Growing Narcissi

The Isles of Scilly have long been famous for producing high quality, early narcissi. Here at Churchtown farm we specialise in growing the multi-headed and gloriously scented 'Tazetta' types of narcissi, instead of the more common unscented daffodil types.

How do we choose which varieties to grow?

The narcissi that we grow here at Churchtown Farm are a mixture of established traditional varieties - such as Soleil d'or, Paper White and Golden Dawn, and new releases from the Island's own research and development station - some of which are so new that they still only have numbers instead of names.

In order to be selected for cultivation at Churchtown Farm, a new variety must be high yielding and produce better quality flowers than any alternatives. It is also important that the new variety has a natural flowering season which fits in with our requirements, we are always on the lookout for strong varieties that will enable us to lengthen our season.

New bulb fields are planted in late summer. They are planted in a similar way to potatoes in prepared soil beds. Due to the exceptionally mild winter climate in Scilly, bulbs will start to grow as soon as the first autumn rains arrive, this ensures that our varieties will naturally flower between November and March.

At Churchtown farm we are only interested in our narcissi for their flower crops - we do not as a rule sell any bulbs. For this reason we leave the bulbs in the ground for up to 4 years as opposed to the more usual 2 year crops associated with mainland bulb growers.

The first crop of flowers after the bulbs have been planted are often thin and of poor quality, so don't reach our stringent quality requirements. For this reason nearly all narcissi sent from Churchtown Farm are from 2nd, 3rd or 4th year crops.

How do we make sure that we have flowers when we need them?

In order to match our flower production volumes to our sales we plant varieties that flower at different times. We can achieve even greater control over flowering by using special techniques to make particular crops flower either later or earlier than their natural season.

How do we make the narcissi flower early?

To advance the natural flowering season we cover the portion of field which we want to flower earlier with a large sheet of polythene in May. During May and June, this has the effect of warming the soil. We also light fires using straw and grass at the edge of the polythene, the smoke is then blown under the polythene. The ethylene in the smoke initiates the flower production. The polythene is then removed in early July to allow the bulbs to start growing.

Driving slowly over the flower fields with a tractor mounted burner has a slightly lesser advancing effect but helps to improve the quality and flowering rate.

How do we make the narcissi flower late?

Putting polythene sheets over some fields from August to October keeps the soil and bulbs dry and therefore delays the start of bulb growth and flowering until later than it's natural season.

What happens when the bulbs have been in the ground for 4 years?

When the bulbs have been in the ground for 4 years we take them out, this is called lifting. We start to lift our bulbs in June after the foliage has died back. This is done to maintain the quality of the crop and prevent the build up of disease. After ensuring that the field is clear of weeds and foliage our tractor mounted bulb lifter gently lifts the bulbs, separates them from the soil and drops them gently in neat rows on top of the soil. After several days drying in the field the bulbs are picked up by hand and put into sacks and brought back to the farm.

What happens to the lifted bulbs?

The dried bulbs are cleaned and sorted on a vibrating grading table or 'riddle'. Here we discard all bulbs that are too small, damaged or diseased to be of use in flower production. The cleaned and graded bulbs are than returned to their sacks for the final process.

After this we subject the bulbs to hot water treatment called sterilisation. This involves immersing batches of bulbs for three hours in a hot solution of disinfectant to kill some important bulb pests and diseases such as eelworm or basal rot. After this they are ready to be planted again.

Growing Pinks

When do we plant pinks?

At Churchtown Farm we plant our show pinks into new grow bags either in April or October. We usually keep the plants for between 18 months and 2 years. Show pinks tend to produce flowers continuously throughout the summer, although each variety tends to have 3 or 4 distinct “flushes” of flowering during the season. At the end of their useful life, we pull out and discard the old plants; the used grow bags are then either sold on to other growers for tomato production, or emptied onto fields which are not used for flower growing.

Why do we use Grow Bags?

Water: Here on the Isles of Scilly, water is extremely limited. We only have available whatever rainwater we can collect from our roofs, supplemented by a small quantity from our own wells. By growing our pinks in bags, we can ensure that we give each plant exactly the right amount of water and feed at any time of the year. In this way, we conserve our precious water reserves and minimise any impact on the environment from excess fertiliser.

Crop rotation: On St. Martin’s, we are also extremely limited by the availability of suitably sheltered fields in which to grow flowers, this means that we find it extremely difficult to practice a proper crop rotation with our best fields. By growing in bags, we are able to use our best fields to continuously grow pinks without risk of pests and diseases building up in the soil.

Weed Control: As we first cover the field with a ground cover before laying out the grow bags, weeds cannot grow in the crop. This saves us time in weeding operations and means that we do not have to spray with chemical weed killers.

How do we choose which varieties to grow?

There are many different varieties of show pinks available. We buy our young plants in from the leading UK breeder in Devon.

At Churchtown Farm we try to grow a range of varieties that meet our strict criteria:
1. The flowers must be strong and long stemmed.
2. The variety must be an attractive colour to complement our range.
3. The plants must be naturally resistant to pests and diseases, in order to minimise the amount of chemical sprays needed to grow them.

What is Fertigation?

As all of our show pinks are grown in grow bags we must precisely supply all of their irrigation and fertiliser requirements on an ongoing basis. To do this, we use a system known as FERTIGATION (a combination of fertilising and irrigation).

As soon as each bag is planted, it is connected by two dripper pipes to the field scale irrigation system. We then use a computer to control the amount of water pumped to each field up to 5 times per day. On the way to the field, a very specific amount of specially formulated liquid fertiliser is injected into the water in order to feed the plants. By accurately measuring the amount of feed that the plants are using, we can vary the amount of feed that we inject at each watering time.

How do we extend the growing season?

At Churchtown Farm, our show pinks flower naturally between late April and late September. In order to extend the flowering season to meet up with our narcissi crops, we cover part of the crop with polythene tunnels. These tunnels provide a warmer environment in which the plants can keep growing over a longer season (late March to late October).