Listening to Farming Today today I heard a guy who runs a big nursery in Truro, James Hosking, saying that he has poytunnels and greenhouses full of brassica plants for the West Cornwall broccoli (cauliflower) and calabrese industry. These should have been planted out in mid-January but the fields are too sodden to work them and won't be ready for planting for a minimum of 7-10 days. His nursery at Fentongollan Farm on the Fal Estuary raises 100m plants a year and is full to bursting with seedlings that need to go in the ground.
Meanwhile the Asian Fruit Fly arrived in Kent from Southern Europe last year and fruit growers are braced for this pest, which has no natural predators in the UK, to make depredations on ripe and ripening fruits from the blackberry to the plum.
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