Hairy experiments

Hi

Another busy week, or so it seems, Not as much achieved on the clearing and potting front but having a day missing at the start of the week doesn't help! We have seen some nice splashes of rain this week, enough to wet the ground but no flooding yet. The farm were a bit frustrated today, it's been dust dry for weeks and the day they start sowing our field with next years crop it just rains enough to clog the drill up and bring everything to a grinding halt. Last week it was the opposite with clouds of dust created by the tilling operations getting everything ready. Who would be a farmer?

I know it's tempting fate but the vans seem to have behaved a bit better this year, instead they have passed on the mantle to the forklift. It's out of action for the third time with a leaking ram, I wouldn't mind too much but it's the same ram each time so something is not right with the seal kits they are fitting. Anyway it has sat in the barn all week in an unmovable and useless state. This is the forklift, not the operator. Currently we are getting plenty of extra exercise filling the potting machine by shovelling the compost into plastic bins, transporting them to the machine on one of our buggy's and tipping the contents in by hand. Hopefully it won't be too long getting fixed as I may have a mutiny on my hands if we have to keep this up much longer.

It's September already next week, time for a potting push to get that extra bit of growth from the young plants while there is still enough light and warmth to put on a decent bit of growth before the short days kick in. Unfortunately it comes at the same time as the holidays packages all drop in price with the school terms starting up again. Over the whole month we have a combination of, nearly everyone taking their well earned holiday breaks, together with medical operation absences and sadly some bereavement leave. I suspect we will end up as usual, shifting some potting into early October but hopefully not too much. We have swapped our bulb supplier this year after a few hiccups with our old one, and the delivery is coming in next week, which is 6 weeks before last year. I am hoping this will provide a bit more root growth before winter, but it does add another several thousand pots to the potting schedule for the month which wasn't in the original plan. When I say 'plan' I really mean the series of rough guesses I take at the beginning of each day/week/month and year.

Our peat-free propagation saga continues with continuing mixed results from my module tray seed sowing. A positive step but in an expensive direction. Some of the smaller seed that germinated ok but then seemed to go backwards in condition over several weeks, have had a new lease of life. I did an experiment and manually pricked them out from the small celled trays into our slightly larger peat-free glue plug trays which we have used for years to wean our micro-prop plantlets into. I tried several varieties in them and they have gone nuts. Colour improved within days, root appeared out of the module base within a week and they are now big enough to pot after just 4 weeks. The plants left in the original tray are still rubbish, but still just about alive. I now have saved a few more trays, but it's like going back to the good old days of sowing into a seed tray and then pricking them out, it's not exactly the efficient model we try to work towards these days. The stable structure of the glue plug seems to be key so I have a sample of some super sifted seed compost coming next week, which I am hoping has a more stable structure than the others we have tried. There should be fewer very fine particles to block up all the air pockets, but still fine enough to level fill small cells in tray. More fun and games coming up testing out that theory.

Availability list.

Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium is showing great colour. Rose and White looking at their best. Liriope muscari is now showing plenty of flowers so summer must be passing quick. Best we have ever had. Another autumn flowering line on the list this week is the Cerostigma with its stunningly blue flowers.

Two tone foliage of Tiarella Pink Skyrocket looks very smart, buds are just beginning to show themselves. Lovely new short bushy batch of Verbena bon. Lollipop now in bud. Compact and neat Achillea Milly Rock varieties coming into bud again for a quick splash before the weather turns.

The Salvia Lip's series and Salvito's are still going strong, we keep giving batches a trim to strengthen them up and keep them from getting too tall and they just keep bouncing back. There is a batch of the Astible Astary plants coming into flower, both in the pink and white varieties.

The Aster Alpha series are showing tight bud but close to selling out some colours, The more standard classic varieties of Aster varieties are also showing nice tight bud with the odd opening flower as well. Mini Garden Chrysanthemums are here, masses of bud on the first batch already with a hint of colour too. A fab range of the compact Helenium Hay Day series are budding well now, with colour showing.

Get ready for late winter flowers by planting our Helleborus range now. Just added a whole heap of different coloured Helleborus orientalis varieties. A mass of flower bud has appeared on a batch of short and bushy Lythrum Robert and Robin. Don't hang about. 

Take care, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.