About Walberton Nursery
Walberton Nursery started out in 1973 as a nursery of ¾ acre of glass growing tomatoes, on a 6 acre site. We have now grown to 26 acres of glass, polythene and irrigated standing ground growing shrubs and perennials. Staff numbers have risen from 3 in 1973, to 35 people employed full time, and up to 50 during our peak season in spring / summer.
Virtually all propagation is carried out on the nursery in our 1200sq m purpose built propagation house. This has a heated concrete floor and overhead thermal screens to provide shade and conserve heat, ensuring optimum conditions for the cuttings.
Most of our plants spend between 2 and 9 months in cell trays, followed by 3 to 12 months in their final pots before they are ready for sale. The cell trays are usually in unheated or frost protected greenhouses. Once potted on, most of our plants spend their time outside so as to produce hardy plants which establish well in the garden.
Staff are aided by specialised machinery to fill cell trays for the cuttings and to pot the plants. Plant handling uses belt conveyors or small tractors and trailers. Automatic label printing and application machinery is undergoing trials.
Our customers are kept constantly up to date by the Farplants Sales Team so that the plants are shipped at the optimum time to maximise sales for the customer.
We have a skilled in-house maintenance team that carries out the majority of our construction work, including the laying of roads and paths, drainage and irrigation, reservoirs, poly-tunnels, and other buildings such as our laboratory and loading bay.
Management Team
Walberton Nursery is owned by David Tristram and his son, Michael. The management team includes Tim Crowther (Manager), Tim Lawrance-Owen, Marc Jones and Chris Everett (Assistant Managers), Michael Bennett (Laboratory) and Martin Emmett, Consultant and Lecturer at Reading University.
Micropropagation Laboratory
Our laboratory's main work is to test our plants for virus and to clean up stock where needed by meristem culture techniques, so providing the nursery with elite propagating stocks. Occasionally we do this type of work for other members of the Farplants Group. The Laboratory also helps us to send nuclear stocks of our Walberton's varieties to be grown for overseas markets, because importing micropropagated material is frequently more readily acceptable for plant health regulations.
TCS Scheduling Project
The Nursery have taken part in a TCS project in collaboration with the University of Reading. The project focused on improving crop scheduling and studying the flowering stimuli of selected cultivars. The two and a half year project ended in November 2003. For more information on these government funded projects see the links page. The photograph shows one of the day-length cloches used to control the plants exposure to light.
Marketing and Processing Project
Technological Solutions to Customers' Needs: With the help of a Processing and Marketing Grant from Defra and the EU, we are progressively implementing IT-controlled application of customers' chosen retail prices using Sticky Labels On Pots ("the 'SLOP' Project").
This project is supported under the England Rural Development Programme by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund.
Environmental Issues
At Walberton we are committed to caring for the environment. We use biological control methods wherever possible to reduce dependence on chemical pesticides. We collect plastics and cardboard for recycling. Waste pots are returned to the manufacturer, and waste compost goes to enrich local farmland. We have worked out growing procedures that minimise nitrates entering the water courses, and we are carrying out trials with reduced peat and peat-free composts.
Above photograph © Syngenta Bioline, TCS Logo © University of Reading.