Articles
PRODUCTION OF TOMATO TRANSPLANTS IN THE NETHERLANDS
One hundred million tomato transplants are produced in total, 50% of which are grown in rockwool.
Propagation must be handled separately in order to achieve sufficiently high space efficiency in the expensive cropping glasshouses.
Transplants can be grown without any form of mechanization.
In the Netherlands, however, some growers are specialized into exclusively growing transplants.
This means that the whole procedure from sowing to delivery could become mechanized and partly automated.
This applies to transplants in soil blocks as well as in rockwool cubes.
Dutch growers can regulate the glasshouse conditions by the use of artificial light and automated heating systems.
CO2 is applied at a concentration of at least 340 ppm.
Watering is regulated automatically by a computer.
A reliable criterion for transplant quality is the fresh weight of the transplant.
It is better not to grow the plants at a maximal growth rate for this results in plants which are too sensitive.
Under the low winter light conditions it is not worthwhile to grow plants with a small number of leaves below the first truss.
Although this increases earliness, it restricts the total fruit production.