Spring – at last!

Years ago, during my spell as a student at Writtle Agricultural College our lecture on glasshouse lettuce production began:

‘L’ ‘I’ ‘G’ ‘H’ ‘T’                                                                      (C. I. Lambert circa 1977)

Lettuce are particularly sensitive to light intensity and duration, as so are most plants.

March and early April have been not only chilly and wet, but also seriously dull with often several successive days  here with no sign of the sun. The middle of April is correcting the balance somewhat and now the soil is warming and drying. Unlike the lack of soil moisture twelve months ago, we are at field capacity here which is excellent for the fruit trees particularly in conjunction with these warm temperatures.

Bearing in mind that full bloom for Cox here is, on average, the 5th May everything is so behind average that even with the current warm spell we are looking at 10th to 12th this year.

Anticyclones (areas of high atmospheric pressure) have a habit of plaguing fruit growers  between now and mid May. Lovely weather by day and an hour or so before most people are awake a damaging dip in temperatures silently influences the following months.

The rapid bursting of buds through’mouse ear’ and towards’green cluster’ means that the leaves are soft , not hardened as yet. Hopefully when this weather breaks we are not in for a strong, cold,easterly which the foilage will hate.

The leaves around the flower buds, which will gradually start to show a little pink at ‘pink bud’, are important for the strength of the flowers and a successful setting of fruit. The healthier these leaves , the greener they are, the more efficient photosynthesis  will occur especially if the levels of LIGHT are good!