18th January 2010

Got the second soil heating cable up this week.The format is as follows
bin bag
river sand
cable
river sand
bin bag
all that comes to the top of the box so then I can just sit the cuttings in their trays on top.

Yesterday I started to take the cuttings. I nip them off with my fingers and then again just below a leaf joint. I take off the leaf and dip the bottom in rooting powder before I insert it in the tray which holds 35 cuttings in a 7x 5 setup. The cuttings are usually about 2 to 21/2 inches long. I took 97 yesterday. Prior to taking the cuttings I put the trays in the sink to soak up the water from the bottom. This usually makes the level sink so I fill it up and then put a layer of Perlite on to reflect the light.
On Saturday John Swift and I went to Barnsley to listen to Ivor Mace give a talk on Chrysants Leeks Onions and Carnations. We got lost so we didn't have chance to have a chat with the other people that were there which was a shame. There must have been over 70 people there. It was an interesting talk but odd bits were a little too technical for me.
The event was put on by the Barnsley Society on behalf of the Northern Group