More than a million strawberry plants are bearing fresh fruit all year round

DYSON'S LINCOLNSHIRE FARM USES ADVANCED ROBOTS AND A 'FERRIS WHEEL' GROWING SYSTEM TO BRING THE SWEET FAVOURITE FROM 26-ACRE GLASSHOUSE

- BY LAYCIE BECK

DYSON'S 26 acre glasshouse in Lincolnshire has produced over 1,250 tonnes of high-quality British strawberries. The site, which is already home to 1,225,000 plants, is growing strawberries all year round.

The glasshouse in Carrington is full of advanced robots which select and pick the ripest fruit through vision sensing, physical manipulation and robotic secateurs. There are other robots on the site which glide on the rails next to the plants and shine UV light on them at night to prevent mould growth.

The trial of Dyson's Hybrid Vertical Growing System has recently finished, and exceeded expectations by boosting yields by 250 per cent whilst also optimising the quality of the fruit. Rather than having the plants in rows, the company's system arranged them on large 5.5 meter-high Ferris wheel-like structures.

These rotate the strawberry plants, making use of the full height of the glasshouse, dramatically increasing the number of strawberry plants which can be planted in the same area. There are also two aluminium rigs, each bigger than two double-decker buses placed end-to-end, and these rotate the trays to allow optimal exposure to natural light.