Another unusual season – it’s now December and time for another catch up with Ian, our grower.

Following the driest summer … June, July, August and September, we have probably had the wettest October and November on record.  It started raining the end of September and it’s never stopped since.  In that time there was one occurrence of three days where there was no rain forecast – but we still had rain, though slightly less than what we’ve normally been getting. 

There are of course consequences for the veg already in the ground and to our cropping plans.   The plants are very wet, we are talking more than a little bit of surface water.  If, and when, it gets really cold, ice is formed on or in the plants. This causes damage. You’ll notice that kale has got slightly brown leaves caused by water freezing on the leaves and ‘burning’ them. In addition, leaves underneath, may have been sitting in the wet and developed mould.  So then you can get kale plants with mould on the bottom, and a burn to the top. 

The other factor which really makes things difficult is where we’ve got the white environment mesh to stop the pigeons eating our brassicas.  Rain collects on the mesh.  The water is heavy, which means the mesh is touching greenery underneath.  Due to the quantity of rain, there is no chance to dry out which means the plants are sitting in the wet. So the tops, like the Brussels sprout tops, have been getting a little bit mouldy as well. Some of the Brussels sprout tops have not been usable. 

Is there any benefit of having had so much rain between October and the end of November? 
Well, it’s revitalised the soil, in that it’s filled the water table up, which means that by spring, if it doesn’t stay as wet as this, we should be ready to go.  The downside is that there has been no ploughing. I had wanted to expose some of the weed roots to frost. Which means we’ll be a bit behind on that. 

There were several articles saying that farmers were predicting a difficult spring?
They were generally predicting that because the water table was too low, which would have a knock-on effect on how fast things would grow.  Because of the warm spell we’ve had I’ve noticed that the oilseed rape fields are too far advanced. The oilseed rape has grown really, really quickly, some of it is actually starting to flower now and this will probably wipe out that crop, because there’s nothing to pollinate it. And the seeds are going to be setting in damp conditions so they’re not going to dry enough. Some farmers are going to take a big hit if that happens. 

I’ve noticed that lots of things started growing more quickly this year and assumed that when the temperature dropped, they just pause?  
It depends on the plant, leafy things will pause.  Some plants will go, ‘my fruits are ready…but I’ve got more energy now, so I’ll carry on’. After forming a hard skin, this leads to swelling. Then the rain comes along, and there is a bit more growing… and the fruit splits. Characteristically carrots and potatoes do that, radishes do the same, pumpkins, anything that has a solid fruit.

But it is really good for leafy greens…?  
Well, if they’re not sitting in water, it’s mild, so leafy greens will get bigger, and you’ll be able to harvest them during the winter period. However, plants start growing slower because there’s not enough light.  Which means plants with some really, really good leaves, but not masses and masses of leaves.  In other words, the quality side will be good, but the quantity side is going to be terrible. The warm weather has also allowed the slugs to last a little bit longer, so they’ve been attacking the pak choi and Chinese cabbages. The mice are having a nice time with the onion sets because it’s dry in the poly tunnels.

That’s quite enough about the weather – as usual our growing is all swings and roundabouts…