The Cut Flower Podcast

Unlock the Secrets to Growing Stunning Flowers Year-Round in Polytunnels!

• Roz Chandler • Season 1 • Episode 82

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Text Agony Aunt Roz with your Cutflower Questions.

It's Roz Chandler here with a special solo episode of The Cutflower Podcast. Today, I'll be diving into a topic that has sparked a lot of interest – growing flowers in a polytunnel. Whether you're a seasoned flower farmer or just starting out, this episode will provide valuable insights and tips on how to optimise your flower growing efforts under cover.

Summary

In this episode, we explore the advantages of using polytunnels for flower farming. Polytunnels provide a controlled environment that protects plants from extreme weather, pests, and diseases, while also extending the growing season. I share my personal experiences and practical advice on how to make the most of these structures, including what types of flowers thrive best in them and how to manage the unique challenges they present. From climate control to water efficiency, we cover all the essential aspects of polytunnel cultivation.

Key Takeaways

  1. Climate Control: Polytunnels offer a stable environment, shielding flowers from extreme temperatures, wind, rain, and frost, which leads to consistent growth conditions and higher quality blooms.
  2. Extended Growing Season: These structures allow for an extended growing season, enabling farmers to start earlier in the spring and continue later into the autumn and winter, thus maximising market opportunities.
  3. Pest and Disease Management: Polytunnels act as a barrier against many pests and diseases. Although not foolproof, they make it easier to manage and control infestations, particularly with the use of biological pest controls.
  4. Water Efficiency: With fine-tuned irrigation systems, polytunnels ensure optimal water usage, reducing waste and stress on plants, which is crucial for maintaining plant health and flower quality.
  5. Improved Flower Quality: Flowers grown in polytunnels are often of superior quality due to the protection from weather and pests. This leads to more pleasing and marketable blooms.
  6. Specific Plant Needs: Different flowers have different requirements. For instance, roses benefit from the controlled environment to avoid weather damage, while delphiniums and dahlias thrive with protection from wind and rain.
  7. Planning and Investment: Investing in a polytunnel is significant but worthwhile. Careful planning of what to grow and where to place your polytunnel is essential to maximise benefits and return on investment.

Join me as I delve into each of these points, sharing tips from my 15 years of experience and how we do it at Fieldgate Flowers. I'll also touch on our specific use of polytunnels for various flowers, including our upcoming projects.


The Cutflower Podcast

[00:00:00] Roz Chandler: Hello and welcome. So today we're going to do a solace episode. So that's just me talking to you all. And the reason is there's a lot, I've been asked a lot about growing flowers in a polytunnel. And the interesting thing about that is there isn't very much out there on it. You can get lots and lots of information about growing vegetables in a polytunnel, but nothing really about growing flowers.

[00:00:23] Roz Chandler: And also when you talk to lots of flower farmers, which I have over the years really, over the 15 years I've been in business, you find that lots of people do it differently, which doesn't really help either. Certainly when you're starting off, there's lots of misconceptions and so on about polytunnels.

[00:00:40] Roz Chandler: So I thought I would let you know what we do and what my advice would be. in growing in a polytunnel. Now, obviously, traditionally, you grow in open fields, if you're a larger flower farmer, you grow in open fields but there has definitely been a need for increasing quality and consistency, and many flower farmers have moved some of their growing to a controlled environment, and being controlled is one of the most important things.

[00:01:09] Roz Chandler: So it controls weather, that's really, really very important, and controls pests and diseases, and it allows us to extend our growing season even actually at the spring or into the autumn and winter. So what are the advantages for flower farmers in having polytunnels? It is an investment, fairly large investment, But what would be the advantages for growing undercover?

[00:01:33] Roz Chandler: The first one, of course, is climate control, and one that we're just going to have to get more used to. Polytunnels provide a stable environment. They protect the plants from extreme temperatures, the wind, the rain and the frost. And this control helps in maintaining consistent growth conditions. leading ultimately to better quality flowers.

[00:01:55] Roz Chandler: So climate control is really important. Number two, it extends our growing season. So while controlling the internal climate, polytunnels allow, in the spring and later in the fall to increase our market opportunities. It allows us to bring things on early and go on late into the autumn and into Christmas.

[00:02:14] Roz Chandler: We talked about pest and disease management. Polytunnels act as a barrier to many pests and diseases. Of course, they don't eliminate them. So yes, we still have aphids on our roses in one of our tunnels, but it's more controllable. So we can bring in bio pest control and we can work with that and it's easier in a controlled environment.

[00:02:36] Roz Chandler: Of course, water efficiency. These structures help in managing water using more effectively, so irrigation systems within a polytunnel can be fine tuned to ensure plants receive optimal water, reducing our wastage and ensuring plants do not get overstressed. And the fifth reason is it improves our flower quality.

[00:02:58] Roz Chandler: Flowers grown in polytunnels are often of a higher quality. The controlled environment reduces damage from weather and pests, leading to much better pleasing blooms. Now some say that when you grow in a polytunnel, the stems will be a little bit weaker because they're not subjected to outdoor environment.

[00:03:16] Roz Chandler: We haven't found this so much. There are other issues which we'll talk about, but we haven't found that here at Fieldgate. So here at Fieldgate, we do have three polytunnels, all supplied by First Tunnels, who are amazing. And we are about to be joined by another one, and I'll explain why we're having that one later on, to be four polytunnels.

[00:03:37] Roz Chandler: We've had two of them for over ten years. We have another one much larger in the field which joined about three years ago. And the thing about, I would say to people, and I will say this now, is always buy a polytunnel larger than you think you're going to need, because you will use it. And the new one joining us in July will be a 40 foot by 10 foot, so 10 foot wide by 40 foot long.

[00:04:01] Roz Chandler: And really that's going to have a specific purpose. seed in terms of we're going to grow some tropical plants like zinnias for instance, and some helichrysum, and it will all be about seed collection. And we'll talk more about that in another episode about collecting seeds, in a polytunnel, you have a bit more of a sterile environment and you can.

[00:04:22] Roz Chandler: concentrate on the fact that you're reducing the amount of cross pollination you're going to get between plants. The seeds will be more true to the initial plant and we'll be testing that one out and hopefully you'll be following our journey on that one. Think about location of a polytunnel. It does matter greatly to the temperatures you're going to experience internally.

[00:04:43] Roz Chandler: The large one we've got which is exposed in the middle of a field gets very hot and can have temperatures up to 50 degrees. So we use that for a particular reason. We use that one just for seed germination. So we take that from the autumn all the way through the winter. We're growing all of our plants and then we're getting them all out by June.

[00:05:03] Roz Chandler: And then so for therefore the main months of July, August and September, which are really hot then, we hope is that the temperatures are over 50 degrees but everything is out by then. The other two we've got are in more shaded areas and they're smaller and we use them for different things but it's about planning very carefully your real estate.

[00:05:24] Roz Chandler: Because, it's really important because polytunnels aren't cheap, they're really necessary for flower farmers, but it's a piece of real estate, so be really careful about what you're going to grow in them. So we have, let's talk about tunnel number one. Tunnel number one has roses in it. And it's been going for, oh, ten years, having roses inside it.

[00:05:52] Roz Chandler: And why do we grow roses in it? We grow roses in it because we're growing David Austin roses. And we also grow them outside. We grow Repto amount outside. But let's say we really need those roses for an event, or a wedding, or a funeral. And we have horrendous winds and rain the week before, and all of our petals are spoiled outside.

[00:06:11] Roz Chandler: We have another environment of which to go to. Our roses will always come earlier, so our Queen of Sweden's, our William and Catherine's and so on, in that tunnel will be earlier and that's why we grow them. Down the sides we'll grow coneflowers, aryngium, brilliant, they love it hot and that's predominantly what we will grow in tunnel number one.

[00:06:34] Roz Chandler: Tunnel number two again in quite a sheltered place. We will grow things like delphiniums. And the reason we'll grow diaphaniums is because they're a really valuable plant. They're very tall, they're very vibrant colours, and we want to control the environment. So we don't want the wind to take them over.

[00:06:53] Roz Chandler: Even if we support them outside, we are still exposed to winds. So we grow them in an internal environment. So we would recommend growing your high value product like delphiniums. We also grow larkspur. We also grow some early things that we want to happen, like a nigella, which is self seeded. That's great.

[00:07:12] Roz Chandler: So it comes early. I do know that of flower farmers that grow sweet peas and ammy to get them early, get an early crop. So tunnel number two is probably about protection. So we're growing delphiniums. We also grow our cafe au laits or any of our tall, big headed dahlias. Number one, we'll get them earlier.

[00:07:34] Roz Chandler: And number two, we will weather protect them because they're, their failures are susceptible to rain damage which can obviously lead to rot and poor quality of flowers. And polytunnels shield those plants from excessive rain, ensuring the blooms will be in perfect condition. And bear that in mind with things like cafe au lait, which have a big head.

[00:07:55] Roz Chandler: We can control various pests like slugs for the dahlias, which is really important. And we are optimizing the growing conditions. Dahlias are a tropical plant. They love heat, which is why we grow them. So in tunnel number, what tunnel would this be? Tunnel number two, we're growing dahlias, we're growing delphiniums, and we're doing some early crops.

[00:08:15] Roz Chandler: Things like Nigella's, things like we've got some Gypsophila in there. We've also got some Ami in there and we're getting an early crop, but predominantly it's Delphiniums. And also we'll grow the late flowering Chrysanthemums. So we get them a much later and we'll still get late flowering Chrysanthemums.

[00:08:33] Roz Chandler: So we talk about extending the season. We'll still get those in November. So on to tunnel, so in tunnel number one, we've talked about roses. Tunnel number two is delphiniums and in the main, we grow croissants and some dahlias. Tunnel number three, we've talked about seed germination, seed propagation, take us through the winter from our autumn sowing all the way through to June and is now completely empty because the temperature can get too hot.

[00:08:58] Roz Chandler: And then of course, we've got our lovely tunnel number four coming from first tunnels and we're going to be looking predominantly at things like zinnias and helichrysum. Now bear in mind that zinnias are a tropical plant and they love heat. We are going to grow them in there because we want to restrict cross pollination.

[00:09:15] Roz Chandler: We're going to actually put some bags over some of them so we'll be avoiding pollination being crossed over because we want to collect the seeds. So this year that tunnel is all about seeds and we'll be looking to see what we can do about that. So think about what, if you're looking at your tunnels, think about how can you do a cost benefit analysis, conduct.

[00:09:38] Roz Chandler: What are you growing? What can you get for it? How much did it, how much was your initial investment and when are you going to get your money back? Think about diversification, grow a number of flowers to spread your risk. So we've talked about roses and tap into different market segments. Specialise in high value crops like roses, delphiniums, cafe au lait to maximise your profitability.

[00:10:01] Roz Chandler: Identify your markets. So do some research. What does your market want? Are you dealing with florists? Are you doing wholesaling? What are you doing with your blooms? And what does your market want? Demand. Is it going to be later? Are you doing funerals? Do you need late flowering blooms? Do you need early flowering?

[00:10:18] Roz Chandler: Do you want to go to the tulips early in the year? So get them early and there's ways of doing that in the tunnels and of course Look at, seeds collection and all of that sort of thing. So how are you, or are you going to do lots of dried? Look at all the ways you can diversify your market.

[00:10:34] Roz Chandler: In conclusion, really, on top of this, polytunnels offer flower farmers massive amounts of advantages, from climate control and pest management, to improve flower quality and extended growing season. By investing and implementing best practices in those tunnels, you can enhance your profitability and sustainability of a flower farm.

[00:10:54] Roz Chandler: Transcribed Like we've talked about flowers like roses, delphiniums, cafe au lait, will benefit from polytunnel cultivation, resulting in higher yields and superior blooms. You need to plan, do your market research, capitalise on all your opportunities, talk to other flowers and see what they're doing, and yeah, add it into your mix.

[00:11:15] Roz Chandler: Know that your investment is going to pay you back. And I'm doing, we've had two tunnels for 10 years, the third one joined us three years ago, and we've got another one joining us this fourth year. And as we know, climate is a big issue at the moment, and so look at climate that's going to happen in coming years and invest in a polytunnel with first tunnels.

[00:11:35] Roz Chandler: Thank you very much. I hope you found this useful and do join me on Instagram at fieldgateflowers. If you want to ask me any questions, then fire away.