One Busy April

It's been a busy month through April. We have just finished planting all the strawberries, raspberries, currants and gooseberries. These have been spread across multiple different fields and health grades to give them the best chance of growing and where some may struggle hopefully others will thrive. We plant all our plants by hand as we set them out in small blocks across the field so a machine would be inefficient as there would be alot of turning or changing of varieties.

Now everything is in the ground we almost immediately set to work hand and mechanically hoeing the plants. This helps to settle the plants into their rows a bit while also adding some air in around the plants to help the roots expand out. We have over the years discovered more hoe passes helps the plants to grow more. We also try to hoe regularly as it hits the weed when they are at a smaller growth stage which is more efficient and makes them easier to deal with.

Imy came down to the field this year to have a go on the tractor mounted steerage hoe. We use this to Hoe the ground in between the rows and have it set as close to the plants as who ever is steering dears to get. It means when we come to hand Hoeing there is a lot less ground to cover which makes the job quicker meaning we can get on with other tasks.

We also use some other tools for weed control like a spring tine harrow which is pulled by the tractor this turns weeding into a one person job again but isn't the most accurate. We will hopefully be looking at some more options going forward to make things a bit easier and demanding.

As the plants got in early this year they have coped well with the dry period we have just been through. We do not have the ability to irrigate where we are based so its been handy that the plants got going earlier enough to cope and even thrive with the hot dry spell. We are looking forward to hopefully seeing some rain through May.