Planted fields of spring lettuce at Holmeswood, Lancashire, UK 21st April, 2016. Warming weather stimulates lettuce growth. This salad crop being inspected by the farmer has spent a few weeks cosy under agricultural fleece held down with bags of soil. The warming weather has now enabled the crop to be exposed with little danger of further frosts.
The sowing dates of many vegetables and some hardy flowers can be brought forward by two weeks or more by using agricultural fleece to warm the soil and protect the seedlings during germination and early growth. Besides warming the soil and offering some protection from late frosts the fleece protects from certain pests, birds and rabbits, and does protect plants from wind, hail and excessive rain. To get full benefit from fleece, the area to be seeded should be prepared and covered about two weeks before sowing. The night temperature under a fleece is only a degree or two higher than that outside so that there is a limit to how much earlier farmers can sow even with this kind of protection.
Size: 3600px × 2400px
Location: Holmeswood, Lancashire, UK
Photo credit: © MediaWorldImages / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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