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Tunnel vision
Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 4:40 pm
by Odsox
Out with the camera today, so a shot from either end of my west polytunnel.
In the foreground left are a few Borlotti beans, right is my sweetcorn just getting going, with carrots and chard further up.
There are 3 pots of leeks due to be planted out tomorrow and extreme right is a short row of broad beans which I'm picking now (you can see them in the other photo)

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... and from the other end, right is a row of climbing French beans in full production now, with 10 or so tomatoes behind and my onions on the left.
The grape vine is a black grape and is 3 years old. Last year it had about 10 bunches of grapes, this year it has at least 180 but I gave up counting.
What you can't see is a couple of courgette plants also behind the beans, and my garlic and shallots above the onions

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Re: Tunnel vision
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 7:09 am
by diggernotdreamer
Looking wonderful. I am quite inspired by your grape, I keep thinking I will put two in my tunnel, but I am really bad at pruning things back, I have a hard time side shooting tomatoes, they just look so happy growing away. I am guessing you have to keep pruning off side shoots etc to keep it tame?
Re: Tunnel vision
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 7:47 am
by Odsox
diggernotdreamer wrote: I am guessing you have to keep pruning off side shoots etc to keep it tame?
No, not really.
Once you have the branches trained where you want them you only need to prune twice. Once in winter to prune all the side shoots back to one or two buds, then in spring when the new side shoots grow I prune each new branch to one leaf beyond the last flower sprig. Now and again some side shoots need trimming again, but that's basically it.
Actually the vine is a bit of a mess. I changed the overhead irrigation pipes a month or so ago and had to drop the vine rods out of the way. Before all the shoots were upright, when I put them back they all hung down (and still are)
Re: Tunnel vision
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 9:21 am
by Green Aura
Quite lovely.

I love to see tagetes growing with the tomatoes. Your very deep beds would drive me nuts though (they did and we removed them). Of course that has nothing to do with me being too short to reach the back without standing in them.
My polytunnel is, like the rest of the garden, in complete disarray as we've concentrated on renovating indoors and I'm making stock for my shop. Having said that, the apricot tree has fruit for the first time, the citrus are in bud and we have olives again, so all is not lost. Oh, and we've got more feverfew than you can shake a stick at - a real headache

Re: Tunnel vision
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 10:52 am
by Odsox
Green Aura wrote:Your very deep beds would drive me nuts though (they did and we removed them). Of course that has nothing to do with me being too short to reach the back without standing in them.
They're not really deep beds, more a sunken path. They are just "beds" and I walk on them all the time, anyway it's about 8 feet from the path to the far edge, so you would have to have enormously long arms to reach.

Re: Tunnel vision
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 10:59 am
by Odsox
Here's the other tunnel
Far more potatoes than we can eat considering we have far more potatoes than we can eat in the outside garden.
The things up strings are runner beans, on the left artichokes, down the far end are cauliflowers being harvested now and further on yet more tomatoes. Down the bottom on the left are purple mange tout peas.

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And in non-tunnel news, I have one of these in my small greenhouse.
(I just spotted a side shoot that eluded me)

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