Sweetcorn Success, Polytunnel Repairs, Radish Leaves

The sweetcorn in the polytunnel was a disaster but the sweetcorn outside actually came good. This is the first time I’ve succeeded with outdoor grown sweetcorn here. The first year here I planted out my sweetcorn and a couple of months in, a storm literally blew them out of the ground. This year, as an experiment, I planted out some sweetcorn in the walled vegetable plot.

I chose the most sheltered spot in the plot, protected by the seaward wall and the hawthorn hedge. The plants were untouched by storms and did reasonably well. However, sweetcorn likes sunshine and the plants were in shade for part of the day. Not ideal, but the lesser evil.

I also made a bit of a rookie error. Because Earliking is a smaller sweetcorn plant I planted out a bit too tightly. The space for them was limited and I overcrowded. Normally planting 450mm (18”) apart is right for corn and certainly no less than 400mm (16”) but I was even tighter than that. Although the plants grew fairly well, only a couple gave me two decent cobs and many gave small cobs.

Trug full of cobs

Even so, I ended up with a trug full of cobs. A few hours of shucking, blanching, stripping and freezing put 2.2kg of unsprayed kernels into the chest freezer.

After harvesting the cobs, I pulled some stalks from the ground and cut off the rest with my ultra-sharp brushcutter / sickle. Ideally I’d shred the stalks but the sky was rapidly darkening and I don’t want to get the electric shredder out in the rain. Used a pair of secateurs to snip the stalks into 150mm (6”) lengths into the large black compost bin. They won’t rot down as quickly as shredded stalks but they’ll go faster than uncut.

Halfway through it started to rain so I retreated into the polytunnel thinking to work in there until it passed. Well the heavens opened like a power shower. The drumming was that loud in the tunnel that I couldn’t hear my portable radio, volume at full sitting next to me. Eventually it eased a little and I quickly went back to the house.

Polytunnel Repairs

Patching holes and tears early is wise as it avoids replacing the entire skin later.

When the rain was pouring I noticed some drips from the roof. I think a bird has been trapped in the polytunnel and tried to peck its way out through the roof. Some of the holes were from the outside in. Possibly a crow decided to walk on the roof as well but whatever, lots of little holes.

It’s easy enough to repair small holes and even cuts in the polytunnel skin with clear sticky tape. The best source is First Tunnels. With polytunnels, like greenhouses, a stitch in time really does save nine. Minor repairs like this take only a few minutes but if the skin splits from a damage point in a storm, then it will have to be replaced. That’s a far more expensive and time consuming job.

My First Tunnels polytunnel is now coming up to eight years old and the cover skin is still good. It’s guaranteed for seven years but at this rate I reckon it will last at least ten, probably more like fifteen. Albeit with a few patches!

Hotbin

The hotbin composter seemed to be stuck so added some wood chips to increase the ‘browns’ and help aerate the contents before using my auger on the cordless drill to mix and loosen the contents.

Usually when I do that it suddenly heats up as few days later and the volume decreases. It’s full to the top at the moment having some sweetcorn leaves, rotten potatoes (including the slugs living in them) and usual kitchen waste added.

Radish Soup

Up in the polytunnel I’ve a small bed of radishes. These were sown quite densely and deliberately not thinned early as I wanted to make a batch of radish leaf soup. Thinning them produced a bucket full of radish leaves.

Bucket of Radish Leaves – Thinnings to make into soup.

My recipe for radish leaf soup along with a burble about ‘root to tip’ cooking, peasants and culinary traditions.

Oh, and the soup was very nice!

Borlotti Beans

Aren’t they pretty?

Borlotti Beans in the Polytunnel