Value of Cloche Culture

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 31, 13 August 1952, Page 2

Value of Cloche Culture

Although the use of the cloche (glass frame) for market gardening has only recently become popular in this country, it is interesting to note that the late Major Chase, who founded the idea in Great Britain in 1912, and spent 37 years developing the technique, has close assoeiations witb New Zealand, in as much as he was married at Richmond in Nelson in 1889. - The moderate . climate and high land fertility of the Dominion, probably restricted experimentation here on the grounds of lack of necessity , but in recent years the value of the use of the cloche for the production of flowers and vegetables out of season has gradually been impressed on the minds of growers. The new growing technique is of special value in districts, such as Taupo, where frosts are prevalent, and the cloche will assist greatly in maturing the crop in the early weeks of its growth. The best type of cloche is built with an eye on the need for adequate room for plant growth, and the provision of a dry atmosphere inside theglass, in which the plant can mature with the help of a good supply of moisture in the ground where the roots can reach it. Perhaps the most impressive sucicesses have been obtained with the ; growth of tomatoes. Mr Alan Merfield, who after many years of experience with Major Chase in Great Britain has now settled in the Nelson district, states in his hook 'Cloche Culture in New Zealand/ that he has grown tomatoes there in every month of the year cxcept S'eptember. In colder climates there is room for ex~ periments with various methods oi cloche culture, but it is safe to say that the use of the cloche can help tremendously to provide early crops in districts where frosts would otherwise make this impossible.