[beansyMember]

We’ve been picking into mushroom trays and immediately ‘watering’ from a watering can with a coarse rose to take the field heat out, then stacking them out of the sun/wind, sometimes covering with a small tarp. until they are rinsed in a big stainless steel sink (from freecycle)and then either put them in a wire shopping basket or back in the trays we do an impression of a salad spinner, occasionally showering passers-by! We do batches of up to 80 salad bags like that and people tell us our salads stay fresh for ages.Also we pick early like Charles said and in the tunnel try our best to water the day before picking, which is twice a week at the moment.

All the best,
Debbie

[beansyMember]

Hello Sylvie,

We’re in the process of bringing a couple of acres into veg production, we have collected large amounts of cardboard, which works really well with a good overlap(though it does take a lot of time to collect – some businesses are eager to get rid of it) and a good layer of compost/manure on top. We are doing it bit by bit. We tried a shortcut using thick recycled Kraft paper to speed things up…it was a disaster, the dandelions thrived! We have also tried biodegradeable corn starch sheet mulch – but it also is expensive. I think I saw something Charles wrote which mentioned horticultural paper but I haven’t yet found a supplier and would like to ask him if he knows where I could get it and does it work?

All the best,

Debbie

[beansyMember]

I really sympathise with you having suffered this problem!
We have 2 20’x 60′ polytunnels that were no dig, converted from pasture with a huge residual wireworm population (click beetle larvae) – we took away their food source – grass roots – so they had no choice but to eat our crops. They particularly seem to enjoy tunnelling up into the stem/neck of lettuce, took about half of our french bean plants and lettuce, I have found up to 12 on a single plant. We are growing on a small commercial scale so it’s quite challenging!
I removed every affected plant, checking the root zone carefully, as there was rarely just one wireworm, tried burying cut up potatoes stuck with wire and coloured piece of baler twine to mark them, but these need to be checked regularly and ’emptied’-limited success. I have read you can use the nematodes used for chafer grubs – but they are not specifically for wireworm and are expensive. There’s also a biodynamic approach – collect them, burn them and collect the ash which is diluted and watered onto the affected area, I may still try this!

I hate to admit we have now dug the tunnels and removed loads by hand – cultivation is generally recommended – then we let the chickens in the worst tunnel over last winter.
On a brighter note they didn’t really bother the tomatoes, which were in 9cm pots when planted out last year. I also grow extra plants and keep replacing those they damage.
Hope this helps?(!)
Good luck – the first 2 years are meant to be the worst…
Regards,
beansy

[beansyMember]

You could try crushing the seed cases a little on a hard surface – I find it helps and smells good too.
All the best.

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