Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 40 Entries. Thursday, April 7 View Page Test seeds are germinated and the tunnel patch is ready. The coco patch from last year has been extended to fill the tunnel. It took 10,000 L of CANNA Coco Professional Plus to fill and a lot of sweat to raise up the bottom end of the patch to make it level. At 300 sq ft it's not the biggest of patches but if we have good sunshine and I improve my watering then good things are expected. I have buried pallets into the coco to give me access as this was a big problem last year. The roots will have no problem growing throughout the pallets.   Thursday, April 7 View Page The Coco has been covered over to limit moisture loss. I still need to get some doors made up for this side of the tunnel and a mini hoop house in the tunnel for the plants. We have had tons of rain so the other patches have had to sit and rest as the ground is simply to wet. Still time yet although the hoop houses need to go up this weekend to start warming the soil.   Thursday, April 7 View Page Here's the soil report for the top patch which I'm fairly happy with. The pH was at 7.5 last year so getting it down to 7.2 is heading in the right direction. Boron levels are up to where they should be but Magnesium is clearly the elephant in the room. Apart from some ammendments I'll be looking to supplement Mg during the season through the watering system.   Thursday, April 7 View Page ....and here's the report for the bottom patch (patch 2). As with above, this these tests are prior to anything being added. This patch was rested in 2015 with a cover crop of vetch and rye. Low magnesium levels are a problem through out my patches, calcium is high. Trace elements such as Molybdenum and Manganese which are both low are present in the CANNA nutrients I am using.   Thursday, April 7 View Page no... here's the report   Thursday, April 7 View Page Last but not least, the 150 patch. Boron is bang on as per reccomendation. With such high levels of Calcium (from lime) the pH in my soil is always going to be buffered up and I guess it's going to take years to rectify this issue.   Monday, April 11 View Page The seed for the Coco bed have been started (3 x 874.8 Geyelin and 3 x 854.5 Frei). An early start is fine here as the Coco bed is warming nicely. I'm not starting so early with the others as I still need to work the patches and get some hoop houses up for soil warming. No point in starting early with these. Looking back, my best year was in 2013 and my plants didn't hit the ground until the 2nd/3rd May.   Thursday, April 14 View Page My diary wouldn't be the same if it didn't show something being made each season so here's one of the small hoop houses to go in the tunnel for the coco bed.   Thursday, April 14 View Page I said I wouldn't start so early but I couldn't help myself. Let's hope I havent started too early. Three plants being grown: my 874.8, Jorgs 1004 and Cliff Warrens 500.5 (874 as back-up)   Saturday, May 14 View Page It's been a really busy couple of weeks and this patch (for the 1004 Wagler) was prepared in the last week of April. The patch was rested in 2015 with a vetch/rye cover crop but the crop was neglected, grew to about 7' and went to seed and so was covered all winter to keep it moist and help some breakdown of the woodier parts.   Saturday, May 14 View Page Work has been really busy too and at the moment I am spreading my growing over two locations. I'm also growing a little more than usual. At the allotment it's pumpkins as usual but this year it's seeing some long gourds being grown. Although the structure for it still needs to be built   Saturday, May 14 View Page The plants in the work tunnel are flying along. Perhaps next year I'll grow a giant pumpkin in here in rockwool.   Saturday, May 14 View Page The work tunnel is where my Giant Tomatoes and Cucumbers will be going, about 5-6 plants. I really enjoyed putting together this little seed started station. At the bottom is a sand bed with heating cables in and once seedlings are up I can raise or lower both the shelves or the lights. Why didn't I build this before I staretd my pumpkin plants?... there's always next year!   Saturday, May 14 View Page ....the cucumbers, 3 seeds are from David Thomas's WR cucumber of 2015 and the other 9 are from his 21.6 9/10 germinated and were up with 48 hours   Saturday, May 14 View Page Nights have been cold but but this was expected so I built two little hoops houses to go in the tunnel and cover these with some thick material stripped out of an old mattress Inspired by Matt Radach's timelapse videos he does every year I thought I would have a go to. First one is on facebook (see link below) https://www.facebook.com/addcanna   Saturday, May 14 View Page The hens have been busy for the last 21 days. Same as last year....50% hatched and we have 3 eggstra chickens in the back garden now   Saturday, May 14 View Page The great thing is that the 3 chicks are being raised by 2 mums. The lemon peking raised this one and hence they have a great bond and raise the chicks together. There was a little bit of good natured pushing and shoving and stealing of eggs over the last 3 weeks but it's all good.   Saturday, May 14 View Page Picture say's it all, why I like the coco so much.   Monday, May 16 View Page A couple of David Thomas's WR cucumber offspring basking under the lamp.   Sunday, May 29 View Page At the moment I'm busy growing all sorts in different places and here are some chilli plants I have going in coco and there not doing to bad. I have two each of the following: Carolina Reape, Filius Blue and Omnicolour   Sunday, May 29 View Page .....plus Pink Tiger, Twilight and Habenero Mustard   Sunday, May 29 View Page When you have around 60 tomato plants to prune you realise where the term 'green fingers' came from. My fingers look like they belong to the hulk   Sunday, May 29 View Page Last Sunday we had a great time in the Peak District until we made our way home and my wife slipped and broke her leg. She's mending now, and as the saying goes..it could have been worse. We have lived in Nottingham for 11 years now and just don't get over to this place enough   Wednesday, June 1 View Page The irrigation is in and works nicely although there is not much need for watering as the weather is dire!! The plants outside are getting battered by the wind and cold. Another happy year growing in the UK   Sunday, June 19 View Page Been a little too busy or an update but I would have only complained about the weather. So far, the 854.5 Frei in the coco bed is the only plant that doesn't seem to be held back by our cold weather and grey clouds. Plant sits at 10' and has a small female in the growing tip. I have been feeding with Coco A & B and Rhizotonic at at EC 2.6 and pH 5.6. I have been taking coco samples and performing an extraction which has shown me that the plant wants more. The colour of the leaves tell me I need to push the EC higher too. I am doing a time lapse video of this plant and it shows that a cat comes and plays in the tunnel every over day. I am yet to discover some cat chum in the coco.   Sunday, June 19 View Page This is the 1004 Wagler which for quite some time was the best in the patch. But, as you can guess from all the weeds, there has been nothing but rain here. The plant doesn't look too happy either.   Sunday, June 19 View Page This is the 500 Warren and it exhibits the same type of growth as last years plant in this patch.... all secondaries shoot high for the sky but the plant otherwise looks good (just like last years one did). I'm definately noticing trends between the patches since 2013, just wish I knew which micro or macro nutrient was causing it.   Sunday, June 19 View Page The tomato plants at work are really beginning to notch it up a gear and I nearly have all of the timers set up for the drip irrigation. A few teething issue has resulted in a few tanks of nutrient pushed out due to syphoning when the pumps went off and a few mistakes with timers not going off.   Saturday, June 25 View Page Darn it, I completed some tertiary pruning on the secondaries and forgot to switch out of that mode when I got to the main vine. Accidentally pruned off a secondary. Done it before and will do it again :(   Saturday, June 25 View Page The kids insisted the chick joined us for breakfast :)   Monday, June 27 View Page Everything is looking good and a female at 13' should open in 4-5 days if the weather is warm. But it's not but the plant is growing good anyway. I'm going to beat my colleagues at Research department CANNA HQ. Nothing can go wrong.   Wednesday, June 29 View Page Arrrgggghhh....I snapped the main vine before the pumpkin....IDIOT!. Did it in the morning despite knowing not too. Got greedy and pushed the vine a little more until it cracked. I can still here the noise now. You never forget it. So where does that leave me?....well only female visible is on vine in the yellow circle. Not a great place but it's all I have to go with. The only other vines I have for training are circled in red as many of the others doubled up and had to be pinched out. The secondary in green may have to go to make way for the pumpkin. Getting to the pumpkin will not be easy either. Got to go with what I have. On the bright side the plant is only 200 sq ft and will have a chance to fill out and also the weather is terrible. It would be nice to have good weather around pollination. The bad news is that it's a secondary which feel like entering a horse with a donkey, or worse... a three legged horse.   Friday, July 8 View Page Finally!... a pollination on the 854 Frei in coco. It's on a secondary vine so of course I'm not happy and it's really close to the side of the tunnel. Still, I know my limitations and with such crap weather at least I don't have to worry about growing one so big that the side of the tunnel becomes and issue. 854.5 Frei x self   Thursday, July 14 View Page After 2 years of free roam in the garden we finally had a fox visit and last week it took 4 hens. The garden was a mess. Our first two chickens were not harmed. One was layign an egg and was oblivious to the mayhem and the other was in shock. My wife wrapped her in a blanket and she didn't move for 6 hours. We're thankful she didn't die and that our original two were fine. We're really close to them and they have great personalalities. To be honest, as I write this update they're under my kitchen table as that's where they like to be. So, not to lose them to a fox I decided it was time to build a secure run for them. Almost finished.   Friday, July 15 View Page Job finished. I prefer natural wood myself but the Mrs had other ideas.   Friday, July 15 View Page So grateful to have these two not harmed   Friday, July 15 View Page Note to self: Pollinations. No.1 854.5 Frei x self (8/7). No.2 854.5 Frei x self (10/7). No.3 1004 Wagler x self (11/7). No.4 854.5 Frei x multiple (13/7) - seed in blossom.   Wednesday, July 20 View Page Day 12 and I'm not worried so much about measuring this year. If it looks like its growing I'm happy and this one is growing.   Wednesday, July 20 View Page I checked the EC & pH in the coco today and found the pH at 5.5 which will only drop lower as the plant consumes potassium. So I counter with water pH'd to 6.2. We'll see how it goes. Feeding has been at around 3.2 and the plant is happy although I measured 3.9 in the coco. So I have dropped the EC down to 2.9 which I would have done anyway to compensate for the hot weather this week.   Wednesday, July 20 View Page Hopefully superficial and it doesn't get worse