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Horticultural fleece
Posted by: Jekka McVicar, 25 February 2008, 05.25PM
It has been one of those typical early spring weeks, not enough hours to do everything I want to do. The team from BBC Gardeners' World Magazine came down for a couple of days to take a series of photographs on how to raise plants from seed. This is in preparation for a new series that I am writing for the magazine which is planned to be published next spring. So that everything did not blow away we set up in one of our multi-spans. Of course one of my cats, in this case Basil, had to get in on the action.
Serious potting has started on the farm. This is two weeks earlier than last year as the light has been so good that our wintered cuttings are already putting on new growth.
Once the plants are potted they are then covered with horticultural fleece. This protects them from the very cold nights that we have been having. We are also using this fleece on our Chelsea Flower Show plants to protect them and give them that little extra warmth which will encourage them to start producing new growth.
We always remove the fleece from the plants on warm sunny days and hang it up to dry. If the plants are wet when covered it can cause the fleece to become damp. In very cold conditions, the fleece can then freeze on to the leaves, damaging them. This is an absolute 'no-no' with respect to the Chelsea Flower Show stock because you can hear the judges tutting already, even in February!
For those that don't know about horticultural fleece it is a good way of protecting plants from frost. Later in the season it also protects plants in the carrot family, such as parsley, from carrot root fly and those in the brassica family, including salad rocket, from flea beetle.
Comments
William
01 January 2007, 12.00AM
cook
28 February 2008, 12.18PM
9iron
28 February 2008, 03.41PM
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