June and symptoms surprisingly still appearing

In the past week, to my surprise, I witnessed an infected area of Candidatus Liberibacter transmitted by tomato/potato psyllid (TPP). This particular tomato crop had minimal whitefly, actually, I don’t recall seeing one adult whitefly.  It illustrates that even if you don’t have pest populations, within your crop, you may still have some rogue psyllids lurking.  The area, with the infected plants, was located within approximately 100 m2, in total around fifteen plants were affected.  I have no idea if this was the work of a lone ranger or several psyllids. What was intriguing was that it had not appeared to have spread to any other parts of the greenhouse. 

I remember, from my own experience, how frustrating it is when Psyllid Yellows are identified.  In April, six years ago, this happened to a crop of tomatoes I had recently started harvesting.   I had no idea how many plants were infected and more importantly how many would show signs of contamination in the coming weeks or months.  Fearful thoughts of “could this terminate my crop” reverberated in my head.   I lost nearly two percent of my crop, over the following two months, as the yellows began to express themselves.   I was very fortunate (extremely lucky) as I was able to fill the holes of my tomato crop with laterals from neighbouring non-infected plants.  Just like the crop last week I remember not having a single issue with whitefly.   In the past I have seen two unrelated crops totally annihilated by psyllids, so I am very aware of the stress grower’s face, it is no joke and incomes are put at risk.   I felt a sense of helplessness and was totally at the mercy of what I refer to as the ‘invisible invader’.   I expect Psyllids to be an issue that will continue to cause future production losses, but am hopeful that work being undertaken, around the country, will certainly help reduce the external populations of this invisible plant destroyer!

The grower will need to keep a keen eye on this area over the next few weeks to identify any further plants showing symptoms.  Unfortunately, despite being ‘whitefly free’, they will need to spray for Psyllids as a precaution even though they are probably long since deceased.  I suspect the plants were infected six or so weeks ago, but just in case there is a possibility of another generation of psyllids present, I highly recommend to apply a product to protect the healthy non infected plants. 

Along with whitefly I have found the Psyllid to be the toughest and most unpleasant pain in my backside to deal with.  Whilst it can be dealt with currently, it does mean using beneficial insects such as Encarsia as discussed in another article, are less likely. 

There were no Psyllid ‘sugar’ patches visible.  There is no evidence except for the infected plants that the pest had even been there.  This is a reassuring sign that TPP is currently not present in the greenhouse but precaution should be taken.

 

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Article Written by Stefan Vogrincic, Consultant, Grower2Grower

Article Edited by Marie Vogrincic, Editor, Grower2Grower

 

 

 

The journey to make a better life for himself and his family

 

Born in Shamchurasi, Punjab, India in 1968 Jai Shankar started his journey in life that eventually brought him to New Zealand, where he has become a very successful greenhouse cucumber and tomato grower.  Jai now owns and leases over 1.2ha of greenhouses in the South Auckland region of New Zealand. He employs four full time workers. 

Jai was educated in India and graduated from university with a Master’s Degree in Hindi (honours). Jai’s parents were involved in horticulture, they leased land and grew feed for cattle, as well as wheat in the Punjab province.  Having this background and coming from a family that had ties with growing was instrumental in the career Jai would venture into.

In 1988, after Jai had completed his degree, he decided to travel and have an overseas experience in Europe.  He lived in Greece from 1990 to 1993 where he worked on a farm growing Eggplants, Beetroot and Lettuce.   Late in 1993 Jai left Greece and returned to India for three years where he was married and started his family.   Three years later in 1996, Jai made the extremely hard decision to leave his family in India and go and work in Australia.  He worked at a vineyard in Griffith, New South Wales.   For the next four and half years until 2001 Jai lived without his family.  At one stage he did not see his wife and children for two years.  Jai then moved back to India. In 2003 he briefly came to New Zealand to learn more about the greenhouse industry and explore opportunities to settle here.  Jai’s good friend Raj Sharma introduced him to the opportunities here growing in greenhouses.  From that point Jai started the immigration process and permanently moved to New Zealand in 2005 where he leased his first greenhouse growing telegraph cucumbers. 

Growing:

Mainly Jai grows telegraph cucumbers but also grows two short term crops of tomatoes to supplement his rotation.  The five properties he runs allows for continuity of supply into the market.  Now having over 14 years’ experience growing in New Zealand Jai believes that if you don’t regularly clean your greenhouse and it’s surrounds that you will constantly be battling with fungal and insect issues.  Regularly changing substrate is key for reducing fungal and bacterial issues.  Jai is always looking for new products that are good for the crop’s health and new pest management tools.  He understands the need to constantly stay in front of pest and diseases. Labour is an issue in Jai’s business, the shortage of workers and the continual increase in wages is a constant strain on profitability.   Jai’s cucumbers are not affected by imports but since he has begun growing tomatoes has become aware of, and is concerned about, the importation of Australian tomatoes.  Jai would like to ensure that NZ growers are protected from the importation of cheaper tomatoes from Australia. 

 

The Future:

Jai believes if new technology, like supplementary lighting, was more affordable it would be a technology he would like to invest in.  He is also very interested in exploring automation opportunities.  Jai sees a positive future for greenhouse growing here in NZ and is always looking for more greenhouse areas to lease.

Jai mainly grows telegraph cucumbers.  This winter crop looks fantastic.

 

Sacrifice:

Jai has made huge sacrifices in his life and lived long periods away from his family to build a better future for them all.  He and his family love living in New Zealand, which he describes as a multicultural country, and believes the lack of crime and lack of discrimination are huge positives.  New Zealand has been able to give Jai this opportunity, but it really does demonstrate if you want something hard enough you can succeed.  Well done Jai on your inspiring and motivational journey.  I know I would definitely struggle with the option of living without my family for two years.

Cover photo above.

 

 

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Article Written by Stefan Vogrincic, Consultant, Grower2Grower

Article Edited by Marie Vogrincic, Editor, Grower2Grower

Cows, are they the NZ greenhouse industry next energy source?

 

I grew up on a Dairy Farm and I loved it.  I could not imagine having a better up bringing as a child.  I have so many happy memories milking cows with dad, rearing animals, making hay, driving tractors, riding motorbikes and I can’t forget to mention the great times spent with my best mate Deano the lazy Labrador.    My mum and dad were first-generation NZ dairy farmers and if not for political change, in the 1980’s, I would not have become a tomato grower, and now horticulture advisor, I would still be milking cows.  I have a huge passion for the Dairy industry and admire farmers who are are tremendously important for this country.

For a few years it feels like Dairy Farmers have become a political and environmental football who, in my mind, are being perpetrated as evil polluters, who are destroying the world.   Honestly what do I believe, I believe in asking questions and discussing if there are potential solutions to issues posed by both sides of the argument. 

 

Is there a way of turning Dairy farming into a sustainable energy market?

I am immensely passionate about the greenhouse industry but one of the issues, that as an industry will more than likely be up for consideration in the future, is our energy consumption and needs.  Greenhouses are heated and, in the future, many may be fitted with supplementary lighting.  Currently unless properties have access to geothermal, they are heating with coal, natural gas, recycled oil, diesel and some wood chip.  So, what will the options be in the next 20-40 plus years? Geothermal and wood chip are two options that hopefully are here for the foreseeable future but what about other options?

Last week I was contacted by a Dutch energy company enquiring about the greenhouse market in New Zealand.  They are investigating opportunities for them to provide energy systems/solutions to the New Zealand greenhouse industry.    I ended up chatting with a representative for just over thirty minutes.  It was fascinating listening to what the company is involved with.  One topic that came up in the conversation was bio-digesters and turning green waste into energy. There is currently a grower in NZ using methane, from a green waste dump, to provide heating and C02 to his greenhouses.  I asked the question if it could be done using animal manure.   “Yes”, was the answer I received.

I decided to search the internet to investigate the possibilities.  It did not take long to find some really interesting reading material.  Now, please be mindful that this is not a business proposal it is a concept at this stage.  I have not completed a business case, on the option of turning dairy waste into methane, but simply looked at the opportunity and am posing the question, could it work here? 

 

 

 

The diagram above shows the opportunities this could offer the greenhouse industry and how cogeneration boiler systems could come into play.  It presents an opportunity for someone, smarter than myself, to work out how much energy 500 cows could produce and how much area of greenhouse this could supply energy and C02 to?  And how many dairy farmers could this convert into greenhouse growers.  Food for thought or should I say poo for thought.

 

Click on the link below to see the energy one American dairy farmer is producing from his cows’ manure

https://www.oregonlive.com/environment/2011/05/lochmead_farms_on_the_cutting.html

 

The cover photo was taken in South Auckland.  

 

I appreciate your comments.  Please feel free to comment below or on the grower2grower Facebook page:

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Article Written by Stefan Vogrincic, Consultant, Grower2Grower

Article Edited by Marie Vogrincic, Editor, Grower2Grower

 

The Bot is Back 

 

The weather has finally turned.  During the end of April/early May we had beautiful days and very cool nights, it then turned quickly and we started having very warm night temperatures for May.  This is not ideal as it has meant a reduction in heating or drying!  The trouble with not using the heating available, and at least running a 35-40-degree minimum pipe, is that it has become the perfect breeding ground for Funguses such as Botrytis on tomatoes and Didymella on cucumbers amongst others.  Now it is raining with a storm hitting a lot of the country on the 12th of May.    The outside predicted minimum temperature was 17, in the Auckland area, on the night of the 12th of May.  Christchurch was to fair a little better with a night time of 11 or 12 degrees.   With it raining and very windy vents would be almost closed, so it makes it nearly impossible to have even a moderate minimum pipe level without your greenhouse temperature blowing out of control.  So, the lesser of two evils is to not have much pipe temperature, which is all the invitation a fungus will need in these conditions.

It is just a fact of dealing with the Auckland weather in particular.  Personally, I would still be using a minimum pipe, as I have been writing about in other articles recently, previous fruit loading impacts current decision making if this weather occurs.  To sacrifice a few nights with higher temperature is easy to make if the plant is not carrying high fruit numbers.   Clearly the plant won’t benefit from high temperatures if it has high fruit numbers per m2 in the current weather conditions combining with low Autumn light levels.  In other parts of the country, where it is naturally cooler, the advantage for these growers is obvious, they can run a much higher pipe temperature which in turn should give a better control over funguses.     

Last week I came across a crop with leaf botrytis and stem botrytis in the upper part of the plant.  The stems at the bottom were very clean in comparison to the top.  This was a large loose variety picking around the 6th truss.  Even though this crop had been semi-heated the change in weather condition had already caused botrytis issues.  The decision was made to immediately spray a fungicide, which considering the weather that we had on the 12th was a very good decision.  

Blight is also something, tomato growers should be looking for, these are perfect conditions and if not identified and treated, you could potentially loose a lot of production potential.

Irrigation is another integral piece of the puzzle.  Don’t over water and keep the nutrition up.  Make sure you are achieving your target WC and EC levels.

There are some very good fungicides available for growers including biological and chemical products.  I believe these products are very necessary to have in the tool kit, especially if you get blight.  However, they should be seen as a wicket keeper.  Controlling the environment, keeping it as dry as possible, reducing fruit load and increasing plant health are some important factors for reducing fungal infection.

Leaf Botrytis will happen especially if you have cold air and pockets of high RH levels in your leaf canopy

Annoying when the botrytis forms on the fruit.  It is fiddley but try and remove this carefully into a plastic bag without spreading spores. Carefully place plastic bag over the infected fruit before cutting gently.

When stem botrytis gets to this stage, it is curtains.  This is why now is a very important time to start a preventative programme if your cultivar is susceptible to botrytis.

Cucumber growers will be facing many challengers from now on.  A clean and dry environment is important. 

 

 

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Article Written by Stefan Vogrincic, Consultant, Grower2Grower

Article Edited by Marie Vogrincic, Editor, Grower2Grower

Combating Leaf Mould and Powdery Mildew

If you have cultivar, susceptible to leaf mould or powdery mildew, you will most likely already used something to try and control its spread.   One thing I know about leaf mould is once you have it no longer is it about eradication but controlling its spread and reproduction to a level that is tolerable.  Obviously not having to deal with leaf mould or Powdery Mildew would be ideal, but no one said growing was easy.  Once upon a time I grew a tomato cultivar that had extremely good leaf mould resistance, but after 3 years with no leaf mould out of the blue it was back on a cultivar that had exhibited a strong resistance previously.   

One conclusion I currently have is that after a lifetime of dealing with leaf mould there is no one single magic bullet (I always like for someone to show me a product that proves me wrong). Over the years I used a range of products that enabled me to keep the mould under control.  Obviously environmental controls such as a good heating system is very helpful but still did not totally eradicate the issue.  I have always been a fan of removing head leaf, in the winter, if plants become too vegetative and to let sunlight in and through the crop, to have enough LAI (leaf Area Index) it did mean maintaining leaf lower on the plant for a longer perioed.  If leaf mould became an issue then I would want the older or bottom leaves off the plant ASAP and this meant exposing 3 trusses for my tomato crop.  As I really needed leaf to capture light, I would then start leaving the head leaf in.  Again, it is not possibly what was totally best for the plants production but it certainly was a way of slowing the spread of leaf mould.  For non-grower’s leaf mould climbs the plant, so the bottom, older leaves always have it worse, the newest leaf is ‘clean’.

For years I had not wanted to use sulphur on my heating pipes as, rightly or wrongly, I was inclined to think it was not good for my greenhouse structure.  One year, I was under pressure and decided that I should try it, and from then on it became a must do.   This method definitely appeared to help control the rate at which the leaf mould would climb the plant.  By spreading the sulphur on the heating pipes, when the pipes became hot then the sulphur would vaporize supressing the leaf mould.  It also, to some effect helped control powdery mildew.  Although powdery mildew was better controlled with spraying.  Powdery actually does not like wet conditions and is at its worst when the weather is dry.  The fact that it does not develop well when wet actually means control with non-fungicides is possible.  Baking soda, detergents or surfactants that will wet the leaves are all very effective at reducing powdery mildew, but you will need a regular, possibly a weekly, spraying programme.   Like any spraying, it may be good to control the fungus which is attacking your plant, but could have negative impacts on growth and production rates. 

Another method to consider is using sulphur pots, which are hung in your greenhouse structure, and burn slowly.  For growers who don’t have hot pipes for heating this a very good option.   Another thing to consider or ask is at what temperature does the sulphur work optimally, so if you don’t have heating how much control will they give your operation.

Leaf mould that had been sprayed but still had not been totally stopped

Above is a photo of my old property, I would dust on one side of the pipe and then two weeks later on the other side and alternate.  Why not both sides, no reason in particular, it’s just how I did it. 

Please note the above the greenhouse structure is a Glasshouse.  I have been informed by a grower that he was under the understanding they “couldn’t burn sulphur in a plastic clad greenhouse because it wrecks the plastic”.  If anyone has more information on this it would be very useful for plastic claded greenhouses.

 

I appreciate your comments.  Please feel free to comment below or on the grower2grower Facebook page:

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Article Written by Stefan Vogrincic, Consultant, Grower2Grower

Article Edited by Marie Vogrincic, Editor, Grower2Grower

 

Sulfur or sulphur is a chemical element with symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent, and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow, crystalline solid at room temperature  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur