Allium and Brassica season review – The Vegetable Farmer
Andy Richardson of Allium & Brassica Agronomy reviews the 2022 allium and brassica season so far. Heather Briggs reports ...
Weather challenges for bulb onion growers
Since 2019 we have had three very dry Aprils on the trot in East Anglia and April 2022 was no exception, with only 25mm rain recorded in Peterborough, reports Andy, noting that rainfall in April is key to good germination and seedling establishment. “Crops drilled before significant rain in mid-March generally established well with plant populations typically 45-50 plants/m2,” he says.
“Crops drilled in rapidly drying soils after the rain have significantly poorer stands typically 40-45 plants/m2 – this will have a significant impact on yield.”
Despite only between 50-70 percent of normal rainfall through the spring, temperatures were around 1 deg.C warmer than average and crops grew quickly.
Overwintered crops planted in November 2021 harvested around a week earlier than normal with average yields and good quality. Early maturing spring set crops planted in January/February grew particularly quickly and harvest started in the first few days of July around ten days earlier than normal. Like the overwinter crops, yields are around average.
“Significant rain through most of East Anglia in early June did wonders for the spring drilled crop and growth was rapid through until the end of June when crops started to suffer from the lack of rain at the critical bulbing time. Mid-July saw irrigation restrictions in place on many watercourses and with little water left in reservoirs, record high temperatures w/c 18th July added insult to injury.
“With only 12mm rain recorded in Peterborough for July, stressed fields have started either to dieback or fall over, both of which will have a significant impact on bulb size and yield.”
Comparisons with low summer rainfall and high temperatures in 2018 are well justified, he continues. In 2018 the UK produced its smallest crop of onions for more than 20 years at just 330,000 tonnes, around 27 percent down on average production of around 450,000 tonnes.
But it is not just the British onion growers who are having these challenges, and Andy notes that most of Western Europe, including France, Spain and Germany have also had long, hot, dry periods. The drought this summer throughout Western Europe coincides with significant reductions in area of around 10 percent in many EU countries, so with reduced yields, supplies are likely to be tight this winter/spring.
“With significant increases in costs of production, particularly a 55 percent increase in gas/electricity for drying/storage, and yields likely to be 30 percent lower than average, growers will need a significant price increase per tonne just to break even.”
Continuity challenge threatens for brassica sector
A mild winter meant early aphid flights and brassica crops suffered from intensive aphid pressure in May. Rain at the beginning of June helped seedlings establish and provided sufficient moisture to allow systemic insecticides to work.
The silver lining to the hot, dry summer is that disease levels have so far been low. However, current weather conditions are building up challenges for the rest of the season. Andy says: “June and July are our biggest planting months as we transplant crops sequentially to harvest though the autumn, winter and following spring. In particular the current lack of soil moisture is affecting establishment of broccoli and cauliflower crops with sequential plantings of cauliflower and broccoli made through July all just sitting there waiting for rain.
“In some fields, plant losses of 30 percent are common as seedlings wilt and die due to the lack of rainfall. Both of these factors will have a significant impact both on overall yield and continuity of supply as we go through the autumn into the winter.”
Whilst long season brassica crops such as white storage cabbage and sprouts are looking stressed there is still time for these crops to recover and grow in the autumn, assuming we get some rain soon.
He remarks that in Lincolnshire there is little water available and most of the crops here are unirrigated. Whilst irrigation is more commonplace in Cornwall, Scotland and Lancashire, the extreme conditions have pushed infrastructure here to its limits.
“Again, we are seeing crop conditions similar to those of 2018, when we also had a hot/dry June and July and it’s worth remembering that we recorded 33mm more rain in Spring 2018 than in Spring 2022.”
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