Hairy modules

Hi.

There's nothing quite like a few days away to freshen you up for the mountain of stuff to do when you get back! This time it was the stock-take paperwork that all needed transferring to the computer spreadsheets. I've just about got to the bottom of the pile now, so just the adding up to do and decide if it was a good one or not.

We had a fantastic break although all too short. We stayed on St Martin's on the Scilly Isles which was very quiet, even during storm Amy. Not quite as manicured as Tresco but stunningly beautiful over the moors and along the white sandy beaches. There are so many tiny hedge lined fields with little patches of cultivation going on, some vegetables, fruit and still some cut flowers, little orchards planted up, the odd couple of cows and a few chickens, but quite a bit just put down to grass. It looks idyllic but it must be a nightmare to find a market for the stuff when it's harvested. The cost of getting anything to the mainland is prohibitive and even the other islands are not cheap or that easy to get to. I suppose there will be the captive holiday makers in the summer, you just make hay while the sun shines, but by now the island was pretty deserted other than our rock and roll music gathering in the one small hotel. We tried our hardest to support the local economy by eating more than our fair share of pig, cow and eggs and washed it down with Cornish ales, but have now had to go on a crash diet to try and restore normality to the waistline. Trousers have definitely shrunk, must be the salty air.

Having been blown all over the place over the weekend the weather has settled nicely again, enough to get the last two split tunnels recovered this week. One done today and another to slip over tomorrow.

I have another exciting sustainability event to attend next week at Wisley, this time put on by the compost company ICL. It is mostly centred around all things peat-free and the latest developments in overcoming some of the current pitfalls some growers and retailers are having. Hoping they have made some breakthrough in the propagation area in particular. This is where we have seen major challenges. Luckily a good proportion of our stock is already produced peat-free by other specialist propagators, or by ourselves, but we have definitely struggled with some of the slower growing/germinating plants. I had initially thought it was something I was doing wrong. We had three different propagation composts which were designed as loose fill mixes to use in our new reusable legged module trays. The vigorous stock was fine but the slower growing varieties looked very sad. Most germinated ok but never grew away, staying small and yellow with virtually no penetrating root growth for weeks on end. As a trial I pricked out some of each into our micro-prop peat-free glue-plugs and they absolutely romped away, making a plant we could pot in just a few weeks, strong growth and deep green in colour they were unrecognisable. In a rather embarrassed fashion I did show one of our supplier reps, who had previously worked with peat-free propagation, the trays with the very sad plants and she recognised it instantly as the same problem she had had. This boosted me a bit in that it wasn't me this time, and with the instant recovery of health when moved into the glue-plugs, perhaps there was an answer out there. Having thought it might be nutritional issues or overwatering my theory now is that the fine nature of the propagation mixes used for efficient filling of small modules, means that the finer particles have a tendency to quickly wash down into the module and clog up all the air pockets. In contrast the glue plugs are held fairly solid and have a very stable structure. To test out the theory I asked our glue-plug suppliers to send us a sample of their loose peat-free mix but with all the finest particles sieved out, so preventing the loss of air holes in the modules. It cost a fortune to get just 70li imported from Holland, it was about £80 just to get it through customs, but well worth it as it appears to have worked. I have a handful of lovely trays of the tricky seedlings, all growing away strongly and a lovely healthy colour. It's still early days but I'm happy I now have a more workable prop compost, just need to bite the bullet and order the minimum quantity of 8 pallets of the stuff! Wooden box collecting has started

We are already well underway collecting up our reusable wooden boxes ready for cleaning, drying and repair if needed, before they go into winter storage. If you have any ready to go just drop us a line and we will pick them up when next in your area. It may take a week or two to get round but we will get there eventually. We try to put together a good number of collections on each trip as it is always painful sending out the van without any paying cargo, but each tray does cost £10 to replace so it does pay for us to make the effort.

Availability list.

Get ready for late winter flowers by planting our Helleborus range now. Christmas Carol is showing some bud already. Cyclamen coum is coming on quickly. A winter and spring flowering form there can't be far from flowering now, the plant frame is there, just waiting for the colour to appear. Liriope muscari is now showing plenty of flowers so summer must be passing quick. Best we have ever had. Two tone foliage of Tiarella Pink Skyrocket looks very smart, buds are just beginning to show themselves. The more standard classic varieties of Aster varieties are now showing bud and open flower.

Take care, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.