We’re having Pups!

This week: Pruning is well under way; We’re having Pups!;

It is the end of another week. I really do not know where time goes, however it passes with unrelenting speed.

We have had a damp week, with some sunshine, some rain and some progress on jobs that I have been completed.

Talking to my neighbours, everyone is commenting on the unseasonable weather and how climate change is affecting absolutely everything.

The concern is what will happen in the natural world because everything is inextricably linked. So for example the Scarlet Lily Beetle, Lilioceris lilii, which usually puts in an appearance in March, is here already.

But the birds and other predators are not, so when our migrant birds arrive, will their food source be there for them? And there are many more examples of this.

There is also the possibility that we have a sudden cold spell, which will then set everything back. However, we are where we are!

Because of the wet, mild winter, weeds are everywhere! Here we are looking for snowdrops.

I couldn’t see anything in the border for the winter weeds, It is only about six weeks since I completely cleared all the annual weeds!

I need to go in again and attack them, so that the annual spring bulbs can be seen and enjoyed.

Pruning is well under way

Horticulture is often about prioritisation. This week, the priority has been to get on with pruning.

I’ve not touched the Almond trees because I think their development is too advanced to really give them a haircut.

Instead, I started on my grape vines.

I don’t have many vines because this is a grape growing area, so my neighbours with aeons of experience and hectares of grapes keep me well supplied with the liquid beverage.

I planted some dessert varieties and I have kept the ancient vines around my home for the summer shade they provide rather than the fruit.

Last week I mentioned that pruning is somwhere between Alchemy and a Dark Art, however fortunately, grape vines are relatively simple.

In the spring, vines produce leaders from buds which formed the previous year.

These buds are clearly visible, all along the previous year’s leaders.

So to reduce this to its simplest form, you cut every leader back to the first two buds, closest to the main stem.

They should be pruned when dormant, but this presented me with a problem.

Last year, the vines had leaves on until December, so I didn’t want to prune the leaders when sugars were still flowing from the leaves to the roots.

This week I have found that I have the first small leaves visible. Consulting my Springwatch calendar, this usually happens around the 2nd March. So we are 6 weeks early.

I am right on the limit of pruning, with the danger that sap is already rising.

After cutting back the leaders to two buds the result looks like this.

In several places I have left one or two leaders, a little less than a centimetre in diameter, because these will bear this year’s fruit.

Because of how advanced the vines are, and to prevent bleeding from the cuts, I pressed on this week and finished all the pruning, bar one job.

I’ve allowed a main stem to grow around the eaves of my home and I need to cut this back.

For this I’ll need a saw, perhaps even a chain saw, because it is more than 5 cm in diameter.

I will also need to pain the cut end with wound healing compound. So I’ve left this job for next week.

We’re having Pups!

I’ve been working in the polytunnel this week, especially when the temperature inside is around 20°C.

I have a Scotch Bonnet chili pepper plant whose fruits are steadily ripening.

The fruit has the shape of a Tam o’ Shanter and their heat can be anywhere between 100,000 and 350,000 Scoville units.

A jalapeño pepper has a Scoville score of 4,000 to 8,500 units, depending upon the variety and a Bell pepper scores zero.

For the non-technical, the botanical fruit of the Scotch Bonnet can be anywhere between extremely hot, scorchingly hot and blow-your-socks-off hot! So I only need just one plant.

I also saw that one of my banana plants is dying. It is about 5 years old, so I am not surprised. Technically Bananas are botanically a “berry” not a fruit, but however you describe it, you know what they are.

Bananas are herbaceous flowering plants with pseudo stems made of spiral leaves. They grow, flower and then die.

The variety is Dwarf Cavendish, but my plants are anything but dwarf, being over three meters tall.

What I also found was that there are some “Pups” sprouting from the root corm. Banana root corms are perennial and the sprouting is the plant regenerating itself.

I will be separating the Pups and intend moving them outside, where there is no height restriction for them. However it is just a little too early and cool to try and separate them at the moment.

As the climate warms and changes, if I pick the spot carefully, I think I will be able to grow bananas outside with perhaps just a little protection in the midst of winter. NCG