist unit is now fully functional and on automatic pilot, ready for some extra peat-free cutting propagation later in the season. It creates a really fine hanging mist at the moment, just hoping it stays that way and the nozzles don't block up too easily. The seed sowing machine has been played with but not yet hit with any high volumes. I'm hoping to change that tomorrow with a long list of perennials and herbs lined up to be done.

I attended a Fargro led seminar on Holistic Growing on Thursday which prompted a few new thoughts and tweaks in direction for us on nutrition and plant health. I had a follow up visit today from a rep on some of the products talked about and they are now on order. It's not earth shattering stuff just tweaks to achieve even stronger growth than usual. That's not to say softer, which actually makes plants more vulnerable to pest and disease attack, but stronger so they are better equipped to repel the bad stuff.

The seminar started of with an interesting comparison between the human gut biome and the potted plant root and leaf zone biomes. In humans a healthy gut is encouraged by taking in a very wide range of ingredients, creating a wide array of gut bacteria inside. This in turn helps the rest of the body perform better, improving the immune system and repelling diseases etc. It isn't a cure-all but it puts you in a stronger starting position. In comparison to naturally grown plants in the wild, which rarely suffer devastating infection or pest attacks, in commercial plant production we restrict the amount of bio activity by growing in relatively inert and clean conditions. Sterile mono-crop situations make the plants much more susceptible to attack, even more so if plants are softened by over-feeding or too much warmth during the colder duller times of year. So what we are going to look at, is to try and encourage a more active root and leaf zone, with the extra microbial life in the compost helping the plants use the fertilisers and micronutrients more effectively. You aim for having more active roots as well as strengthening the root and leaf cell walls so it is more difficult for pests and diseases to get a hold. It's not like finding a magic curative bullet, it just pushes the plants to be stronger and more resistant. The improvement in resistance should reduce the need for bio-pesticides / bio-fungicides or chemicals. The treatments are applied in the irrigation water and are super cheap, so if it works we will be quids-in and if it doesn't we won't have lost out.

In a way we have already started down this road by stopping sterilising our growing beds several years ago. We were never very keen on doing this as we didn't seem to have much of an issue with disease and pest carry over from crop to crop, but it was considered a sensible thing to do. What in fact we ended up doing was annually killing off all the beneficial organisms living in the sand-beds, as well as killing off any potential baddies. We don't have ongoing root disease issues but we are now going to be building up that wide ranging microbiological collection, which can repopulated newly potted crops and get those natural protection systems going.

Prices for 2025

If you have your pots pre-priced by ourselves and would like to adjust your retail prices, please do let us know as soon as you can so we can make sure our records are correct and I can get some labels printed in readiness. Thanks.

Availability list.

The spring bulbs are making their early start with several varieties already up and showing. Not a lot of bud just yet. Fritillaria (Snakes Head Lilly) are now on the list and I have spotted the occasional flower bud, but not enough to mark it as officially in bud just yet, maybe next week if it warms up a touch.

All the Pulmonaria varieties are now in bud although we have already sold out of Blue Ensign and Trevi Fountain. The pale blue Opal looks lovely at the moment.

Narcissus bulbocodium White Petticoat are now in bud. Small and dainty, these Hoop Petticoat Narcissus are a delight but won't hang around long. Sorry but Julia Jane has already sold out, I'll do more next year. Several of the other compact Narcissus are now showing bud too.

Pretty blue and white flowers of Scilla mischtschenkoana are now just showing, get them while you can.

Cyclamen coum Silver Leaved are now producing loads of buds and colour, so looking great, but disappearing quickly. There are now plenty of Wild Primrose (P. vulgaris) ready, in bud and flower with lots more to follow.

Take care from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries