Autumn is in the air...

As the leaves start to fall from the withies there is a definite chill in the air some mornings and it is noticeable that the daylight hours are gradually reducing and the darker evenings are falling upon us - the hens are now going to bed at 7pm rather than 9pm which is snooze time during the peak of the summer.

This change in the season obviously effects how things grow, and this is particularly relevant to our daily production of baby leaf salad and watercress. Both grown in trays the two have slightly different requirements which becomes more apparent at this time of year. The watercress happy to be a little cooler, still grows well in our shade tunnel.

Whereas the salad leaves, whilst happy and need to be in the shade during the hot summer months, now need more light than that area offers and enjoy the warm rays of the sun that the polytunnel converts into a welcome heat at this time of year.

The flow beds in the polytunnel, originally built for the aquaponics side of the business, (that we are yet to find time for) provide the perfect housing for the trays, off the floor and a good height for watering and the perfect dimension to take a large tray which carries 4 smaller trays.

Alongside adapting our growing to the change in the daylight hours we learnt last year that we also need to deal with the change in temperature. This is particularly in relation to the cooler nights which cause condensation on the polythene of the polytunnel, which proceeds to drip off as the air warms up during the day. At its worse if can feel like it is raining in the tunnel, which does not cause a major problem for many of our winter crops, but for small delicate and soft baby leaf salad this can be devastating, causing a lot of damage to the trays. Not only do these droplets cause damage to the leaves, the constant dripping can cause mould to form on the compost. This is exacerbated by the length of time the leaves take to grow meaning there is more time for such mould to become established.

So how do we deal with this, well recently Melv has made a large 'hat' above the flow bed- 

He has built a roof out of Perspex which sits just below the tunnel polythene to catch the drops, on a slight gradient. This works perfectly as the temperature around the Perspex stays the same and so condensation never forms on the sheets.

Growing particularly well at the moment, both the bright and spicy mustards...

together with the broadleaves...

Are really enjoying life in their protected new polytunnel home.