Polytunnel Perennials 2019

Polytunnel from Top door May 19

So how are the perennials in my polytunnel fairing?

Five flavour berry (Schisandra chinensis):  I have three different varieties of this, but they are all quite young plants.  One did have a single flower. but it doesn’t look like it has set any fruit.  One is a seedling and the other two are supposed to be self fertile.  Normally you need two different plants to get berries.

Single Schisandra flower

Olive (Olea europaea):  This has survived the winter (it was pretty mild generally).  It has lots of new growth, which I have been pinching back so it grows more bushy than leggy.  It seems quite happy.  I have it growing in the soil in the polytunnel, but haven’t watered it this year.  I am assuming that it’s roots will seek out enough water going sideways at the edges of the tunnel.  I thought it wasn’t going to flower this year, but this week I spotted a single bunch of flowers.  This is a little disappointing, since last year there were lots of flowers (but no fruit).  Maybe as it gets older it will be able to flower more.  The flowers this year were on last years’ growth, whereas last year they were on same year growth I think.

Apricot:  I have given this an early summer prune, according to the RHS website instructions (as best I could).  Last year I didn’t prune it hard enough, so the fan frame is a bit leggy.  I may have to cut back some of the branches quite hard to rejuvenate it later this summer.  The early summer last year was just too nice to be inside!  I did get loads of flowers in spring this year, and two green fruit are still there.

 

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Fuchsia berry:  This overwintered alright having survived sitting in it’s pot for too long last year.  Now it is in the soil it is growing quite well.  It has a funny trilobal growth habit. which I don’t know if it will grow out of, although I knocked one of the branches off whilst watering!  No sign of flowers this year yet.  I stuck the broken branch in the soil, near the parent plant.  Maybe it will root.

Asparagus:  These confused me by not dying down for the winter!  This meant that they didn’t get a rest period when I could mulch them (if I was organised) and watch for the new shoots in spring.  I compromised when tidying that part of the tunnel, by cutting back the old shoots, but I didn’t think the subsequent shoots were really fat and prolific enough to take any this year.  Some of the new leaves now have flowers.  I’ll have to check what sex they are.  These plants were grown from seed in about 2015 and have been in position now for two years.  I have two varieties: Connovers colossal and Argenteuil early.  I think that Connovers colossal is slightly the more robust looking overall, although it is probably too soon to be sure.

Asparagus – still not died down in middle of March!

Artichoke:  The globe artichoke is flowering well again.  I thought they were going to be a little small, but the first buds are a fair size now.  I am thinking of selling them in the shop, since S. isn’t that fussed about eating them.  I could give them a few days and then have them for my lunch if they don’t sell.  I’m not sure what to price them at – probably about 80p each.  I have also planted two seedlings on the drivebank, and have one ready to plant in the tunnel on the opposite side.

Globe artichoke buds swelling

Goldenberry:  I thought that I had two plants that survived the winter.  They had died back to the base and I covered them with dead plant material to insulate them a bit.  In fact it now looks like one of these is actually a weed plant which pops up both in the tunnel and outside.  I think it is nipplewort.  When they were both smaller they looked very similar, but now the difference in leaf shape and texture is obvious, and the weed is preparing to flower, unlike the golden berry!  I think I may have weeded another goldenberry out when preparing to plant the sweetcorn.  It was quite small, so may not have done well anyhow.  So far I have proved that they will overwinter in a pretty mild winter, it remains to be seen whether I will achieve any sort of harvest from the one plant this year.  It is certainly more developed now than seedlings would be.

Goldenberry in second year – May 27

Akebia: These seem to have overwintered pretty well.  Both those in pots and those in the ground in the polytunnel have survived OK.  They were grown from seed last year, but it doesn’t look like they die back herbaciously; they remained green despite being very small.  I accidently cut back one that was growing next to the apricot, which was probably doing the best previous to that.  The foliage is not that easy to spot.  I expect it will take a few years before I get flowers or fruit.  I planted two little plants outside on the drivebank and they seem to be quite happy there, although not growing quite so fast.  It will be interesting to see if they will over winter for me there also.

Apios americana:  I thought this would be a bit more robust than it has turned out to be so far.  I grew it outside in the dog resistant garden a couple of years ago, but it dissappeared the first winter.  I think it may like it a bit warmer, so am trying it in the polytunnel.  I am worried however that it may prefer it rather damper than I generally make it in there, since one of its names is “swamp potato”.  I wonder whether it would prefer it in a pot in the pond?  Anyhow, I have a few tubers from Edulis growing in the bed adjacent to the apricot.  They seem to start growing quite late, even in the polytunnel, only emerging at the start of June this year.  I have found two shoots so far, I think there is one small tuber that is still to appear.

Grapes:  Both grape vines are starting to flower now.  The new one seems to have quite big bunches.  There was a little scorching from overnight frost on the new growth earlier in the year, but no real damage.  I have done an initial pruning: pinching out the spurs a couple of leaves beyond the flowers and taking off a few overcrowded spurs.  I haven’t yet thinned out the bunches of grapes.  They should be thinned to one bunch every eighteen inches or so.  I think that won’t be necessary yet for the new vine, but the old one, Boskoop glory,  is quite prolific so could do with a bit of thinning out.

Grape vines new (to left) and old (to right) before pruning

Kiwi: Given a reprieve and being shortened, the vine has flowered beautifully.  I do like the blossom; like huge cream apple blossoms that darken to peach as they fade.  I’m still not sure it is worth the space, even though I have shortened it quite drastically this year. But the flowers are pretty.  It is still a little early to say how good the fruit set will be.

Worth it for the flowers?

Bramble.  The first flowers on this are fully open just now.  I could do with a few more training wires near the lower door to tie back the side branches to.  Hopefully I won’t have such problems with flies this year, we’ll see.

Bramble blossom

Strawberries: The first fruits were the biggest!  I shared the first two with S., but he doesn’t know about the others that never left the tunnel.  Only one of the plants is really doing well.  I find it difficult to keep them watered enough over the winter.  I have transplanted into the tunnel some more plants that came from this one that have been growing in pots outside.  They are blooming well, so may set a few fruit if I’m lucky.

Gardener’s treats

I didn’t manage to overwinter my sharks fin melon two years ago, although potentially it is perennial.  I also didn’t get any seed to germinate last year, but this year my saved seed germinated second time trying.  I’m wondering whether to try digging up the parent plant after harvest, cutting it back and moving it indoors for the winter.  It may mean an earlier start to growth and flowering, although it may be a pain to accommodate the plant frost free in the earlier part of the spring.

Overwintered chilli with tiny flower buds

I did manage to overwinter three little chilli pepper plants that AC gave me.  They had been on the study windowsill, being watered occasionally, since last spring.  They gave the tiniest little chillies, that AC says are very hot, so I am rather nervous of using!  One plant I cut back quite severely in early spring, the others were left. The one that was cut back seems to be budding up already.  This one I repotted into a slightly larger pot with fresh compost as I did one of the others (whilst cutting that one back slightly too).  These are in the tunnel now, as is the third which I have planted out into what I am thinking of as my Mediterranean bed.  This is the area next to the Olive tree.  I have a bench there (although it tends to get used as a dumping ground rather than a seat) and have also planted the three surviving Astragalus crassicarpus plants there.  The idea is to plant things that require little water there.  I don’t think the chillies will survive in the tunnel over the winter, but I may leave this one in, to see how it does.  If the ground is dry it may well survive better.  I have grown some less fiery, hopefully larger chillies from seed, which are now planted out.  I will try potting these up in the autumn after (hopefully) fruiting to try and over winter these inside.

I never did harvest the mashua in the tunnel.  I don’t think it did so well after the hot early summer last year.  Although it should have overwintered OK, most of the plants seem to have disappeared over the winter.  Just one bed is growing away strongly.  I guess that the tubers did not form well on the other plants.  I did miss at least one tuber in the tea garden extension.  The foliage is very distinctive when it starts to grow!  I also have a couple of oca plants growing in the tunnel, so it looks like I missed a couple of those tubers too!  One of the dahlias is growing in with the tomatoes; another unharvested plant which has overwintered well.  The passion flowers haven’t made it however.  I should probably have overwintered them inside until the plants were a bit bigger.  Maybe next year I’ll try growing some new plants.

The Yacon(s) I potted up when I harvested the tubers, splitting the crowns slightly, where they naturally wanted to break.  I potted them into smallish pots in compost in the tunnel.  Some were planted into the polytunnel beds either side of the Apricot, they are still pretty small.  The rest are actually still in pots.  One of my jobs to do is to plant these outside, although this should probably have been done a while ago, it has been so cool since March I don’t think they would have done very much growing!

Yacon with unknown citrus and one of the Schisandras

One of the last plants to mention are the pineapple guava (Feijoa sellowiana)  These are growing quite lush in the lower part of the tunnel.  I have been nipping back the tips of the growth to encourage a bushy habit, since I read somewhere they have a tendency to become leggy.  There is no sign of flowering this year!  The flowers are also supposed to be tasty, even if the fruit doesn’t ripen.  I say these are one of the last, since I am hopeful that the tulip bulbs planted adjacent to the pineapple guava will come back again next year.  It is not the bulbs of tulips that can be eaten, but the petals.  The flowers are toxic for cats, and some people also can have a bad reaction apparently.  I did have a munch on some of the petals, and they were fine – a little sweet and quite juicy.  It just seems a bit of a pity to pick flowers for eating somehow!

Incredible edible petals