Is spring in the air?
Recent weather suggests the cold spell may be behind us and spring is in the air; not the false spring like weather we experienced in January, which confused plants, wild life and homo sapiens.
Apple fruit bud has shown sign of swelling as far back as January, however the cold spell has held back bud development, and to date no green tips are visible. Growers will be keeping a keen eye on bud movement in the days ahead and as soon as 5% green tip is reached, the sprayers will be out with a protective scab fungicide application.
Just yesterday The English Apple Man experienced 'summer temperatures' on a vist to Thanet Earth near Margate in Kent with The Under 40's Conference Group.
In fact the outside temperature was 17c, so not too far below the temperature in the tomato greenhouse (22c) which was central to our visit.
The visit was a precursor to the next Under 40's Conference visit to Poland in 2013.
The prime objective of this meeting was to give The Under 40's Conference current Chairman Richard Edmed and his committee the opportunity to gather Under 40 members hoping to take part in the next Conference together as a group, and enable networking with each other and sponsors. For those who have not been to a previous Conference, this was an opportunity to learn the history of the Under 40 Conference and preview plans for the next biennial Conference in Warsaw in March 2013.
As a very supportive sponsor, FRESCA Group made a meeting room available and with the future of young growers dependent on embracing science and technology, allowed the group to tour some of the key components of this cutting edge production, packing and marketing site.
The importance of young people to the future of our fresh produce industry was exemplified by the contribution of Thanet Earth senior management personnel who gave up valuable time to accompany The Under 40 members throughout the visit.
Andrew Sharp, Fresca Group - Technical Director and Judy Whittaker, Fresca Group - Communications Manager played a key role in the visit, always on hand to answer technical and commercial questions.
Observing advanced growing systems is a great inspiration for 'triggering the brain cells' on which the young people who will drive our horticultural industries forward in the decades ahead will depend!
Judy Whittaker, Fresca Group Communications Manager introduced the background to this huge investment in salad production.
Currently there is around 25 hectares of glass (from an eventual planned 55 hectares) on the 90 hectare site.The inspiration for Fresca was to arrest the decline in 'home' grown, glasshouse production of salad crops. The drive was to produce British produce for British consumers.
To create this huge venture, Fresca has entered into partnership with leading growers from Holland. Each production glasshouse is 'owned' by a grower and run as an independent production unit, with the growers partners in a 50/50 joint venture with Fresca to market the crops. Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Peppers are all grown under this partnership.
Thanet Earth Marketing controls the product logistics of packing and marketing from a purpose built packing, storage and marketing complex.
In the planning stage, Fresca set out to maximise environmental efficiency as an integral aspect of the site operations. Energy is produced by an on site power station. This utilises natural gas to power the generators and with a £5.5 million investment in a sub station and pylons to carry power; excess energy is sold to the National Grid.
It is estimated that when the site is fully functioning, with all seven glasshouses in production, enough energy will be generated to power 55,000 homes in East Kent, in addition to the energy requirements of the Thanet Earth site.
Water efficiency is driven by capturing all the rainfall from the outside glass, and condensation from the inside of the glass and storing in a series of reservoirs; one for each of the seven planned glasshouses. The operating procedure at Thanet Earth is; using the water from the reservoirs during the summer months and only falling back on mains supply when the demands on public water supply are minimal.
At the moment three glasshouses of the planned seven have been built; when completed the final cost is a projected £100 million. Further structures will be built when the UK economy justifies continuance of the business plan.
Choice of the location was important; finding a large site, free of any long term planning restrictions and with good natural light levels was a key requirement. Light is critical and Thanet is one of the best locations; a 1% increase in light will equate to a 1% increase in yield. Strategically Thanet is ideal with good road infrastructure and with the loss of Pfizer the local economy has benefited from an employment potential of 500 new jobs.
Ensuring the local authority and the residents of Thanet understood the benefit of this cutting edge venture in their community was vital, and engaging with the public to explain the virtues of Thanet Earth was integral to their support. Liaison continues on a regular basis with educational visits to schools and other rural organisations.
Our tour of the 9.6 hectare (23 acre) Tomato Glasshouse unit required observing the utmost hygiene; we were kitted out in white (disposable paper) all in one 'boiler suits, plastic gloves and disposable slippers over our shoes. This may seem a bit 'OTT' but the importance of keeping viruses out of the glasshouses is paramount.
Pests are controlled by predators, bees deal with pollination. Production is quoted in kilos per square metre; the high value 'on the vine' Piccolo variety will produce 1/3 of the larger fruiting varieties.
The current production cycle started in week 38 of last year and will continue for 40 weeks. Management of the vines allows the fruiting trusses to always be in a prime position for easy picking. The vines grow to a great length and the 'cropped' vine is twisted away out of the way of harvesting personnel.
Last week The EAM Journal looked in depth at soil and how we should adopt biological potential to maximise yield capability while improving and maintaining sustainability for our field grown crops, including my speciality, apples!
The crops grown in the Thanet Earth greenhouses do not grow in any soil at all. Everything is grown in a rockwool substrate/hydroponic medium.
Thanet Earth hydroponic module production system.
My readers may wonder how growing in a 'substrate' can be the way forward when we are facing water shortages. BUT, hydroponic production is so much more efficient than soil grown crops. Each small tomato plant arrives at Thanet Earth from a specialist plant producer in Holland.
The plant is grown from a seed in a small 'rockwool block' it is then placed on a larger rockwool block. Fertigation (water and nutrient mix) is administered via small 'spears' fed by a piped supply system from the fertigation tanks. All run off (excess water) drains from the rockwool slabs into the supporting gutters and is recycled.
To produce a kilo of tomatoes hydroponically uses 8 litres of water, to produce a kilo in Spain grown in soil, requires 80 litres!
Watch this video of Thanet Earth production.
Under 40's visit to Warsaw in March 2013.
Following our tour of the Thanet Earth complex, and after an enjoyable buffet lunch, Alex Radu, Under 40's Sponsorship Secretary reviewed the history of the group, which came into being after Professor Hudson from Long Ashton Research Station recognised the need for the younger members of the growing fraternity to seek out cutting edge growing systems in other countries.
See The English Apple Man's Journal for 4th March 2011.
GOVERNMENT INVESTMENT?
A £7m funding boost for fruit and veg research
The UK is set to invest more than £7 million of taxpayers' money into developing more sustainable methods of producing quality fruit and vegetables to help secure food for the future.
The government-funded Bio- technology and Biological Sciences Council (BBSRC) has launched a scheme called the Horticulture and Potato Initiative, which is a collaborative funding activity to support excellent quality, industrially relevant research projects on potato and edible horticulture crops.
One of the areas where the initiative will focus is on helping growers adapt to a changing climate, the BBSRC said.
"Many varieties of the food crops we grow in the UK have been tailored to very specific local climate conditions. This means that even slight changes in growing seasons, water availability and weather extremes could cause dramatic reductions in production if not countered with research expertise," it said.
The BBSRC has identified six key areas for research: changing seasons, crop maturity and storage, soil, pests and pathogens, seed quality and vigour, and resource-use efficiency.
Additional funding will be also provided by industrial partners, the Scottish Government and the Natural Environment Research Council, and the money will be available through two calls for applications.
Dr Celia Caulcott, BBSRC director of innovation and skills, said: "Any research initiative to improve fruits and vegetables should start with the end product - what do we as consumers want to eat? We can combine the scientific expertise of academic researchers with the real world expertise of industry in the hope of delivering bigger yields of better quality fruit and veg for us all to buy."
The NFU said BBSRC principally invests in pure science but is focusing on edible horticulture and potato crops after a great deal of NFU discussion and industry engagement.
"It's now important for all other R&D stakeholders to come together," it said.
"In what has been, and some would argue still is, a hostile environment to innovation, they must collaborate as business partners and deliver farm-gate uptake and investment output focus."
Source: Freshinfo
EAM comment; ANY investment in fresh produce is welcome, especially as the reduction in Government research has been dramatic in the last decade. Now they want us to pull out all the stops and feed our nation again; "we are not too proud to accept a few crumbs" from our masters table!
FINALLY - a fascinating interactive view of The SHARD
"No orchards up there, but you will probably be able to see some in the distance from the top once The Shard is completed"
Next week The English Apple Man will be on holiday, but The Journal will be on line as usual with news from The Pear Conference at East Malling Research on Monday 27th February.
Take care
The English Apple Man