Been a busy time at the CFC this week! The eryngium are in full crop and samples have been sent for vase life testing. The alstroemeria have started to throw flowers but these are being cut off in order to bulk up the plant. We have also sown an indoor batch of seed grown fillers in the Haygrove tunnel as well as a range of new and dwarf sunflowers. The weather also fell just right to drill the sweet Williams and wallflowers for the ADAS Ronstar replacement herbicide trial. A number of pre-drilling treatments have already been applied and ADAS will apply the post drilling treatments next week.
But unfortunately disaster has struck our Zinnia crop just as we intended to start vase life testing. The crop is showing leaf distortion, nectrotic patches and general poor growth. Initial diagnosis has identified large bacterial colonies on the leaves and the likely candidate is Xanthamonus which is known to be a serious problem on Zinnia and can be seed borne! So watch this space and we will report back when we know more!
