How We Grow
Growing the best berries
We try and provide the plant with everything it needs over a long season of flowering and fruiting. First we choose the right field, the right variety to grow, the best plants and the correct planting date. Sensors are then used to continually record temperature, humidity, light levels and moisture but our specialist growers ‘walk the crops’ and use their knowledge and experience to interpret these data. So it’s a combination of old fashioned plantsmanship and high technology which grows the best berries.
Tom Pearson
Production Director
Tunnels & Glass
The crops are protected by polytunnels or glasshouses for an optimum growing microclimate. This encourages pollination, extends the harvest season, and means we can pick reliably every day - whatever the weather.
Tunnels provide a healthy growing microclimate as well as encouraging beneficial insects
Table Tops & Irrigation
Our strawberries are raised on ‘table tops’ for crop hygiene and to make them easier to manage and pick. We collect rainfall that falls on our tunnels and pipe it directly to the roots of each plant according to its irrigation needs
Growing in substrate
All our plants are grown in peat-free-substrate. We use coir – a by-product of the coconut industry which our plants love to root through. After several crops it is composted and recycled to improve soil structure on our arable fields.
Read about coir
Beneficial Insects and Biocontrol
Our crop ecosystem relies on beneficial insects which stop pests getting out of control. Hoverflies, ladybirds, lacewings and pirate bugs all eat damaging crop pests and we encourage them into our tunnels. Biocontrol also makes use of ‘good’ fungi to destroy moulds like mildew. This approach means we have reduced or eliminated many sprays.
