On 2009-06-16 22:37:07 +0100, Derek Turner said:

On Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:07:42 +0100, Jonathan Campbell wrote:

I suppose earlies harvested before the end of June might normally escape
blight?

Yes. June seldom yields Smith periods. Living, as I now do, in Jersey
with a very changeable maritime climate I think it very unlikely we will
have Smith periods. The general rule seems to be 'if you don't like the
weather don't worry: it will change when the tide turns'. Sustained high
temperature /and/ humidity is rare on a small island. Thats probably why
potatoes and tomatoes have been our biggest exports. Sacha?

Sea breezes are healthy things that see off overall 'mugginess', I'd
think. Of course, the mild climate of the islands and Jersey's
north-south slope helped with early tomatoes and potatoes back in the
days before refrigerated container shipping, so their chief competitors
were the Cornish with much the same conditions. Daffs and iris were
also a good market at one time, as were freesias grown under glass and
of course, grapes, hence tomato glasshouses being called vineries to
this day. The weather is certainly changeable - it was colder in
Jersey than in Exeter when we arrived on Friday morning and we put on
sweaters - no, not Jerseys. ;-) And then it became extremely hot
about 2 hours later but with some cloud and showers occasionally and
remained hot all week end. And on boarding the plane, we learned
yesterday that Exeter area had big thunderstorms and lots of rain,
something that missed the CIs altogether. Talking to farming friends
in St Helier yesterday, we were told that this year has been an
outstanding success for the Jersey Royal and that a lot of farmers who
had given up for various semi-political reasons have now bought up land
which is going for frightening sums of money and are going back into
growing potatoes, though not into dairy. We were trying to figure out
how many Royals you'd have to sell to make it worthwhile! BUT another
friend who grows a few vergees of potatoes for his own enjoyment is a
great fan of Dunbar potatoes which do have a fabulous flavour. But he
says they do get blight, even in Jersey, so perhaps the Royal and the
original Jersey Sunrise tom were more resistant?
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Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon