Our Fruit
Like many other growers the advent of tunnels has revolutionised strawberry growing.
All of our strawberries are now grown under polythene which helps us manipulate the cropping timetable. With the berries under cover we irrigate the crop through dripper tape with controls that are connected to a computer that controls the amount of water and fertigation applied.
We now start picking Elsanta and Everest in June followed by Florence in July and 60 day Elsanta in August. 60 day is a terminology used for strong Elsanta plants planted in the spring.
During this time we will still be picking Everest right through till November, again with the addition of new plants for later fruiting.
Elsanta is regarded as a maincrop variety wth a six week picking window. Florence is rated again as a maincrop variety but is 7-10 days later than Elsanta. Everest is an everbearer which can be picked from July till November. All of these factors do depend on the vagaries of our glorious summers and the managements ability to keep crops covered !!
We have a small area of raspberries which were planted last year and will come into full fruit in 2006. There will be a smaller harvest this year. Tulameen (USA) and Glen Ample (Scotland) are the varieties grown here along with an older plantation of Glen Moy (Scotland).
The raspberries are also watered and fertilised on the same system as the strawberries.
We are going to cover the rasps with a slightly different arrangement of polythene.
Your comments on all our growing systems will be welcomed.
All our fruits excel in their sweetness, taste and aroma. The sweetness is brought about by the longer daylight hours this far north which builds up the sugar levels to higher levels than for instance Kent.
The fruit grown at Cairntradlin Fruit Farm is all grown under a best practices code, and we are members of all the relevant farm assurance bodies.
|
