10th August

This week the temperature has dropped, and the courgettes have slowed down.

This is not too much of a problem as we have loads planted.

When the temperatures were in the high 20s, we were getting eight to ten thirty kilo crates of off around one hundred and twenty-five meters.

The rows are two hundred and fifty meters long, and we have a cane marking the middle.

Each day we harvest to the cane the next day from the cane to the end.

We usually need ninety kilos per day for the deliveries, and when it was hot we were having to put the extra’s in the compost, and these were usually huge, they grow at an amazing rate when it is warm.

But we need to plant the amount we do, because the temperature always drops to mid-teens then we need to harvest everything.

Last week we had to harvest uchi kuri squash to replace the courgettes, just because the night temperatures had dropped to single figures, which really slows down the growth.

This week in the field we are planting ten thousand beetroot plants, these should take us right into the winter, we will also be planting three thousand lettuces in the tunnels for the salad bags.

                                                                                                                                                 We also have ten thousand over winter cauliflower, ten thousand over winter purple sprouting and five thousand Romanesco cauliflower to be planted in the field, but these are a week or so behind the beetroot, and we will plant ten thousand broad bean seed.

All these will be ready for harvesting around March to April next year, depending on the winter.

After these are planted that is the planting in the field finished for the year, we will continue to do more seed blocking, but these will be for the tunnels.