Shoots and leaves...
The whims and woes, highs and lows, of trying to grow fruit and veg in Nordic latitudes.
Spent hours rigging up the tomato plants which have grown like vines over the past few days. It is amazing what a difference a greenhouse and a sunny summer can make. Growing tomatoes against a south-facing wall in Espoo, I was lucky to pick any before mid-August and most of the yield would ripen off on the floor in the living room. This year we are already picking cherry tomatoes and, the fruits on these vines will be ripe in a few days time. Most of the tomato plants are in organic growbags but watering is a real problem. We now have a drip system which keeps the bags moist during the day, but we water by hand in the morning and the evening as the drip isn't enough. The growbags are expensive to buy and high maintenance, so next year we might make our own (ie bigger and easier to water). Some of the compact cherry tomato plants are in large pots and a few are planted in border soil in the polytunnel. It will be interesting to see how they do. The pumpkins and squash are being pollinated by insects, so no need to hand pollinate. In fact, we have so many insects in the polytunnel that we even had a couple of swallows come in for a feed. Grr... don't really want them in there!
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July 2020
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