It’s time to size up those sensational tunnel croppers

<B>Kitty Scully </b>takes another look at last year’s high achievers for the polytunnel and greenhouse.

Last week I surveyed some of the star performing 2014 outdoor crops in the Airfield food gardens and this week it is time to size up those sensational tunnel croppers.

Here in Ireland we are limited to cool climate produce so polytunnels are the only option for growing a broader range of tender crops.

There is no denying that a polytunnel is one of the most cost-effective and efficient ways of extending the growing season and expanding the variety of crops you can grow and if you are a keen veggie grower and don’t have one already, let 2015 be the year that you take the plunge into polytunnel plotting.

Trust me, the only thing you might regret is that you didn’t put up a bigger one!

Tomatoes

Outdoor tomatoes rarely do well in the Irish climate so a tunnel, glasshouse or sunny conservatory is the only option.

Considering that there are over 3,000 varieties of tomatoes in existence, we were rather modest in our Airfield tunnel tomato trials.

Last year we grew seven cordon varieties, a mixture of standard and cherry (Apricot Dream, Cherola, Gardener’s Delight, Rosella, Sungold, St Pierre and Tigerella).

Of all grown, all yielded prolifically but Sungold F1 and Rosella, both cherries, came out top of the tomato crops for yield and yum-factor flavour.

Sungold cropped the earliest with first pickings in early July. Gardener’s Delight did not shine in comparison and will not make the 2015 list along with Apricot Dream, whose pear shaped bright orange fruits cropped well and looked fabulous but, alas, taste paled in comparison with the sweet juicy golden orange Sungold and rose-pink almost purple Rosella.

One additional trailing tomato we grew was a compact variety, called Tumbler, that did really well in containers. Due to its compact trailing habit this variety worked great as an indoor plant in our restaurant, but was grown more for novelty than yields.

Cucamelon (Melothria scabra)

First brought to my attention by the enthusiastic ethno-botanist and TV presenter James Wong, I was inspired to grow these tiny watermelon lookalikes with their ‘cucumber and lime’ taste.

They are an easy-to-grow vigorous climber/trailer and are prized for their refreshing flavour and their lush vines that produce masses of fruit throughout the summer. Fruits are ready to pick when they are grape-sized and still firm to the touch.

Plants were grown from seed and admittedly in their early stages they looked rather sad and shaky but once they got going, they never looked back and trailed prettily up a wire trellis in the tunnel.

For those curious to experiment with new foods, these definitely are a must-grow and there is plenty of scope for playing around with recipes to highlight the delicate flavour, from pickles to drinks’ décor.

Everyone’s taste buds differ and for me these fruits looked better than they tasted but will be included in this year’s tunnel crop plan for their good looks and novelty alone.

Aubergine

Often it comes as a surprise to non-tunnel proprietors that aubergines actually grow in Ireland. Albeit they have a bit of reputation for being unreliable, hard to grow and for taking up a lot of tunnel space compared to value of return, but that said, if the right variety is chosen and if started early in the season, it is possible to harvest bumper crops like we had in Airfield last year.

We grew just one variety, Moneymaker F1 and there is no question how this variety earned its name. Grant it, F1 varieties generally give higher yields but never have I grown such an abundance of this fruit with so little effort.

Plant care included nothing more than regular watering and the addition of a few single stakes to support heavy cropping branches. Like most crops, chefs like them small and this aubergine variety just seemed to keep on producing glossy purple fruit over a long season.

I followed Joy Larkcom’s advice from Grow Your Own Veg and once the plants reached 50cm, I pinched out the growing tip to encourage bushier growth.

Early carrots

Carrots are a crop not typically associated with tunnels but if you fancy a few sweet tasty tender carrots to crunch on early in the season (May until July), they certainly earn their bed space.

Our ‘Early Nantes’, sown the first week of March, was a super success grown undercover, avoiding all possible attacks from carrot rootfly and ready for picking long before its outdoor counterparts and other root vegetables were in season.

Early sowings are the only ones worth bothering about when it comes to carrots in a polytunnel, and make sure to chose a suitable variety which generally are ‘forcing’ or ‘early’ varieties such as Amsterdam Forcing, Early Nantes or Buror F1.