Thanet Earth will be the UK's largest single production site growing salad crops under glass. By ‘salads', we mean tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers (not leafy greens such as lettuce).
We have planning permission for 7 commercial greenhouses, and anticipate that each will be dedicated to growing one of the three crops, but each will contain a number of different varieties. For example, the pepper glasshouses will grow a mixture of the standard red, yellow, orange and green bell peppers, with potential also to grow the sweeter varieties, the longer-shaped varieties and even mini peppers.
The tomato glasshouses will be focused on smaller vine tomatoes, including mini plum tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and some of the more unusual coloured varieties.
It can be quite hard to be creative with cucumbers, but we'll be growing some of the smaller varieties alongside the conventional.
Phase 1 of the build sees us construct 3 greenhouses - one for each crop. The remaining greenhouses we hope will begin construction from 2010. We also have planning permission for a research and development greenhouse which we can use to strengthen our relationship with schools and colleges and improve the horticultural research opportunities available in the UK.
