When the spring-sown bulb onion demonstration plots were drilled in drizzling rain at Raker Farms near Croxton in Norfolk on 16 March, little did National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) staff know that it would not rain again for at least a couple of months. "This is the third year I've said it's been a dry spring, so maybe this is the norm now," says NIAB vegetable specialist Bruce Napier. "Sowings started well in the warmer conditions but struggled with the dryness." Plots were irrigated by rainguns to the same schedule applied to the commercial crop alongside. "A few bolters are coming through now, in August, where plants have been stressed, but it's an annoyance rather than a problem," he adds.
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