It has been a cold Winter in Britain, just as elsewhere in the northern parts of Europe and Asia. Fruit crops are generally developing later than they have in recent years. It has been suggested that strawberry crops were running 10-14 days later.
More recently temperatures jumped upwards, taking apple growers by surprise as buds moved from very early bud break to the mouse ear stage within a few days. As is typical of the British climate, the warm air brought rain too leaving many growers ruing missed opportunities to protect orchards from scab, before the inevitable showers arrived.
With the temperatures rising, early strawberry tunnels also came into flower. For the earliest of these, first flowers appeared in the week leading up to 25th March. Even though the cold returned last week, pasture has greened up and there is evidence of Spring everywhere in the South.
It is surprising that there is still discussion about the most effective way to bring on early strawberry crops under tunnels when it seems so obvious in the field!
GOOD SEALING + FLEECE + FLOATING MULCH
In the other countries fleece = ‘row cover’ and floating mulch = “perforated film” or “perforated poly”
When temperatures dropped last week well sealed SOLO tunnels remained warm and when the strong winds hit us at the end of the week growers were able to keep them closed, especially when fitted with STREAMLINE doors.
To avoid damage from Feb-March winds the safest option is to delay tunnel skinning and rely on ‘fleece and floating’ alone or to choose stronger tunnel designs such as the SOLO (with 2mm wall steel). In Britain the best money still comes from early crops so, for strawberries the industry is gradually moving towards much stronger tunnels.
