They are hard to spot beneath the rows of looping green vines and tomatoes of every shape, size and colour, but the hundreds of thousands of tiny green insects covering the leaves serve an important role. While most growers might lament finding insects inside their growing houses, this insect - engytatus or tomato bug - acts as a form of biocontrol to help eradicate other pest insects like whitefly and protect the tomato crop. Anthony Tringham, one half of the duo behind Curious Croppers in Clevedon, describes the "little beauties" as part of his team.
He grows tobacco plants to help establish the engytatus which then eat the bad insects. "This is quite new science," he told Country Life . "It's using something that's locally available to do a good job for us.
" It's one of several agroecology principles Anthony and his wife Angela have incorporated into their heirloom tomato growing business. Agroecology is a type of sustainable farming that involves applying ecological principles and working with nature to improve agricultural systems and operations. Follow Country Life on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts.
For the Tringhams, it starts outside the greenhouse where the couple have allowed a 'New Zealand meadow' to flower and flourish as a form of biocontrol. "One of the things we like to say is don't mow your lawns, because what we're trying to do is create an entire ecosystem outside our greenhouse," Anthony said. "All these flowers, they nu.