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There are times when one looks back and wonders whether I should have set up the seabuckthorn project differently.
My clay soil moves from waterlogging in winter to baking rock hard in summer. This is not a friendly environment for seabuckthorn. But then, neither is high altitude; nor cold desert – it is a hardy and adaptable plant.
The natural response to living in harsh conditions is survival of the fittest.

So when I walk my seabuckthorn rows, there are areas where some plants have not established or are taking a long time to establish.
The field I am using used to be a grazing field for our dairy herd. Then in 1996, it was used as the headquarters site for the scout jamboree that came to the farm every four years. Inbetween the jamborees it reverted to arable.
I can remember when I first started to plant the seabuckthorn, certain areas in the field were thick with wild oats. As we planted, the soil was variable across the field with patches maybe of 10 metres square of heavy clay that would blend into more manageable heavy but more manageable land. So it is no wonder that in places plants have taken more time to establish. But establishment is not the issue – unfriendly soil conditions are creating stress, both in the form of nutrient/moisture availability and the ability for roots to spread.

As I have been cutting back the grass and other growth around each seabuckthorn plants it is clear that only Elizaveta seems to have maintained surface roots. Other varieties seems to have used the deep cracking that occurs in this soil to develop root structure. Interestingly it is also Elizaveta that suffers worst from the disease dieback that I have learnt to dread.

So I should have paid more attention to the seabuckthorn management manuals and ploughed the ground the year before planting and applied a good amount of organic matter. It is easy to say, but this project has grown from one year to the next. The budget was tight and expectations of success were 50/50. In hindsight I should have been more confident. But the results now are showing success. It is possible to grow seabuckthorn in heavy soil, but it needs soil management and regular foliar feeding to help the plants through periods of stress.

Elizaveta in particular will get some extra attention and a light foliar feed every two weeks. This will and is creating lush growth, but while these plants are young and still growing I do not see this as a problem.
I will be applying compost to each row over the next three years to lighten the soil, and hopefully this will create a more balanced soil – reduce stress and there will be less need to treat the plants with as much TLC.

The other consideration will be in the quality of the fruit and the concentration of nutrients within them. It is difficult to know what to expect. My plants are under stress – will that be good or not for nutrient quality – only time will tell.

Quality and standards are a topic that will feature at the Euroworks conference (October 14-16th),Naantali in Finland this year.
It is a subject that is important but it has to be relevant. As a grower it is relevant as I must grow a fruit that will provide a viable ingredient that provides consumer benefit. It is a subject that I want to debate at the Devereux farm Open Day. I need to fix a date – but that has to relate to when a good selection of varieties are ripe. As this is the first time that the plants have produced berries, there would be some variation in the accepted normal period.
The classic Chuiskaya ripens in the second half of August; Inya, the first 10 days of September; Altaiskaya late August to early September. I need to have confirmation and advice from Lisavenko first but I think it will be late August/ first week of September.
So at this stage the Open Day will be focused on Quality and the market for seabuckthorn – not just UK produced, but European as well. I would hope to attract potential growers, researchers, processors and buyers. But it is early days yet.

This might be becoming monotonous but the same field job is taking priority – clear all weeds one metre square around each plant/spike with fork/apply 30kg compost. It should be a lesson to anyone growing seabuckthorn – never allow grass etc to take over. The alternative of have to clear them is time consuming.

I could have grown them under plastic but this would not have allowed once/twice a year application of compost which I need in order to lighten my clay soil.

Even though we had rain a week ago, the ground is solid again and scraping the turf off the top is like cutting it off concrete.
But progress is happening with over 200 plants a week being completed.

On the whole the plants all look healthy. Berries are apparent on at least 60% of the Siberian plants, so the males are active. The main site of 2011 planted Siberians have two male planting regimes. One is the classic Russian of one male/4 females/one male in a moxed male/female row – with these mixed rows have two rows of females one either side of a mixed row. This area has 900 plants of Klaudia; Altaiskaya; Sudarushka and Augustina. The second plot is of the same size but the males are placed with only 2 females between each male and planted with two all female rows aside each mixed row. Next month I will survey the plants to see which system is more successful.

In terms of disease the whole site is being surveyed at the moment, but I expect there are around ten plants showing signs of leaf discolouration. Subject to it being dry tomorrow – all plants will get another dose of seaweed. It certainly seems to be keeping them clean. With 5000 plants on site, I would expect some to have problems. Those infected will have the worst branches pruned.
Seaweed is quite expensive (£11/litre) but this covers approximately 500 plants so the cost is around 2.2p/plant/application.
I am hoping that the applications will reflect in the quality of the berries. The seaweed has little nitrogen in it but provides a serious kick of trace elements.

Insect life seems to be very calm at the moment. The attacks of vapourer moth is over and in all they only affected 4 plants this year. So I would suggest the worst period for attack is mid to late April.

I went to see our farm contractor yesterday to talk through the best way to reduce the impact of heavy rain in winter waterlogging the plantation. It would be possible to have a new drain installed. Another option could be to run a subsoiled down the middle of each row. But we have opted to use a mole attachment to the subsoiled and pull it past the ends of each row. This will link into existing field drains. Some of the waterlogging is in places where the soil has been badly compacted and damaged in previous years. The site used to be used for an International scout Jamboree. With 10,000 people on site for a week the area had many sceptic tanks sunk into it. Removing the tanks has left areas of deep holes backfilled with subsoil – which becomes waterlogged and the seabuckthorn hate it.

Changing the subject we all know that seabuckthorn has a sour taste character. Sugar is a potential ingredient to deliver a balanced taste.
Earlier this year the World Health Organisation came out with the need for people to take less than 10% of their total daily calories from added sugar. The American Heart Association recommends between 6 and 9 teaspoons a day. So it was little surprise that the subject came up again on BBC news as it also featured in the newspapers on may 19th.
The problem is that news is reported in such a direct manner that all sugar becomes bad for you – with the inference that natural sugar in fruit is a problem. Richard Reid from Innocent Juice came a fine rebuff to these comments placing the advantages of eating fruit as a multi nutritious package with natural sugar balanced with fibre that is an excellent part of a balanced diet. But the inference still is that sugar intake – whether natural or not must be cut.
This of course then is waiting for another part of the medical profession to say how important it is to eat not 5 but 7 portions of fruit and vegetables per year.
It is no wonder that consumers get confused.
Television advertising for toothpaste also suggests that fruit/ fruit juices are acidic and that damages tooth enamel.

The government has spent huge amounts on diet education, but current consumer lifestyles demand food now and on the go/ processed foods. Against this heart disease/diabetes/obesity are still massive challenges. The message that a balanced diet of natural foods just does not seem to be attractive enough to be accepted. Even though it is a life impacting message.

So back to sugar and seabuckthorn – should we be worried. I would say no – as long as it is considered a multi-nutrient fruit that is part of a balanced diet.
There are some interesting sugar replacers. I came across the Norwegian Sukrin at the Natural Food and Organics Fair. Expensive, but a valid alternative.
But do we need alternatives if the amount of seabuckthorn that is sweetened and eaten is in moderation.

Of course, I am also hoping that my Siberian varieties will prove to be sweet enough to eat off the bush – as they should be, but we shall see.

Which brings me to a final thought. That with berries on the bushes this year – I think the time is coming for an open day on the farm – possibly in August, when the berries are ripe – or at least some of them.

At last enough rain to soften the ground – in fact the first true all day rain since April fool’s Day, making a total of 14mm in 38 days.

The last week or so has been dedicated to weeding around plants; spiking the surface of the ground with an even bigger fork (10″) and then surrounding the plants with a liberal covering of green waste compost. The process is – or has been, incredibly slow but I have to keep reminding myself of why I am doing it.

The sight of the diseased plants last year is still very fresh. Mulching covers a range of needs. It keeps down the weeds allowing the younger plants access to available food and water; but it is the thought of improving the soil health by feeding soil fungi that is my main focus. I certainly have no shortage of worms but improving the organic matter in the soil is the aim.

There is the theory that to have berries with high concentration of nutrients I need to keep the plants stressed. If this is so then  my hard clay soil will provide this. Once baked hard it becomes impenetrable for surface roots that are the norm with seabuckthorn. But maybe this environmental pressure will have an impact on the nutrient concentrations in the berries – will it be better or worse – this summer will finally show the results.

Which raises the issue of the term “quality”,

Seabuckthorn produces a berry with 190 nutrients which work in synergy to provide a number of potential health benefits for humans and animals. As a statement this is fine for those that know about seabuckthorn or have a tradition of using it. To the wider market that have never heard about seabuckthorn one needs to provide a clear, credible and memorable message.

It is fact that seabuckthorn contains 190 or more nutrients. But is this relevant to the consumer? Seabuckthorn is a food not a medicine – that is its legal definition, but its composition and its past use indicate that it is more than just a food. It provides a concentrated resource of many nutrients that are recognised as providing benefit to the consumer. The supplement industry in Europe is huge. Consumers seem willing to take vitamins, minerals and omega fatty acids in recognition that these nutrients are an important part of their diet, but gaining acceptance of the importance of consuming 5 (or 7 ) portions of fruit/vegetables per day seems less deliverable. So what is so appealing in a supplement that is not in a natural food?

A supplement is a simple, concentrated product that by label declaration will deliver a daily requirement of a given nutrient.
Vitamins are an accepted necessity of life. Lack of vitamins is understood as being bad for you – therefore taking additional vitamins must be good for you and will make you healthy. It is a simple message and an easily resolved issue: One pill a day with minimum effort, cost and time. The message and product are simple and that makes it trustworthy and attractive in a world that demands solutions without penalties.

How do we achieve the trustworthiness of the simple, yet non-natural supplement for our highly nutritious seabuckthorn berry?

In my view we have to cut through the mass of information and make it relevant to consumers and consumer lifestyles. Health and the body are not simple and neither is seabuckthorn but the message that seabuckthorn is a natural supplement for overall health is as simple as the one conveyed by the purchase of vitamin C.

To understand that a natural product can influence health we have to understand the mechanisms that deliver the benefit. Natural products in their raw state have variable quality. These variables will impact upon the ability to deliver benefit. Therefore we must investigate what makes seabuckthorn special; define the important nutrients and the concentrations that deliver benefit and how to grow and process the fruit in order to deliver consistent, credible quality standards.

These quality standards are the key to delivering the trustworthiness that consumers see in supplements. They are the key to a simple message. The key to understanding what seabuckthorn is.

Supplements

Yesterday, ben and i were working in the seabuckthorn and there were a number of issues that were current.

The first was a three year old, strong, healthy Klaudia plant was half striped of its leaves and covered in vapourer moth caterpillars (Orygia Antiqua). Attractive and beautiful though this caterpillar is, it is also very destructive. Last year they savaged a large German four year old bush. On the basis that I sprayed all bushes three weeks ago and there was nothing on this one, it is disappointing that I missed this. The response was manual removal, and as far as I know it is the only plant on the field with such an infestation. Yesterday 1200 plants were seaweed sprayed with no other signs of attack. The rest will be checked out tomorrow and it will be interesting to see if there are other plants in the same position.

It is also a time of year for micro moth caterpillars to start emerging. These emerge on the ends of stems and are characterised by the ends of leaves sticking together and twisting around the caterpillar. It not only provides a secure house for the caterpiller but also a feed source. My solution is regularly walking the rows and untwisting each leaf house and pulling out the offending bug.

Of the seven plants that I found with leaf disease issues I pruned them back yesterday. Two required no attention. In variety terms 2 elizaveta; 2 Inya; 1 Klaudia. Only two plants I would describe as being a problem. It will be interesting to see whether the disease spreads onto the rest of these plants are whether the prune has cut out the infection.

Following the last blog I thought that actually the problem that I need to solve is developing a healthy soil. So I have started composting the plants that I have weeded. 120 done yesterday. Each plant having been cleared of all plant growth 50cmx50cm around the stem is then pronged with an 8″ fork all around the plant. Then 5 shovelfuls of green waste compost around each. It looks like a long process, but it will cut out a lot of weed management over the summer.

That’s it – update on the dreaded vapourer moth early next week.

Three weeks is almost up since the last dose of seaweed on the seabuckthorn. So this afternoon I started on the plants that were in the critical area last year for disease. three weeks ago there were three suspect plants showing a sign of desiccation. this time I have found seven plants in six rows of 100 plants. The encouraging thing is that the problems are not in one particular variety. Two plants have one whole branch badly effected. the others are very small signs. So tomorrow I will prune out the problem. It is early in the season yet and it is only odd individual plants, but still disappointing.

On a more optimistic note though across the whole field the plants are on the whole growing fast. I am weeding around 100 plants each morning. The clay soil is starting to bake hard. On Sunday we had 5mm of rain, which is the first for 15 days. This has had little impression on the hardness but it is softer under the old dry grass cuttings around each plant. On the basis of this I think I am going to mulch with old hay that has not been used up by the sheep that have been living in our farm buildings this winter. I will mulch some with green waste compost, but some with the hay. The hay being at no cost is an advantage. It also is easier to get to the plants as the ground is still not hard enough for delivery lorries that will bring in the compost. Timing is becoming critical. As weeds are growing as fast as I can clear them from around the plants, I need to mulch having weeded otherwise I will be a slave to the plants all summer.

The males that were hit hard by disease last year have recovered well, but we shall have to see how successful pollination is this year.

My compost tea maker is still not working as I am still waiting for the compound that I use for seabuckthorn is still to be connected up to the mains electric. This is why the plants are getting a second dose of seaweed. I have dropped the rate of concentration down slightly to 200ml per 10 litres of water. I am thinking that will disease showing I will possibly reduce the timing of application down to two weeks. If organic disease control is about stress management then keeping on top of weed competition and regular foliar feed is about as far as I can go. I could give them some irrigation but having resisted this since I started I would prefer not to use this unless we come into a very long dry period. Our water table is still high, so less surface water I hope will enough the plants to grow deeper roots.

I visited the Natural and Organic Show in London last week. There were three stands with seabuckthorn. One from the US; one from Estonia and another from the Czech republic. Others showed interest but there was a general lack of knowledge about the plant. One interesting product was a natural sugar replacer – not stevia. When making seabuckthorn jam, I am concerned regarding the amount of sugar involved. Finding a viable replacer that is natural but low in calories may be of interest. Seabuckthorn is a fruit associated with health benefit. It makes no sense to produce products that will provide consumers with not only the healthy nutrient package of the fruit, but then follow through with companion ingredients that keep to the same health concept.

Healthy product message is about maintaining simple, understandable and consistent quality and purpose. With still eighteen months before our first harvest of a commercial size we now need to hone in on this message and concentrate on how to turn it into what consumers are looking for.

Springtime is upon us and with it my seabuckthorn plants are in leaf and starting to extend new shoots – so all is well.

In response this week they have all had a dose of seaweed. This follows on from the organic plant feed pellets that they had two weeks ago. So the purpose of the seaweed is to provide a micronutrients to improve health and reduce stress. This is particularly important since last year’s disease outbreak remains fully diagnosed and most probably developed as a response to stress.
As I spray with a knapsack sprayer I have said before the advantage is that every plant is visited. I have come across five plants that had the disease last year and are showing signs again. The first two have been pruned back. The other three are not showing significant symptoms. They are in the area that started with the problems last year and again this is with Elizaveta. Having said that the other Elizaveta neighbouring the suspects are fine and healthy so with tight management I am hoping that the issues will remain under control.

In terms of the application of the seaweed I am using Symbio super concentrated 50% liquiud seaweed. The product is much thicker than the one I used last year. I am applying at a rate of 40:1, with one 10lt knapsack full covering up to 250 2 year old plants. The same 10lt probably covers 100 of the 2011 planting. I am finding that in an hour I can cover around 200/250 plants per hour.

I have to add that since I started writing this blog I have been watching the plants and although they have not been scorched by the seaweed application we have now had 14 days of dry and warm/hot weather. The plants are not showing signs of growth and another time in dry weather I might reduce the concentration of these regular feeds.

The other current job is weeding. two weeks of dry weather are starting to bake the ground hard. Consequently I would expect to hoe one row of 90 plants in an hour. This is dependent upon the amount of thistles in the rows. There are increasing numbers of creeping thistle and I need to get on top of it before is spreads out of control.
I had thought that weeding would have been a job for twice a fortnight but it is now becoming a daily job.

As the ground is drying it is also going to be fit enough to have lorry deliveries of compost. As I am weeding I notice how much moisture there is where there are broadleaved weeds around the plants. Where the ground is bare or just has some grass tussocks – the ground is hard. This is a driver to get on with putting compost around the plants in order to retain some upper soil moisture as well as mulch the weeds.

It is remarkable how much time it takes to maintain control on just 5000 plants when it is organic and reduced to hand maintenance. I have a helper now doing 14 hours a week. so that will see some of this work under control.

The next priority is to have a fixed plan as to how to harvest and handle the coming harvest. It might be small but it still needs to be managed to retain optimum quality. So that’s the brain work for the current month and the muscle work as well.

The last month seems to have flown by driven by the knowledge that everything is starting to grow and a determination to keep on top of weeds this year. The commitment to growing seabuckthorn organically comes at a cost. It would be so simple to go along the rows with a knapsack sprayer, spraying Roundup spray around each plant and move onto the next problem content that weed competition was not going to be a problem. But the knowledge that the end market for my seabuckthorn is a UK consumer that will be focusing on it being natural and healthy is my driver. In reality weeding is not so much of an issue. Walking the rows with a row and cutting out broadleaved weeds is quick – a full day covering almost 2000 plants. It will become less of a job as more plants are mulched with compost.

I am still waiting for the ground to become dry enough to have lorry loads of compost delivered to the field. A 13 ton load delivered in an 8 wheeled lorry is a recipe for disaster as the surface of the ground is soft and a large lorry once stuck creates more mess than the job is worth. Another three weeks hopefully and I will have a delivery and over the next month/six weeks all plants will be mulched. It still being a job done by small trailer and shovel I am looking forward to a future of more mechanisation. But that will only come once I have berries providing an income to buy the right tractor/loader/trailer/compost dispenser/etc.

One of the advantages of slower manual processes is that it gives time to regular inspection of all plants. So it was with dismay last week when weeding down the rows that I came across two plants showing signs of leaf wilt.

Experience from last year tells me now to be as worried as the plants will survive .But  I do know that certain varieties are more susceptible that others and that it will kill branches if allowed to go unchecked. With only two plants involved I have pruned the branches showing problems and burnt them. I hope now that that might be the end of it, but I doubt it.

All plants have had a feed of either 150gm/plant or 200gm/plant of Greenvale Plant pellets. Having seaweeded all plants three weeks ago, they will have another dose this week. This will be followed by compost tea, having had a lesson in the process.

Farming is a job that relates as much to the office as to the field. Unfortunately as spring field work is demanding, so paperwork tends to build. Paperwork is not just routine but in the planning of where the seabuckthorn project is going. This year there will be a small harvest. I have this year to develop a simple and improved harvesting tool: Develop a number of areas within the plantations on different management treatments that might influence berry quality; and quantify what quality means in my berries and how the market perceives them.

The first communication paper has come from Finland for this year’s Euroworks 2014 conference on seabuckthorn. The conference themes are pests/diseases; cultivation technology and meeting the needs of growers; and the quality of seabuckthorn. Everyone is starting to focus on this issue which is as good for the consumer as it is for the grower. If seabuckthorn quality can be standardised then growers will focus on achieving and improving on the standards that deliver the benefits that consumers are looking for. Quality standards may be targeted at harvesting standards that minimise damage to the crop; standards that minimise disease damage within the crop so that berries are uniform in size/shape.; standards may be set for nutrient levels that provide market/consumer benefit. All these are valid, but they must be consistently deliverable to be worthwhile.

Next week there is the Natural and Organic Products Show on in London. These events are useful in terms of seing what the competition is up to. This year will provide an opportunity to go around and start to generate some interest in seabuckthorn now that a real crop is on the way. Part of the information I need is to know what processors want in seabuckthorn; what levels of nutrients they look for; which nutrients are topical.

Two weeks ago a group of foreign visitors came to the farm which presented an opportunity to make some product. Some of the juice options; jams; frozen sweet products and savoury concepts were put to the test. These were devised by my daughter whose creative culinary skills filled a table with products that passed the taste test. Seeing is believing and tasting is the best way for people to be convinced that seabuckthorn tastes as good as its excellence in nutritional content. So some of these tasty testers will be going to the Natural and Organics Show. That will start to give some real feedback.

So its back to the field now – go and check that all is fit and healthy.

Thank you for reading – comments always appreciated.

There are those that will call organic farming an ethos; a committment; a belief. To some one that has a conventional farm I see it as a move that needs to be taken in determined but considered steps. Farming is a business and has to make profit to survive. I saw last year the impact of disease in my seabuckthorn and my committment to going organic has to be in the understanding that I can produce a viable and quality crop. The desire to go organic is driven by a recognition that our soil is precious and that a healthy soil is one of the principle keys to sustainable farming in the future.

Seabuckthorn is a fruit crop. Potentially it is also a leaf crop and both of these will be used in food products. As seabuckthorn is a new product to the UK fresh market I believe that offering it in an organic form offers the consumer the reassurance that as a natural product it is naturally produced. It is a simple and unambiguous message. Seabuckthorn – the natural European superfruit.

So my first step into the process has not been to register as organic but to have the soil tested with a biological analysis. My soil, as I have often said is heavy clay. Being close to the sea the water table in winter is often quite high which makes working difficult and not very suitable for seabuckthorn. Temperature and water logging will alter the results of these analyses so i am proposing to have three tests done this year and build up an idea of how health my soil is and how to improve it.

The first tests have come back with bacterial activity above average with a good bacterial diversity. Conversely fungal activity is low, but the samples were taken in February so maybe this may be a seasonal issue. There is a good fungal biomass. Amoebae and ciliates came out high, but low in total flagellates. Nematodes also recorded as low. Now I have to admit to being new to this form of analysis. What I do like however is that it provides a definition of my soil health and how the actions that I take are improving it.

The process will require continued doses of compost that will gradually wash into the soil and feed the bacteria and fungi improving the nutrient release into the soil that the seabuckthorn plants can take up. Added to this the use of compost tea and foliar feeds of seaweed. Compost tea is low in NPK, along with the seaweed there is a provision for a broader range of trace elements that are absent from conventional fertilisers.

Seabuckthorn is a nitrogen fixer. That is fine for a wild plant but when I am expecting my plants to produce 10-15kg of berries they must have sufficent nutrients for the plant to grow, be healthy and produce the yield. Going organic is not just going organic. In my view it is more important to focus on creating a form of agronomy that is sustainable. By sustianable I mean having little reliance upon importing inputs to grow and manage the crop. So far my plants are growing on three doses  of 200gm of chicken pellets with an analysis of 4.5;3.5;2.5. They then have seaweed for trace elements and a thick compost mulch. It has had its flaws in that this winter-having been so wet has seen some plants emerge looking a little lean. In particular Elizaveta, which is the fastest growing variety here has a lack of colour in the leaf.

The compost tea maker has now arrived. All the Siberian plants are in partial leaf and have had a dose of seaweed. This seems to be a characteristic of Siuberian varieties here. They start to show leaf in january, then gradually come into leaf over the next ten weeks. Whereas my German/Finnish /Latvian varieties do not break bud until mid-March and I expect by next week will be well covered with new leaf. So these European varieties will have a dose of seaweed next week, while I get the compost tea maker working.

As a trial farm I will keep an area for varied fertiliser applications. This programme i will have to work out in the next couple of weeks.

I am well aware that I have not blogged for a while. The last month has been intense with planting. Priority then was to mow the whole site both between the rows and between the plants. This will become less of an operation once i have composted all the plants. Having been such a wet winter the composting has fallen behind as a job because lorries delivering the compost could not tip near enough to the field to be practical. I am hoping that in another two weeks the ground will be hard enough for this to change. 

On a final note, I have been watching the Linkedin Sustainable farming network. One of the questions in the last couple of weeks was “how do you attract the next generation into farming?”. 

It is an interesting question because the world needs food and the average age of farmers seems to be going up and up. Food has to be affordable for consumers, but income has to be attractive to make farming sustainable. Hours are long, but then so they can be in industry/finance/professional jobs. The environment one works in I feel is an important factor. But actually it has to come back to reward for the work you put it. Reward that keeps your family and the bank manager content.  That is why I feel seabuckthorn has attractions. Grown as a commodity it is little different to any other crop. Developed with on-farm/co-operative processing to provide a short supply chain to the end consumer then there is an opportunity for the work input to be rewarded with the income that balances the risks and the long term investment needed.