Home>The Process

How We Grow Watercress

The principles of growing watercress have not changed much over the years. Much of the work is still done by hand as once the crop is planted, tractors would damage it if they drove in the beds.

Harvesting has become mechanized, and cleaning out is now done with a tractor, but many operations such as planting and fertilizer applications are still done using traditional methods.

Please follow the process below to learn more about how we grow watercress.

Step 1:

PROPAGATION

Watercress starts life as a tiny seed in one of our propagation units....

Step 2:

PLANTING

When established, the young seedlings are spread over the watercress beds.

Step 3:

GROWING

Once rooted, waterflow is increased to encourage growth.

Step 4:

HARVESTING

Specially designed machinery helps to harvest the crop quickly and efficiently to preserve its quality.

Step 5:

CLEANING OUT

Once harvested the beds are cleaned and prepared ready for the next crop.

Step 6:

LEVELLING

To ensure the water flows evenly over the crop, the final stage of preparation is to level the beds.

Propagation, cleaning out and levelling only take place at certain times of the year when watercress is prone to flowering. For the rest of the year, once the crop is harvested it is allowed to re-grow from the stubble and can be harvested again.

	PROPAGATION
	A thin layer of peat is spread out on the floor of the propagation unit. Watercress seed is spread over the peat, watered, and after about 10 days (depending on temperature) is ready to be planted. It is shovelled from the floor and loaded into planting bins

	PLANTING
	The method of planting seedlings is one that has been used for many years. Bins of seedlings are put at regular intervals down the bed wall, and the planting staff then fill buckets from these bins and spread the seedlings evenly over the surface of the bed.

	GROWING
	Once the seedlings have established themselves and rooted into the gravel bed, the water flow is increased to provide them with the nutrients they require. At certain times, these nutrients need to be topped up by fertiliser applications. Overhead irrigation is used to help keep insect levels down

	HARVESTING
	When the crop is ready for harvest, an experienced team go in to the bed with harvester and cut the watercress into harvest crates. Each crate holds around 6kg. These harvesting crews can harvest up to 3 tonnes of watercress an hour. Each harvester is equipped with a shaker belt, which shakes the watercress to remove any insects or other contaminants that might be present.

	CLEANING OUT
	Once harvested, need to be cleaned out ready for the next crop to be planted. The material removed from the beds contains a fair amount of gravel. This is left to rot down, and then the remaining gravel is washed, graded and reused.

	LEVELLING
	After being cleaned out the beds are then levelled. First they are raked and then a team will fill in any low spots with additional gravel and rake out any high spots. This allows the water to flow evenly over the bed surface once the seedlings are planted.