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I’VE BEEN TAKING some steps to sort out the big polytunnel and get it ready for the season ahead.
Regular readers might recall that two years ago we got a new, larger polytunnel to go in the field beside our house to supplement the smaller tunnel we have in the garden. The acquisition of a commercial tunnel was ostensibly to satisfy my tomato growing fetish which is an increasingly alarming part of my overall growing obsession.
Too much work, not enough time
Last year I grew around 75 tomato plants there, but like most growers I was battling the twin evils of too much work and not enough time. Such problems are compounded considerably when you have a massive commercial polytunnel filled with tomato plants – we struggled with weeding and watering all season long (though I did seem to stay on top of the harvesting and sauce making).
Thankfully we had some help from intrepid neighbours, John and Bridget, who helped with watering and side-shooting duties in exchange for regular stashes of tomatoes, French beans and fresh eggs. I have a cunning plan to try to reduce the workload somewhat for the season ahead.
Firstly I am going to grow the tomato plants through Mypex (a tough weed control membrane that suppresses the growth of weeds by blocking the light but still allows water and nutrients to reach plants) which should eliminate the weed problem.
Thirsty plants
Secondly I am going to invest in a proper seep-hose watering system so that I don’t have to water each plant. Tomatoes are thirsty plants requiring up to 11 litres of water per week (per plant).
Typically I’ve done that watering every other day (a few litres to each plant), which is obviously tremendously time-consuming. At HQ our Head Grower Richard turns on the seep hose system once a week instead. This being Richard, he’s worked out how long it takes to deliver around 11 litres to each plant with the seep hose – it’s about 2 hours.
Before I lay down the Mypex I have to sort out the fertility in the soil, adding some dried seaweed and poultry manure pellets to ensure the tomatoes have enough feed to see them through their 6 months in the soil. Apart from an occasional comfrey tea feed during the summer, they shouldn’t require any other feeding.
The dried seaweed and poultry pellets will be sprinkled on the surface, and raked in, before laying the seep hose and the Mypex on top. Thankfully I have some time still to get this job done – the tomato plants were only sown in mid Feb and are still growing in the toasty warmth of the potting shed. They will not be going out in to the polytunnel until May at the earliest.
Sorting other issues
I’ve also been sorting some other issues over the last few weeks. I had a few tears in the plastic to fix (with an adhesive polytunnel tape – available from most good polytunnel suppliers) and a new door to put on (the old one blew off in Storm Ophelia).
I also got a trench dug around the tunnel to fix a drainage problem due to really poor soil – after heavy rain the paths inside the tunnel would fill up with water. I was always torn between feeling this was a terrible thing, and perhaps a good thing in terms of reducing the amount of watering needed.
All the work will be worth it when the first tomatoes start to make their way to the kitchen in around mid July. It better be.
Things to Do This Week – Transplant Tomatoes
If you sowed tomatoes in pots in February they should have germinated and be ready to move on by now. Though you can sow tomato seeds directly in to module trays, if I have the time I will generally start them off in pots (10 seeds to a 9cm pot) and then transplant them into module trays about a month later.
The point of this is to effectively reset the clock on the soil fertility, bearing in mind that most potting compost only has 6-8 weeks of fertility in it.
The best time to transplant a tomato seedling is just a few weeks after it has germinated, when it’s large enough to handle, but before the roots of the seedlings have started to tangle up in each other.
How to transplant the plants
Half fill a module tray with potting compost. Hold the seedling by the leaf, being careful not to touch or damage the root to stem, and ease it out of the pot from underneath using a plant label.
Pop the seedling in to a module in the module tray and then carefully add more compost around it, firming it in gently.
Don’t forget to label the module so you know what variety is in it. Give it a gentle watering and leave it somewhere warm and sunny (a sunny windowsill indoors or a heated propagation bench).
Recipe of the Week – Rhubarb and Custard Cream Pie
This Lilly Higgins recipe from her Irish Times column takes inspiration from the classic rhubarb custard pairing and the good old-fashioned American cream pie. It’s a glorious mess of custard and cream swirled together over a bed of pink roast rhubarb, all encased in a biscuity pastry shell. The perfect spring dessert.
Ingredients
For the pastry
For the custard filling
Directions
Preheat the oven to 180C. For the pastry put the butter, flour and sugar into a food processor and blitz until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and blitz until a smooth dough forms. You can also do this by hand. Flatten into a disc and cover with clingfilm. Leave to rest in the fridge for 30 mins.
Place the rhubarb into an ovenproof dish. Pour over the sugar. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Roll the pastry out on a floured surface. Line a loose-bottomed 12-inch tin with the pastry. It’s fine if the edges are messy. Line the inside of the pastry shell with tin foil, press the foil against the pastry so it stays in place.
Bake blind for 10-12 minutes. Remove the tin foil and brush inside the entire pastry shell with egg white. Bake for a further 10-12 minutes until completely golden. Leave to cool slightly then remove from the tin. Using a sharp knife trim the edges so it is neat and even.
To make the custard heat the milk until almost boiling. Mix the sugar and custard powder with a little milk until it forms a smooth paste, keep whisking in the milk until it’s smooth. Return to the saucepan and bring to the boil, whisking all the time.
Remove from the heat and cool quickly in an ice basin. Place clingfilm on top of the custard. Once the custard is cool swirl it through the whipped cream. You may need to sieve it if there are any lumps.
Place the rhubarb pieces into the pastry case and top with the custard cream mix. Serve right away.
Michael Kelly is founder of GIY and GROW HQ.
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So healthcare workers should have to put their lives at risk when there has been a warning for people to stay indoors? I’m sorry, I don’t think so. Why didn’t the person try to organize family to come or else organize to go to a care facility for the said time? I’m sorry but people were instructed to stay indoors.
@Greeneyes17: I’m sorry but who said healthcare workers should put their lives at risk? I’m sorry but that’s a touch of a straw man.
@Greeneyes17: Well this comment shows your level of ignorance on the topic. First of all most of those people with care packages don’t have family or family close by. Second of all what care facility do you suggest ?,These don’t exist. There are nursing homes for elderly people which are usually are full with waiting lists to get in. There are no care facilities that people can just go to. No one expects people to travel when they can’t but measures have to be introduced for national weather emergencies. Temporary live in carers would be an answer but an expensive one. Bottom line is just not as simple as you say and you should stop blaming the disabled for not being able to look after themselves.
@Greeneyes17: you are missing the point care providers can avail of help from the civil defence and defence force to go to there client in a emergency when code red is declared when the weather is bad
@Catherine Sims: excellent Catherine you go and temporarily live in with a vulnerable client juring the next red weather event????????
The health services and army and Gardai did a great job. But the volunteers in the Civil Defence who are volunteers did a fantastic job, on their own time. Often forgotten.
@Porterkev: “volunteers in the civil degence who are volunteers”…. wow thanks for pointing that out
@Porterkev:
One ambulance had to be dug out 6 times
https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/father-son-ambulance-team-praise-14381478
You know what one of the problems was? Too many people didn’t believe it was going to happen. Look back at the Journal comments. This narrative that joe public knew more than the scientists and meteorologists who have studied these things for years, was common.
@Dermot Lane: The cold bite was always coming but there was an admitted real possibility of Storm Emma changing course a few days before coming to Ireland and diverting from the course of going over any part of Ireland at all.
Plans should be put in place for those needing care like mentioned above and halls made available to those who need it.
Spending millions yearly on ploughs etc is not viable once in a decade weather.
@Pilib O Muiregan: Dont agree. A snow plough is just a truck that can be used for other purposes. Just bracket on front 2 hold v shaped piece os steel. snow tires not v expensive.
@gregory: in Warsaw they put ploughs on the front of the bin lorries when it’s snowing.
Im supported by clarecare twice a day. Clarecare told their workers to just go to emergency cases on thurs morning but many workets chose to stay at home. All services in Ennis and surrounding areas were fine up til about 6/7pm that eve. No one checked in on thursday no one checked in on friday Saturday or Sunday ie even a phone call.
There was no contingency plans what would have been really useful was phone contact with people who were vulnerable. Many had no one from Wed to Monday.
Conditions were too bad to travel on friday or Saturday but Alternative plans to check in with people would have been better.
The National Standard, even if this exists…, for burying water pipes underground needs to have the depth increased.
@gregory: there is a national standard but it was ignored during the boom. But it never got cold enough for pipes to freeze, this time.
I think the publicity for the emergency services is over done during the storm. There’s very good stories of great work no doubt but if you’re working in this area it’s just part of the job we don’t need to heap praise in them just pay them more where they should be.
1/2 What will become of people like my brother when they are forced out of their residential centres into dispersed housing in rural communities (where many roads were not even treated during this weather event)? Unlike the people with disabilities who were able to pick up the phone and ring Tom Clonan, my brother now 41, cannot speak, pick up a phone, dial a number, call for help, walk, feed or get himself a drink or change his own nappies – his intellectual age is 6 months to 1 year. Yet ‘disability advocates’ gung ho on independent living and wiping out ‘institutions’ insist even those with severe and profound needs should live an ‘ordinary life’ in an ‘ordinary place’ with ‘no special treatment’ – just because that’s what the majority of people with disabilities want for themselves.
A formal buddy system needs to be set up by HSE for all vulnerable persons where a designated person such as a neighbour can volunteer to check up if a carer doesn’t turn up it. It might simply mean making a quick phone call during the crisis or looking in for 10 minutes.
2/2 Once the HSE’s Time to Move On from Congregated Settings policy is fully implemented, the 76 residents who occupy ten houses (mainly large chalets) on my brother’s beautiful campus will be scattered here, there and everywhere in small houses of 3 or 4 with agency staff coming and going. Whereas during this storm they had a continuation of care thanks to a well staffed campus where nurses and carers could stay with them, in the future they will be in the very position those who contacted Tom Clonan were in this time around. Only unlike them, they won’t be able to call him or anyone. There are people with disabilities who fully rely on others for their survival – leaving cold food & drinks next to my brother’s bed would not work for the same reason it wouldn’t work with an infant.
No mention of other voluntary agencies that have been doing great work, the likes of Order of Malta, St Johns and Red cross, who mobilised vehicles and personnel all over the country during the bad weather! IT’s not just the civil defence you know!
Global warming causing Sudden Stratospheric Warming’s hasn’t really kicked off yet and when it does then these things will get more common and WORSE.
@Alois Irlmaier:
Please define “Global warming causing Sudden Stratospheric Warming’s” as even google struggle with that one.
I fully expect that the Gestapo will issue a curfew for a future weather event.
This will be the inaguration of the new Irish Communist State.
It is up to the government to make sure that there is enough of a supply of crack, mack, cocaine, heroin, alcohol etc for those who refuse shelter.
What a kip of a country, we are great for meddling in other peoples business but cant mind our own, I’m a pensioner &recently got a bill from my electric company for almost a thousand euros? I know I don’t owe that money as I live in a one bed apt & i’m seldom home, the bill was for eighty four days, The company are saying that I do owe the money so I asked them to prove to me that I owe them the money but they haven’t come back to me, My point is that there are a lot of unqualified people in jobs that they are not qualified to be in, In other words they are chancers, God help us & save us from the vultures
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