How we grow watercress

The principles of growing watercress have not changed over the years. We have farms that date back to 1880’s and they have been farmed continuously since then. We have a team of highly skilled and experienced staff who grow 5-6 crops every year in each bed.

Much of the work is still done by hand due to the nature of the watercress beds.

We have beds full of gravel that the watercress roots into, and we flow the water through the beds direct from springs on the farm. The water flows day and night continuously. It never stops; we just divert it around the beds if we don’t need it at early stages, and then as the watercress gets more mature towards harvest, we make the water deeper. Watercress needs the water to grow as it contains disolved nutrents. We never use river water!

The UK season starts in January, clearing the beds and preparing for the season ahead. we plant them all by March and start harvesting in April, and don’t stop harvesting until November.

First crops grow from seedlings and take about 12 weeks, but by the height of summer we have regrowth crops that only take 3 weeks. growth slows down by towards the end of the year, and by November it takes 7 weeks.