The vernal equinox may still be two-and-a-half weeks away, but the greenhouse cucumbers are blooming, and pre-grown flower stocks are ready for heated greenhouses as well.

For Kuido Paimla, Järva County's only greenhouse cucumber grower, seed sowing was done as early as January 10. The long cucumber plants already have a few individual blossoms, while the shorter variant is even further ahead and already flowering quite abundantly.

Paimla said he expects the first crop from the Imavere horticultural farm to reach stores around March 25.

This does not mean the cold winter did not present its challenges, and input costs would have been higher, given considerably more wood chips were used to heat the greenhouses than was the case last year, Paimla noted.

"Cold, it was very difficult to keep the temperature stable inside [the greenhouse]. But hopefully it will get better now. It will probably be [more expensive], but that will remain the producer's burden – consumers are not willing to pay for it," Paimla said.

This year, and for the first time, Paimla has also sowed tomatoes and peppers, again to diversify risks and broaden the selection range. He also grows a small amount of green onions, in a fairly saturated market.

"Onions sell very well, but since there are quite a lot of onion producers in Estonia, it's difficult to break into the market with them," Paimla explained.

Urmas and Laivi Laks meanwhile have been growing vegetables and flower plants at Jõeääre farm in Türi Rural Municipality, also in Järva County, for nearly a quarter of a century. They said they got their hands dirty as early as mid-February, when it was time to sow peppers and even chili peppers.

Monday brought a significant increase in workload for the Lakses, as they received the first batch of pre-grown flower plants, ordered from the Netherlands, Finland, and Germany, rather than undergoing the lottery of seed growing.

"We also started out ourselves once, always sowing from seed. But that would mean I would have had to move into the greenhouse already in February, and when I sow a packet, I won't know how many plants I'll be getting. But now, if I want to get a hundred plants, I simply order a hundred plants," Laivi said.

She added that right now is a very good time to plant the pre-grown baby plants in the greenhouse, such that the potted flowers will be in bloom by Mother's Day, which is May 10 this year.

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