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| An Introduction to Growing Watercress |
| The Watercress Company has roots that take it back further than any other watercress farm in the UK. Tim, who is our UK Production Manager is a 4th generation watercress farmer, and his great grandfather William Bedford built his first farm in 1896. This history gives us great pride and strength in our production processes. |
| As many people are unaware of how we produce watercress, not only in the UK but on our farms abroad, we have listed some of the process steps which gives you a crash course in watercress production. |
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| It all starts with seed |
| We produce all our own seed. Watercress seed is not available to buy so we do it ourselves. The seed itself is very small and we use several tonnes each year. To give you an idea of the numbers, there are about 5000 seeds per gramme which equates to 5 billion seeds per tonne. |
| The watercress seeds are planted on a thin layer of organic soil in a humid greenhouse. After a couple of days, the seeds start to germinate and are kept moist by a water misting system. Once the infant plants are big enough they are transplanted into the beds outside. |
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| Germination |
| There are two ways to grow watercress, the first is by vegetative propagation and the second is by using seedlings. The vegetative method can be described by taking a sprig of watercress and placing it into a watercress bed. It then produces roots and begins to grow. |
| The watercress flowers emerge in summer on special seed crops. It then takes about 6 weeks to mature, after which we have to harvest, dry and then clean the seed so it will store well for the next year. |
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| Market Kitchen |
| Waitrose sponsors Market Kitchen, a daily food magazine series on UKTV Food. |
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