Meet Luke Dewing

I’ve always been interested in plants, and I was always gardening as a child. I did the standard subjects at school, including art and resistant materials, followed by Science A-levels, but I realised I didn’t want to go to university, so I studied Horticulture at Easton College and gained a Level 3 Diploma. I then did gardening for a while, but I wanted to work with the science of growing plants. I came across an apprenticeship working at the John Innes Centre and started here over five years ago. The apprenticeship, which involved four days working and one day a week studying agriculture at college, tied in well with the job role. I finished a few years ago and now work full-time.

I work from 8am to 4pm most days, with seasonal overtime. I work on anything to do with looking after and harvesting experimental crops. I’m based at a field station, about three miles away from the main John Innes Institute, comprising around 120 hectares. We use about 20 hectares for trials each year. It’s very seasonal work and every day is different.

One day I might prep an area to plant peas with a cage to stop the birds taking the seeds, which involves building a huge iron frame which will be covered in a net which is pegged down. I’ll then put rows in the soil, ready to plant and look after the plant all the way through. Other days I might drive a 12-metre boom sprayer and spray the plants with protection products. I also do wheat trials where I look at increasing yield and making the crops more resistant to pests and diseases. The Institute is a research centre, and everything we research and find out is all published and available to the public.