CORNWALL, CABBAGES AND KEEPING IT TRADITIONAL

Fourth generation brassica growers Mark and Lowenna Arnold reveal the rationale underpinning their family business, Cornish Cabbage Plants, which produces bare rooted brassicas for the home gardener

- Mark and Lowenna Arnold

Up until 1970, many gardeners and growers throughout the country would purchase their vegetables for the coming season from their local farmers' market or directly from neighboring farms. These plants were bare-rooted brassicas grown in a field for several months until they developed sufficient roots and leaf canopy. When it was time to be transplanted into gardens, they were already acclimatized to the outdoor environmental conditions and mature enough to start taking up nutrients immediately.

From 1970 onwards, advances in technology developed the concept of producing plants from the seed in individual plastic modules, also known as plugs. Growing times are reduced to a matter of weeks under controlled greenhouse conditions, using hybrid varieties such as ‘Advantage F1’ and ‘Duncan F1’. This method has multiple benefits for large growers over the traditional techniques; for example, whole crop synchronization in flowering, which enables uniformity to meet strict requirements when supplying supermarket demands.

They are also more aesthetically appealing and easier to look after, with greater control of weeds, pests, and diseases. However, as with all intensive processes, there are disadvantages, such as higher input costs from labor, electricity, and materials when building the infrastructure to grow hundreds of thousands of plants.