Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER SEVEN
Autumn
As the hours of daylight slowly decrease, the remaining summer plants gradually
creak to a halt. Remove them whenever their spaces are needed, or whenever the
harvest is finished. Any climbers that were planted close to the cover on the
north side of the tunnel can be safely left with smaller crops planted in front of
them, but a sprawling courgette plant that is taking up a big chunk of bed is
a good candidate for removal, even if it is still providing a couple of courgettes a
week. By the end of October no further ripening to speak of will happen, and
plants remaining from the summer should be looked on as a storage option
rather than a harvest. Cucumbers and peppers, for example, will be fine on their
plants until the end of November in most parts of the country.
As the last of the summer plants are removed the polytunnel can look stark and
rather sad, but it shouldn't stay that way for long. Crops that were sown or
planted in the shade of earlier crops will soon take advantage of the extra light,
and module-sown seedlings can fill the gaps.
You have to think ahead in the tunnel, and the later in the year it gets, the more
true that becomes. Plants for overwintering must do most of their growing by mid-
October, and a long spell of cool, dull weather in early autumn can spell disaster if
your winter sowings were made too late. On the other hand, if the autumn is
unseasonably warm and bright, it is worth making some extra sowings in case
your earlier ones grow too quickly. Our unique weather system usually makes it
impossible to know what the weather has in store more than a few days in advance,
but the small amounts of seed needed for extra sowings will not cost much.
As the nights get colder it becomes more important to retain the heat captured by
the tunnel during the day, so make sure that you close the doors an hour before
sunset on sunny days and even earlier if it's overcast. This is particularly impor-
tant for tomatoes and melons, which may still be struggling to ripen their last
fruits. Watch them carefully for early signs of rot, particularly in humid weather,
and remove dead leaves before they have the chance to become mouldy. Opening
the doors again as soon after dawn as possible, and leaving them open all day,
will also help to prevent this.
You can find out a great deal about your climate - what you can sow and when;
harvesting seasons and winter planting times - from your own notes. These will
