Patrick's Polytunnel

             As the earliest crops finish - lettuce, French beans, peas, spinach, cabbage, broccoli etc., new sowings can fill the spaces. I'm sowing Cobra - a climbing French bean - mangetout and sugarsnap peas for Autumn eating. Salad leaves sown now have a long eating season.           Tomato and cucumber plants respond to careful management. An adequate and regular water supply is essential - no drying out! Developing fruit benefit from regular liquid feeding. Reducing the number of flowers per tomato truss ensures healthy development of all the crop. I open vents and door to maximum - better draughty than too humid.                                                                                                                                                    

The higher space in the tunnel will become available by September; it can be used by climbing french beans- Cobra does it well -which yield late beans in plenty.             Seeds of Cobra sown in late July -in situ or in pots for later planting - will produce fast growing plants to race up the sticks in August and September.              Tomato plants have ample bulk by now which will feed the later fruits. I'm nursing new trusses, week by week, and shortening them, to develop through late Summer and Autumn. Late August flowers  give you October fruit! Surplus "cherry" tomatoes freeze well- for direct cooking in Winter.               Removing the oldest tomato leaves could  reveal space for sowing pak choi, rocket, mustard, mizuna, cress, kailan kichi, and annual spinach. Fast growers every one!