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| 13 September |
There is less variety in our harvests this week, partly due to the fact that there is now a gradual phasing from harvesting crops completely for storing and harvesting for more or less immediate use.
Our harvest highlight has to be the apples picked from what we think is our inherited Discovery 'tree'. This 'tree' is part of our apple hedge which was on the plot when we first took it on at least 13 years ago. By rights it should maybe have been disposed of as the whole hedge is riddled with canker. Despite this the 'trees' fruit well and as far a Discovery is concerned, this year it has excelled by producing apples that not only look good but taste delicious.
We are also picking sweetcorn.
The cobs have filled out well so pollination has been successful. As is usual for sweetcorn we plant in blocks of closely spaced plants to encourage effective wind pollination.
The problem is that often the wind isn't very obliging and can fail to blow at the right time so I believe in given nature a hand. When the male flowers at the top of the plants appear to be loaded with pollen, I shake the stems of the plants whenever I pass the bed.
I am still picking plenty of cut flowers. The cosmos are providing the most cutting material but the sweet peas are still flowering and the stems are still a good length.
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| 14 September |
The above pickings came from the garden greenhouse. The mini cucumber had become a little chunky. The photo was taken under artificial light and the Sunchocola tomatoes look darker than they really are. The colour is more realistic in the photo below. The Sunchocola are between the yellow unknown plum variety and the apples.
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| 15 September |
The tomatoes above came from the plot greenhouse and some tubs in the plot which are managing to produce ripe fruit in spite of blight. The tubs which are in a different part of the plot have been touched by blight but are not as badly affected as those planted in open ground.
I noticed that some of the badly mildews courgette plants were producing fresh green leaves and flowers and so I decided to remove all the mildewed leaves to see if this will encourage them to produce more fruit. This year we haven't experienced the usual glut and so will be happy to pick more.
I didn't mange a photo of one of our crops - the Red Williams pears. We had eaten the pears before we had taken a photo but here they are earlier on the tree.
That is our entire crop but what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in flavour. The tree is only small and produces lots of suckers which I think affects the top growth. Any ideas how to rectify this will be gratefully received.
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A year without a Courgette glut? Surely not! Your Sweetcorn looks perfect, so your artificially-enhanced pollination method evidently works well.
ReplyDeleteThis year the one time when it wasn't windy, Mark was when the sweetcorn needed pollinating
DeleteI have a feeling there's not much to be done about the production of suckers - I recall hearing someone on GQT talking about it once. Fantastic healthy harvests Sue, you've done well again. The tomatoes look excellent, and you've got really good quantities. My outside ones will be coming out in the next day or two and the last tomatoes going into sauce for the freezer. Blight won out this year, but I got a decent haul before it struck so I'm not complaining. I shall miss the Sungolds in my salads though, usually they go on and on. I have some English Discovery apples in my fruit bowl at the moment, and they do indeed look exactly like your mystery apple. A decent harvest of pears here this year, I just need to calculate when to pick them.
ReplyDeleteWe have a couple of pear trees with a bit if fruit still to harvest and iy is tricky to decide when to pick. The Red Williams helped by falling off.
DeleteHow I envy you your sweet peas! They look lovely in combination with the cosmos. Here in southern California, they would be blooming six months apart with the sweet peas being iffy at the beginning of the year.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that you make up for it in other ways, Janet.
DeleteThat is some lovely looking corn! I've not tried saving mildewed plants so it will be interesting to see if yours come back. It looks like some are trying to come out and maybe they will get a second wind.
ReplyDeleteThe courgettes have flowers Dave so we may get a few more fruit.
DeleteWhat a great harvest, Sue. We've had plenty of tomatoes and are still picking them. I made tomato soup for the freezer and will be doing chutney this week. I've been keeping a close eye on them in case of blight, but they are grown in the greenhouse. But the plot next to ours had blight on their outdoor tomatoes and he just threw them in the woods across the lane. The apples have done well too this year.
ReplyDeleteWe made a tomato sauce to freeze, Margaret to user with pasta etc. Still more to pick.
DeleteLovely harvests! Those apples look so delicious and that corn is flawless! I don't think I've ever grown corn that doesn't have some kind of pest or pollination problem.
ReplyDeleteThe corn tasted good too< Julie
DeleteYour planting method and pollinating help for the corn obviously works a treat sue, a gorgeous cob.
ReplyDeleteI might try planting mine a bit closer together next year, though quite often under-plant with dwarf French beans (of which none germinated from two sowings this year, must've been a bad batch).
Do you start your French beans in pots, Lou? If we planted straight in the ground the slugs would have them. We don't grow dwarf varieties now only climbing varieties.
DeleteI notice in fields corn is planted very close together.
I usually direct sow the dwarf beans, with no problems. I couldn't see any obvious signs that they'd germinated and then been nipped off by slugs, but the slugs were so bad this year I wouldn't put it past them!
DeleteP.S. Just spotted your titchwell photo album - lovely, I like it up there but don't go very often as it takes ages by bus from Norwich
Beautiful flowers and beautiful corn! A shame about the courgettes - it always seems to be too many or too few!
ReplyDeleteThe yellow courgettes did OK, Susie enough to pick and use but nothing like the usual amount. The green ones produced less though.
DeleteSuch wonderful harvests - especially those apples. I can't wait until our apple trees start to bear. Hopefully they don't get infected by disease any time soon - our our plum tree looks to have black knot and I think our nectarine, only planted last year, may have canker.
ReplyDeleteI'd never heard of black knot , Margaret and had to Google it. How we manage to grow anything with so many nasties about is a miracle isn't it?
DeleteLovely harvest, Sue! Your grapes and corn patch are so interesting! I really love it!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Endah
DeleteProbably my worst year ever for courgettes Sue. What's your verdict on the Sunchocola tomatoes taste wise?
ReplyDeleteThe skin is a bit thick, Anna but the tomato is very tasty - we like it.
DeleteIt looks like that everybody can grow ripe tomatoes. Except me.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, Mr P. I always think everyone has ripe tomatoes before us so I empathise.
DeleteGo online and google "Water sprouts on fruit trees" you will find many article on how to remove them.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful harvest, that sure is a perfect ear of corn.
I'll try that, Norna thanks.
DeleteThe red pears look great. Suckers should not be cut of with secutuers, they will regrow, you should dig down and try tearing them off. Then build the soil around the tree higher than it was before. Having said that sometimes they keep on doing it due to the vigour of the grafted root stock.
ReplyDeleteI am envious of your sweet corn, we had to give up growing it due to the badgers eating it all before it was ready!
Thanks for the advice Brian
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