lack of rain - is it damaging your crop?

I was reading on todays paper about the bad situation for farmers (especially corn and barley) because of the lack of rain...is it bad for you as well? On a good note the summer fruits seem to do well...

[...]
Summer fruits have been enjoying a bumper harvest this year, with growers reporting record yields for this time of year.
The only worry is that the peak of their crop may have come
too early for major summer events such as Wimbledon, when strawberry sales are traditionally high.
Laurence Olins, chairman of British Summer Fruits, said: "The strawberry crop is two weeks earlier than it should be. We have had an unusual April and that has resulted in a superb crop that is high in sugar and flavour."
It's small consolation for the grain and livestock farmers, but one small silver lining on the missing rain clouds. [...]
source: DailyTelegraph on 5/june

 

Hey Mira,

I'm having to keep a close eye on suceptable crops like Pak Choi, onions & Florence Fennel, all tend to bolt if its too dry.

A couple of beetroot I had out earlier had put out a lot of fine roots, another indication that its thinking about bolting.

Dont mind the Sweetcorn bolting however.:yess:

 

I'm not on a water meter.

I rest my case.:WINK1:

 

Took another 40 galls in containers to my plot today. Planted out 144 strawflowers, 48 statice, 72 Nigella, 68 Cosmos, 48 cells of peas (3-4 in each), and 96 cells of sunflowers (several in each).

Watered them in using all the water taken there in the last 2 days or so. Then it rained. Waiting for it to stop so more stuff can go out.

 

We've got a steady drizzel in Dorset thats evaporating 2" before it hits the ground

 

None of the tiny amount of rain that has fallen so far has penetrated the ground, which has remained dry under the top quarter-inch. However, it has been raining all day today, at last, the first sustained rainfall since March, so I'm hoping it will penetrate the ground a bit more.

 

Up on my land I have mature trees that are noticeably wilting at their leaves. My dad reckons its not just the lack of rain, but a combination of lack of rain, an early hot spell, and unusually persistent strong winds.

 

Intercontinental Balistic Containers ???

 

You should be. Pet peeve of my. Fixed cost for unlimited use. I feel the same about "£N per month" broadband ... wide open to abuse.

Nothing personal Pete. Rant over.

 

I'm guessing you are on a water meter Kristen?

I think I will be in two years time, they came round and fitted all the stop cocks in the area with the right gubbins a few month back.

I probably use less water than most households in the area so what I use on the garden is only making up for those that use gallons of the stuff washing every day:D

Anyway, it poured hard here this morning so I wont need to water for a bit now.
Bet the neighbours keep doing their washing though.:WINK1:

 

I recall something that happened at the time of the Poll tax.

A friend of mine, Kevin(also from Kent) was living in one of about 14 caravans nestled in his uncle's woods near Guildford.

Before the poll tax, his uncle used to just pay the flat "rates" charge for the land, but under the new system, everyone had to pay individually.

Suddenly, the council discovered 14 people they had no idea were there before.

There was the usuall hoo haa about if it was legal and so forth.

When they decided there was nothing they could do about it as the caravans had been there for so long (Kevins was an 80 year old 2 floor oak waggon) They decided to tell everyone else about the site.

Enter "THE WATER BOARD" :OUCH::OUCH:

They looked around the site & couldn't find any mains connection, Kevin collected rainwater from the roof & ran it through a filter for tea.

There was no sewage outlet either, it was all composted & burried in the woods, which fed the trees which heated the caravans.

They did however find a well.

A few weeks later, every resident had a bill for full on Guildford stylee water rates.

To our suprise, Kevin happily paid the bill for a couple of months, then stopped....

When they tried to take him to court for non payment (they couldn't easily cut him off) He demanded payment from them instead.

Kevin worked with me at the College of Law. On getting the first bill, he'd gone through all the precidents in the law library and found that they could charge water rates for abstraction from a well, but if the well ran dry for more than 3 months in the year, they had to pay the abstractee.

They didn't have a leg to stand on as they had demanded payment without checking the consequences.:D

 

Yup. I'm happy to pay-as-I go. We use a lot in the Summer for the garden (particularly this year), and I resent putting potable water onto the garden. Its a pity there isn't a grey-water infrastructure in this country, like there is in say Spain. We have some rainwater harvesting, but I am planning to put a string of IBC's to harvest the barn downpipes and store water for the garden, and then a pump to the water pipe I'm in the process of laying around the garden, to make some savings.

 

I'm dreading my water bill... but I have stopped taking bath's :D to compensate, I'm a but smelly but the plants are alive.
Mrs Chopper