While some parts of the country are having to contend with heavy rainfall which is delaying both harvest and planting of crops, Lincolnshire is seeing some slightly better weather.
"We are pretty much caught up on planting, our over-wintered plants that take us to week 15 are all now planted and all our polythene crops are completed," said Nigel Clare from Peloton Produce. "We are doing better here in Lincolnshire than in other regions such as Cornwall and in Wales, I am under the impression with high rainfall these parts of the country are some three weeks behind and some areas are having to throw away plants as its too wet to plant."
Peloton Produce which in addition to production in Lincolnshire, has 700 acres in Cornwall as well as Spanish production.
"We are currently planting cauliflower, broccoli, red and white cabbage, Savoy cabbage and kale. We are around two weeks later here in Spalding, but if the weather stays fine the plants will catch up, as the amount of moisture in the ground is giving the optimum growing conditions for rapid growth under polythene. Its fair to say, we don't have any major concerns at the moment, but things can change so rapidly in the world of brassicas so time will tell if our late start on planting will catch up, but I am fairly optimistic. Other areas are 3-4 weeks behind and will have very wet soil to contend with, hence planting will be slow and difficult. The long-range forecast is predicting a dry summer, but it is too early to say for sure."
Peloton Produce are now at the end of the kale harvest and it has been very positive. "The over wintered cauliflower which was planted back in July/ August last year has come through very well and we have had better yields than we had expected. The transition from the Cornwall production to our Lincolnshire production has been very good, the continuity has been good for the last two months. It was a difficult start both here and in Spain, sometimes the Spanish supply can be difficult from January to March but, again despite a bad start it is fair to say that the warm climate has meant the season both in Spain and our over-wintered plants in Lincolnshire have gone very well to date."
For more information:
Nigel Clare
Peloton Produce
Tel: +44 1945 780222
nigel@pelotonproduce.co.uk
www.pelotonproduce.co.uk