To further develop its specialist cut flower business, Lincs-based New Horizon Flowers has been embarking on a different approach to peony establishment.
By gradually changing to wider row spacings, the firm is focussed on long-term benefits with weed control while reducing inputs without sacrificing stem quality. And there are environmental benefits too, particularly with wildlife populations.
“Wider rows create more space and light to improve plant growth while managing weed suppression and disease control,” explains farm manager and director Ben Ford, who works alongside owner Gordon Flint and his daughter Laura Walsingham.
Having more space to operate between rows of plants also means the farm is less reliant on specialised narrow tractors and machinery, and can instead, focus on conventional tractors and larger implements for more efficient field work. As a result, it has recently added a 140hp Kubota M6-142 to its fleet, supplied by Irelands Farm Machinery.
“Having bigger tractors and implements does bring more efficiency to field work, with a variety of different jobs,” he says. “For example, I now have a 24m Vicon mounted sprayer, which works through the tractor’s Isobus for improved connectivity and operational simplicity.”
“We do get good service and backup from Irelands Farm Machinery, and we do like the extended warranty from Kubota,” says Ben. “They are straightforward, reliable tractors.”
As a specialist peony supplier, New Horizon Flowers grows around 30 varieties to provide a spread of colour, timing and flower size during the intensive five-week peony harvesting window that runs through May and June.
“Our approach is one of quality, not volume, though harvesting all happens in a hurry with peonies,” says Ben. “The key is timing, so our peony heads are at the desired size, so they go on to open and provide a large, colourful blossom when supermarket customers get them home.”
Mr Ford says that as the business has gradually expanded with new stock and additional varieties, Gordon Flint has continued to focus on improving agronomy and establishment for producing high-quality flowers. Where traditional peony rows have been just one metre apart, newly established flower fields are grown at wider, 1.8m row spacings.
“It opens up the possibility for more efficient methods of mechanical weed control,” explains Ben. “Traditionally, peonies have been planted much more densely, to provide a higher yield of stems, but our own focus is on high quality, not volume.”
He says the wider rows afford better compaction management with tractors and equipment, which is expected to contribute to a higher quality flower.
In addition to the Kubota M6-142, New Horizon Flowers has a further three Kubota tractors including an M5091 with loader, a narrow-chassis M5101N and a compact B2231. An additional 140hp tractor sits on row crop wheel and tyre equipment, and is used where other varieties are grown at more specific row spacings.
He says the Kubota M6-142 is set-up for working in the newly established fields where 1.8m row spacings have been implemented, and tasks such as end-of-season flail mowing, inter-row mowing, weeding and spraying are now more efficient.
The farm’s smallest Kubota, the compact B2231, is used for the older established peony fields, where row widths are narrower and larger tractors simply cannot fit without risk of damaging plants.
“We are also careful to restrict weed seed movement on a field-by-field basis,” he says. “So we use the smaller kit for narrow spaced fields, and the larger machinery for fields where the crop is grown at wider spacings. And for these specific areas, having a number of different sized Kubota tractors provides us with flexible solutions.”
“Our goal is to continue supplying high-quality peonies throughout the UK, but doing so demands attention to detail with everything we do,” he says.
