Monday, 21 August 2017
Tickled Pink
I must be getting accustomed to a cool August as Sunday didn't seem too bad temperature wise. We spent the afternoon pottering about at the allotment and in a bit of afternoon sunshine it was pleasantly warm. The temperature managed to climb up to 19.7°C (67.5°F) which is a little below what may expect. However, once again into the early hours of Monday morning the temperature fell to an unusually cool 8.9°C (48.0°F) giving a chilly start to the day.
Temperature Record for August 2017 Compared With Average For 2010-2016
The pink line on the chart is the average high temperature based on 2010-2016 records and you can see how the temperature this year has struggled.
One of the windfall apples that I picked up over the weekend was one called "Tickled Pink". We planted this tree a few years ago (2012) and initially tried growing it in a container. That wasn't at all successful and the tree was moved to the allotment and planted alongside our "Egremont Russett". At the time I wasn't even sure that the tree would survive. It's taken a couple of years but the tree has recovered and this is the first year it's gone on to flower and produce some fruit. It's claimed that the flesh of the apple in a pinky red colour through to the core which is why we chose this apple as it offered something a bit out of the ordinary.
As you can see "Tickled Pink" has very attractive flowers much pinker than most apple blossom.
Having collected the windfall "Tickled Pink" apple we thought we should cut it in half to see if it was tinged pinky-red through to the core. The video below records the event.
Wednesday, 23 August 2017
Who Eats All the Sunflower Hearts?
Tuesday was forecast to be the warmest day this month but it didn't quite live up to expectation. It managed to reach 22.7°C or 72.9°F. This wasn't enough to beat 23.9°C (75.0°F) on 17 August which still remains our warmest day of the month. Thanks to the much milder conditions arriving in the early hours of Tuesday morning the average temperature was the highest for the month at 18.9°C (66.0°F) as for once we avoided a chilly overnight temperature.
Temperature & Solar Radiation Records 17-23 August 2017
I sometimes wonder which birds devour the sunflower hearts in the feeder hanging in our magnolia tree. At this time of year it needs a refill every morning. Usually, every last seed has been eaten.
I've seen a few young goldfinches happily enjoying the sunflower hearts but I couldn't figure out how a few young goldfinches were managing to eat all the seeds each day.
Sue managed to capture this photo one afternoon which goes somewhere to explain where the seeds go. There were more goldfinches perched in the magnolia tree waiting their turn on the feeder. The whole family had turned up to enjoy our sunflower hearts.
Friday, 25 August 2017
A Warm Snap
We had a little bit of August warmth late on Tuesday and into Wednesday. However, it wasn't sunny, just warm and muggy. On Wednesday morning we had a thunderstorm that deposited 14.8mm (0.58in) in less than an hour.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 19-25 August 2017
The warmer weather didn't last long as the thunderstorm cleared away the muggy conditions and we returned to rather cooler temperatures.
I find it a little bit difficult to understand how different varieties of potatoes growing alongside each other can produce such contrasting results. I lifted a row of Nadine and Orla earlier this week. There didn't look to be much difference between the two varieties when I lifted them but since they’ve dried off and been sorted out for bagging up for winter storage there's an obvious difference. Orla certainly provided the heaviest crop but the potatoes were badly damaged by slugs and wireworms. At first glance Orla produced double the weight of potatoes compared to Nadine but once the crops were sorted out for winter storage Nadine was a clear winner with more undamaged potatoes.
Potato - "Nadine" A Good Crop of Almost Pest Free Potatoes
Potato - "Orla" Almost Every Potato has Slug or Wireworm Damage
Looking at the photos you can clearly see how much more damage has occurred to the potatoes in the bottom photo which are Orla. Nadine had some damage but nothing like the damage that occurred to Orla. To be fair to we grew another row of Orla in a different part of the allotment and it produced an excellent crop of undamaged potatoes. As we think Orla taste pretty good I'm not sure that we will be removing it from our planting list. I don't know why some parts of the plot are more attractive to slugs, but they are, and it's not always the same parts of the plot as the slugs rotate their favourite beds each year. I have to lift a row of Winston potatoes from the same "sluggy" bed and it will be interesting to see how they perform as I always consider them prone to damage from pests such as slugs and wireworms.
I've used a few of our damaged Orla potatoes and I think I'll keep the damaged ones in a separate bag.
As you can see when peeled the damage isn't too severe and plenty of usable potato still remains. I may keep the largest of the potatoes to use up first. They won't be too much good for jacket potatoes though!
Sunday, 27 August 2017
Too Much To Bear!
The last few days haven't been too bad and August's having a late attempt to make up for the poor cool start to the month. It hasn't been hot by any stretch of the imagination but it's been warmer by day and by night and it's probably done enough to avoid the tag of the coldest August I've recorded.
On the plot we've got some damage limitation jobs to undertake on some of our fruit trees.
Firstly a branch of our small pear tree Invincible has broken. It's certainly got lots of pears and they're a decent size too.
It's difficult to photograph all the pears as the branch is now upside down after breaking, hiding most of the pears. Hopefully, as the branch hasn't broken off completely the pears will go on to ripen and then I think the branch will have to be cut back to the main trunk of the tree. As it's only a small tree that shouldn't be too difficult a job once the pears have been picked.
Secondly, our Egremont Russet apple tree has broken the tie that holds it to an upright post and the tree is now resting on the ground.
It looks as though it should be easy to just pull the tree back upright and re-attach it to the post. We tried and the tree didn't really want to straighten up. All the fruit makes the tree very heavy so a temporary fix may be required to keep the apples off the ground and a permanent solution sorted out once all the fruit is picked.
Finally, a branch of our Marjorie's Seedling plum tree has also snapped again due to the weight of plums it is carrying.
This is a much larger tree and with the tree in full leaf and loaded with plums it's difficult to see exactly where the branch has broken. The leaves on the broken branch are still green and the plums look to be continuing to ripen so for the moment I'll do nothing and hope that the fruit fully ripens. Then once all the fruit is picked I'll have to see exactly where the branch has broken and do a bit of tidying up.
August Bank Holiday Monday, 28 August 2017
Saving The Best Till Last
Sunday was the warmest day of the month with the temperature reaching 25.2°C or 77.4°F. We had a decent amount of sunshine too making it August's best day so far. Bank Holiday Monday is forecast to be even better.
Temperature Record for August 2017
One of our fruit trees that wasn't struggling with the amount of fruit it was carrying was our "Red Williams" pear tree. I knew it had six pears on it, or rather it did have. When we arrived at the plot on Sunday afternoon and I made my little inspection tour I noticed one of the pears had fallen off and had been mostly eaten by our resident blackbirds. I checked the other fruits that remained on the tree and they came away from the tree with no effort at all.
I'm not convinced that the pears are fully ripe so they've gone in a fruit bowl where we can keep a check on them for ripeness. I find pears much more difficult to judge for ripeness than apples. Apples that part from the tree as easily would certainly be ripe but it seems pears need to be picked and then left to ripen.