Categories
Energy

Greenhouse Energy Field Trip

Energy Crisis is at a Critical Point

 

Last week I was invited, by Tomatoes NZ and Vegetables NZ, to attend a greenhouse energy field trip with officials from government ministries.  The visit was to discuss how growers apply energy efficiency measures and the importance of heating greenhouse crops.    The hopeful outcome was to help bridge the gap between Government and growers during this energy crisis.

It was pleasing to see three members of parliament attend, two from the National Party, MP for Port Waikato Andrew Bayly and list MP David Bennett and one from the Green Party, list MP Eugenie Sage. It was unfortunate that no Labour MPs could attend. It was very good to have employees from Council, MPI and EECA attend.  

The first visit was to the NZ Gourmet site in Waiuku, followed by lunch in Pukekohe, finished off with a trip to Exception Ltd in Tuakau.  At lunch we heard from two growers affected by the energy crisis.  One was from the North Island, supplied by natural gas and the other from the South Island using biomass as their primary energy source for heating.   Both gave very useful insights into the difficulties they are currently facing.

 

The unthinkable: returning to coal:

 

In an unthinkable move for growers to remain profitable they may have to revert back to using coal for their heating, even though coal has an incredibly high ETS charge per ton.   It is astonishing, but due to the predicted huge increases in gas price in the coming seasons growers will financially be left with little other option.  Bio-mass has been touted as a replacement energy but the lack of current supply and “build it and they will come mentality” is far from guaranteed when it comes to the companies required to supply the biomass/chip.  There is already competition for wood fuel amongst growers and other industries transitioning to biomass, which is making supply harder to secure and will inevitably push the wood fuel prices up.  It also requires a mention that changing heating systems is an extremely expensive exercise.

As a consequence, growers will have to demand higher prices for their products domestically.  This will affect the consumer and limit who can purchase fresh locally grown greenhouse winter crops.   As for the different products, especially capsicums that are exported, this may jeopardise their competitiveness in overseas markets.  There are also countless numbers of greenhouse staff, suppliers and contractors’ livelihoods at stake. 

It would be perfect if all greenhouse growers were able to transition to renewable energy effectively and without disruption to them and the consumer – unfortunately the infrastructure is not available everywhere and long-term solutions, in most cases, have not been identified.  There is also uncertainty and a lack of confidence around continuity of supply of the biomass.  I still consider biomass could offer a good opportunity if there is certainty around supply and transport.   The consequence of the 2018 future gas exploration ban, increasing ETS on Coal and the uncertainty around biomass operations all cumulate to what, I predict, is many unnecessary turbulent years for the greenhouse industry that rely on fossil fuel heating systems.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Article written and compiled by Stefan Vogrincic

All Article’s checked and edited by Marie Vogrincic

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Categories
Events/Announcements Greenhouse News

Gellert Nursery Stop Growing Cucumbers

Unidentified Disease Affects Young Plants

 

Gellert Nursery, based in Auckland, New Zealand, last week made the very difficult decision to stop cucumber propagation due to an unknown disease affecting the young plants at their nursery. For the past few years, the company has struggled with an unidentified disease that randomly affects a small percentage of young cucumber plants at the early stage of their growth.

Steve Gellert owner and MD of the nursery has explained “We are making this public in the hope that someone around the world can offer a suggestion as to what the problem is.  Over the time we have sent samples to a number of international laboratories who have been unable to identify the disease.” 

“What we do know is the disease only affects cucumbers grown in rockwool and never in soil. We have also found that the more we do with hygiene the bigger the problem.”

“If anyone has seen this disease before and knows what it is we would be very grateful if you could make contact.”

Please contact: steveg@gellerts.co.nz 

 

Image 1: This illustrates how one plant can be affected and one grows normally in the same block.

 

Image 2: Same plant as image 1.  Volume of roots on affected plant are noticeably less than on the unaffected plant.

 

Image 3: It generally targets random plants within the crop but there can be areas where patches of blocks are affected.

Image 4: Nodules form on the end of the roots and are very similar to what you would see with plants affected with nematode damage – no tests have indicated nematode damage.

 

 

Image 5: You can see several blocks affected within a patch of plants.

 

Image 6:

 

Image 7: Image 6 and 7 illustrate severely affected plants, where both plants in the same block show symptoms.

 

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Categories
Greenhouse News Seeds Technical

BEST of 2021 – Grafted Capsicums gaining in popularity

NZ Gourmet Waiuku trials showing potential

BEST of 2021: This is Grower2Growers second most read article of 2021

This season Peter Schreuder, Head Grower at New Zealand Gourmet Waiuku, decided to conduct two large scale grafted capsicum trials.  There are two greenhouse compartments at the five-hectare complex with the early planting already harvesting and the second house several weeks until first harvest.  Peter divided approximately 3100 Macuba grafted onto Scarface between the two growing units.  Each plant has 4 stems, giving an overall stem density of 8.6 stems per m2.

Initial signs are positive.  The grafted plants are a full seven days ahead on the un-grafted in terms of flowering speed and were delivered at the same height. The increase in flower speed will be due to the generative action of the grafting and the extra time required at seeding.  The crops, side by side, look very similar in height and growth but the faster flowering speed is noticeable.  Peter pointed out the capsicums set first on the grafted plants were noticeable firmer than the non-grafted set.  Even though size is similar on both the expectation is the grafted plants capsicums will change colour first.

Debbie Mountfort, Customer and Sales Liaison for Gellert Nurseries, has noticed an increasing amount of capsicum growers enquiring and/or switching to grafted plants.  This would not be happening if there were not substantial advantages, including an increase in production, but no less a reduction in root disease pressure.  The number of days from seeding to delivery of grafted v un-grafted, depending on the time of the year, could be anywhere from ten to fourteen days different.  This is required to allow for the grafting and healing process in the purpose-built grafting chambers at Gellert Nurseries.

Peter understands, from information from other growers, that the increase in production is more likely to come from an increase in fruit size towards the last three months of the crop – so not necessarily more fruit but helping to maintain fruit size which will give the extra kg per m2.  What is a nice surprise is the extra week flowering advancement which may also give a slight production edge, and when prices are high a .5 kg m2 volume increase at this time of the year could be worth just as much in value as 2 kg m2 in the summer, or even higher.

The decision to convert one of the greenhouse units to all grafted plants will be made before the end of November, as it is still several months until the actual end of the current crops the decision will be made on live production figures and the state of the plants up until then.  The extra – small lift in early production may also make this decision easier.  The current indicators are promising.

The root structures between the grafted and un-grafted plants are similar from an initial observation and only in time will any differences be obvious.  The drawback with planting on the same irrigation zone with the normal un-grafted crops, is that there could be a difference in transpiration between the two different types of plants (so if the grafted plants are more generative, in theory they may have larger fruit size and use more water) – however, unlike tomatoes or cucumbers I don’t see a huge swing in water contents or slab EC but this could be monitored to eliminate any false results.  In the past I have seen tomato growers add extra stems in the same irrigation zone as to their standard plantings but those slabs used more water and therefore dried out faster – which in turn weakens the plants with the extra laterals.  If those plants had been on their own irrigation zone, then this could have been monitored.

I have also written about advanced plants from the nursery for capsicums.  I still fully believe that if you receive a 45cm plant from the nursery it will be much, much faster into production and have much more balance.  The fact the grafted plants are already showing a one-week advantage would make the decision to plant a grafted 45cm plant very tempting.

Peter Schreuder, Head Grower at New Zealand Gourmet Waiuku

Article written and compiled by Stefan Vogrincic

All Article’s checked and edited by Marie Vogrincic

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Categories
Greenhouse News

Noticeably less Courgettes Than Last Season

Tomato crops looked healthy

 

From my general observations this time last year there were a lot more courgettes in greenhouses than I had seen in years.  This season it seems to be totally different.  There is still a substantial number of courgettes at different growth stages.  Some crops are already picking, and some have only recently been planted.  Courgettes are a very versatile crop to grow that require very little maintenance.  This appeals to smaller growers or those that are struggling to find enough staff. 

The labour issue has become that dire that it is necessary for smaller growers to grow products that don’t require them to employ staff as they simply cannot afford to.  This smaller business may as well plant fewer intensive crops or do the extra work themselves.  If it were easy to pass the cost on to the consumer – they would be, so they have adapted.  If consumers are not willing to pay for the more expensive greenhouse products, at this time of the year, they will just alter their diet for cheaper, long shelf-life products.  However, there is enough demand that what is available is being purchased by those that are able to afford these products.

Last week I visited 16 tomato growers in one day with a representative from Tomatoes NZ.   This was part of a collective effort to inform growers of the importance of hygiene due to the recent PepMV outbreak.  We were wearing full PPE, changing and disposing at every property, spraying shoes and taking extreme caution not to be a vector of PepMV.   We were fortunate to be invited to look at many of the crops.  (On a side note, not one grower had signs of PepMV which was very encouraging) It was fantastic to see so many excellent crops.  Most of the crops had heads out and were only going to be 8-9 months long crops.  The quality of the fruit was simply outstanding.  It was noticeable that the energy (heating) required to grow crops for a full cycle did not occur.  In general, the vegetative nature at the beginning of the crops has meant most growers have a stem thickness of well over 20mm.  There were many crops with yellow stems.  As the crops were only ever planned to be 8-9 months in length the impact would be a lot less severe than if these were planned for 11–12-month crops. 

In reflection, these growers all had similar planting dates which, in my opinion, was superb crop planning.  The ultimate question in my mind was if the planning of their crops had been impacted by the covid disruptions and factors out of their control.  There is no money to be made in the summer months so plant in January/February and finish in either October/November.  It is smart if you can afford to grow for this period of time and it reduces the need for hiring any full-time employees on these smaller properties.

The impact from high energy prices and high labour costs have made it quite evident that the decision growers are making on crop planning is partly due to these factors.  It was also evident that this summer no one will bother growing or competing with companies that have no choice to grow and supply year-round contracts. 

Courgette growers that terminate their crops in September will probably grow a very short tomato crop from September to March without the need to heat.  It is going back to the old days of double cropping or for some businesses just growing a 9-month crop and having 3 months relaxing in the summer sun. 

Check out this interesting link to the price of Courgettes only 12 months ago.  Soon after this was published prices towards the end of August, prices plummeted.  So, with the short high’s comes the long periods of low prices. https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/courgette-shortage-sees-record-high-prices

 

 

 

Article written and compiled by Stefan Vogrincic

All Article’s checked and edited by Marie Vogrincic

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Categories
Technical

Interesting Idea Grabs My Attention (Technical)

Just one heating and vent setting

 

Last month I posted the article news/post/humidity-influences–technical-/  This article is a follow up to that post.  I have engaged with several SME as I am interested if there are other ideas of dealing with humidity.

Last week, in a zoom meeting, another advisor pointed out an option I had never really considered before which was applying just one heating and one venting setpoint. I am not sure that many current environmental computer systems are able to achieve this, but I know there are systems that can.  This article is about creating some debate around this topic. 

The concept is to set the desired night-time temp as the single heating temperature.  As an example, 16 degrees for the entire 24-hour period.   Then you come up with a vent temperature which could be as high as 25 degrees.  The next thing to set minimum vent setpoints and in this example we will use 10%.  Next is where the influence comes into action. 

 

Adding a temperature influence:

For example, if the temperature does drop to 15 degrees the minimum vents are overridden and the vents will go to zero. Conversely for every degree over your setpoint the vents will react by opening progressively until they reach your maximum vent opening at the set vent temperature. 

There is still the option of using other influences on wind direction/speed and rain, Co2 and absolute humidity (AH) etc.   There is also the desired vent proportionate (P) bands to consider.   Depending on the outside temperature and time of the year by slowing or speeding the vents opening and closing ability will help maintain a steady climate.   This setting will also control cold air from ‘falling’ onto the heads of the plants causing issues such as botrytis.

 

Humidity:

Humidity is a key factor; you must be prepared to use enough minimum pipe temperature to keep an active climate.  In terms of AH, you could still use this influence, especially if you have screens, if you felt the humidity control was not sufficient.  If you had a temperature box above the screens you could also use this to control the AH, but in theory, and if it is cooler outside, then inside the minimum vent will have some natural control over the AH in the crop, especially if there is venting above the screen?

 

Minimum Pipe:

The minimum pipe could be tied to the radiation/sum, basically the pipe temperature decreases to your desired set point as the sun takes over the climate.   Vice versa if the weather is poor and the temp is not at your desired setpoint then the pipe remains.

 

CO2:

This setting is key for me as in the morning period I would want a high level of CO2 but not at the expense of very high humidity.  If the minimum vent was causing too much spewage of CO2 out of the vents, and with the proviso the crop is strong and free of disease, I would consider the maximum vent setting in this period.  I would encourage all growers to observe this key point as it may influence the minimum vent setpoints during this part of the day.

 

This one setting, with the right influences, has potential to be a quite simple yet effective way to control the temperature and humidity in your environment and create air exchange. You may find you have to tinker with the temperature/venting setpoint if the 24hour temperature is either too high or low in regard to growth rates/loading etc.

Perfectly controlling a greenhouse environment is difficult and when you have a super environmental computer with all the bells and whistles it could be easy to use every function available but is it always necessary?

 

 

Article written and compiled by Stefan Vogrincic

All Article’s checked and edited by Marie Vogrincic

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Categories
Technical

Sufficient Heating and good weather provide a strong start

Cucumber roots simply superb

 

These last few weeks have been quite extraordinary.  I simply cannot remember this many frosts and clear beautiful July days before.  We have been very protected from the awful storms that have caused so much damage on the West Coast.

I visited a cucumber crop that was planted three weeks previous.  I was immediately impressed with how strong the crop looked.  The colour of the plant and flower was ideal.  The leaf size and stem are well balanced. It was extremally pleasing to see such a strong start to a crop that is planned to have its first harvest at the beginning of August.  Certainly, the beautiful clear winter days have been important but there are other factors.

The heating has been excellent and from this basis everything else falls into place.  The root structure of the plants was so good that I decided to write this article.  It is not often I see coir products with roots covering the entire bag.  The crop is being grown on the same media for the second time.  It was very noticeable the spread of the roots from the top down.  The root distribution was well balanced over the entire bag which is simply superb after such a short time.

 

I checked many bags, all of which had fantastic root structure.

 

Coir can be, if properly sized and layered, a superb substrate for growers.  What has always been inconsistent is how to use all of the volume you are supplied.  Open bags or dry chips on top of the slab make it very hard to retain any moisture at the top of the substrate which generally leads to a larger cone effect.  In this case there simply is no cone effect but a good spread of roots I usually associate with stone wool media. 

What you have to be careful with is how you irrigate a bag with a previous crops root system and a substrate with more fines at the top of the bag compared to bags with larger chip sizes – it is actually quite easy – you irrigate less.  Increase or decrease your irrigation frequency based on your EC settings or grow scales.  With coir it is hard to measure internal water content so scales are a great way to make real time decisions for this product. 

 

 

The crop will soon require more water based on the fruit swelling but constant and daily checking will be indicated when this is required.  It is not rocket science and for smaller growers with less bells and whistles achieving the right balance is achievable.  It also forces growers to be in their crops checking with both their hand-held meters but also with their eyes. 

With spring on the horizon, it is very important, as it should be all of the time, to maintain good root health.  Be careful not to over water yet as we still have 6 weeks of the winter left but keep it in mind to start ramping up the frequency or altering start and stop times for your irrigation when necessary.

 

Cover photo of impressive new root growth in the depth of winter

 

Article written and compiled by Stefan Vogrincic

All Article’s checked and edited by Marie Vogrincic

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

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Categories
Greenhouse News

Capsicums are in high demand

Similar as every other year – its winter

 

In the last few weeks there has been so much media around the higher-than-normal price for capsicums especially.  Tomatoes and cucumbers and other greenhouse vegetables have also been highlighted.  Well simply this is the same story repeated every year since I can remember.  It is called supply and demand.  If there is little supply and demand is present then if you want the product you have to be willing to pay more.  Is this good for the consumer on a budget – NO but is the fault of the grower NO definitely not.

Capsicums are (generally) only replanted as early as March with plantings right up until late July.  It is not like tomatoes and cucumbers that are planted during every month of the year. There are small volumes of capsicums on the market now from the early March plantings.  However, the volumes currently being picked are in relation to the winter light levels.  Unlike other growers the plans for planting dates are pretty much set in stone for capsicum growers due to NZ unique growing conditions.   I have seen growers plant capsicums in September and October only for the crops to be have large issues with not enough leaf area index to provide sufficient environmental control – these crops ended up with lots of blossom end rot and were very hard to balance.  You can take a risk if you do decide to plant in spring/summer for the local winter market but success could be hit or miss.   I think that if it was able to be done successfully on a commercial basis, it would have been done before.

Tomato and cucumber prices are high as well but that is a reflection of winter, the abysmal weather in June (warm, wet and dark) and now the fantastic but cold weather of early July.  Talking with a grower on the West Coast – they avoided much of the rain in recent days and their transport links to Christchurch are still open.   I don’t see prices shifting too much for the next few months as the fruit that is setting now is doing so in winter conditions.   The light levels are just starting to increase again and spring is now only six weeks away but until then growers that have managed to pick during this period with good quality should make decent returns.

We all know as growers the Winter will have a large bearing on supply.  Capsicum prices are higher than normal because there is little or no imports due to the farcical predicament that shipping and airlines find themselves in.   I just hope when the spring and summer production comes that those companies will be able to export without any issues otherwise like last years tomato prices their will be some bargains at your local supermarket.

Check out Stats NZ latest interesting weighted average price.  Interesting fact that is not mentioned in any of the articles is that in the summer of 2020-21 capsicum growers were achieving the lowest price since at least the summer of 2015-16. 

https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/vegetables-lead-sharp-rise-in-food-prices

 

Article written and compiled by Stefan Vogrincic

All Article’s checked and edited by Marie Vogrincic

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Categories
Greenhouse News

Kiwifruit and protected cropping structures

How many orchards are now growing with tunnel houses in NZ?

 

The Kiwifruit industry is growing at an extraordinary pace, for example new gold licenses are at a premium and from my understanding being snapped up fast.  There are very good returns to be made growing kiwifruit and the amount of export revenue provides to NZ is to be celebrated.    There is a broad cross section of export markets which again is very good and gives certainty moving forward and provides confidence that not all the eggs are in one basket.  Here was a site I visited to gain some indicative export numbers: http://www.hea.co.nz/2012-05-11-03-05-28/kiwifruit-trade

 

When driving past kiwifruit orchards, I always find it very interesting when I see properties that use extremely large fixed canopies for wind breaks or large overhead canopies for bird netting/protection.  The capital costs must be horrendously high and I always find myself thinking why have these guys not thought about tunnel houses or have they?   Is it because of the flowering and setting issues possibly caused by plastic greenhouse roofs?  Is it the land orientation/suitability?

 

If rolling or sloping land is planted with kiwifruit then owners may be less likely to consider a tunnel house structure or a retractable roof.  For growers on flat land or land it could be a different story.   A few years ago, during a dry year, I heard an interview from industry that said the average size of kiwifruit was down but the brix level higher.  All I could think of was that in every other year we have to much water and this reduces the brix levels.  So, what do I mean – if you have no control over mother nature you have less controls over your final product?   A tunnel house with gutters can collect rain water and give you the opportunity to store the water.   You can then use irrigation systems to apply measured and more precise water and nutritional requirements.  Now I do not expect every grower to go and put a greenhouse over kiwifruit crops but for different geographical areas or for certain varieties I see merit in considering growing under cover.

 

For the new Red Kiwifruit, I have been told the fruit is easily marked by adverse conditions.  This could be caused by high winds or rain etc.  If this is correct then protecting your crop from the elements is certainly worth investigating and it would not surprise me if it is already occurring. 

There are some other huge advantages to having a structure that protects you from the elements and that is it will have a lot less impact on the physical tasks being disrupted.  Spray drift will also be mitigated and less sprays should be required due to having an assurance the products are landing on the target.  There would be a need to figure out the negatives for example if this could cause more fungal pressure, the gaps required for air flow to prevent temperatures from being too excessive etc.

Approximately 80 % of Kiwifruit production comes from the mighty Bay of Plenty, this is great but also with a huge concentration of production in one area there is a small chance a severe localised weather event could have a serious production impact in the future.  Could tunnel houses offer the opportunity to grow kiwifruit in other parts of the country?  It is too cold in some places to grow traditionally but would a tunnel house open up this opportunity for other areas to grow kiwifruit successfully?  Has there been any studies under taken?

 

Some or many growers may not need or want the hassle to even consider the option a tunnel house offers or they may just not like the look a plastic house will have on their environment.  I am sure I could come up with an entire list of why you would not consider covering kiwifruit but I want to look create some debate for why you may consider growing under a tunnel house and the advantages, if any. I think it is worth considering.

 

This picture is what sparked my interest to write this article with more questions than answers.

 

Article written and compiled by Stefan Vogrincic

All Article’s checked and edited by Marie Vogrincic

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Categories
Greenhouse News Technical

Frost, Frost and more Frost

Production will go down Prices will go up

 

We have had nearly one week of heavy frosts in my local area of South Auckland, I am struggling to remember the last time we have endured this many frosts concurrently.  Looking at the rest of the country it has been also extremely cold.  The huge positive has been the amazing light levels, which must be through the roof for this time of the year with near perfect days.   For growers that have good heating systems and have managed to maintain required greenhouse temperatures they will reap the rewards because even though we have had beautiful clear, sunny days the cold temperatures would have slowed many crops with heating systems simply not able to supply enough heat inputs.

 

June contrasting to July:

The end of June and beginning of July was of stark contrast to most of June.   Growers all over the North and South Island have experienced warm, wet weather which has exacerbated and worsened fungal issues, including increased reporting of Botrytis and leaf mould in tomato crops and powdery mildew on cucumbers.  

There was an article out today with the headline it has been the warmest June on record.  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/07/new-zealand-records-warmest-june-on-record.html .  This aligns with the reports from growers and the article indicates there was an increase in average rainfall.  After the initial week of July, and looking at the short-term forecast, I am going to be interested to see if July will be our coldest on record.

 

Insect Pressure:

Whitefly has also been consistently difficult to control, as the warm outside temperatures in June have enabled outside populations to keep generating.  However, this extreme cold snap would have put pay to all those pesky insects for now and will do wonders in supressing them until spring.    I have seen a noticeable drop of Psyllid Yellow plants which is pleasing.

 

Energy:

Last week a close source indicated that their business electricity prices were forecast to increase by 70% in the next twelve months.  Gas and coal prices are already high and sourcing a gas contract that will not send you broke or supply your business with enough gas for your operation for the next few years, is becoming harder by the day.   In my opinion, these negative outcomes have been a catalyst for growers not heating sufficiently, but who can blame them.  Therefore, we have more fungal pressure and why now with severe frosts production will plummet.   I fully expect the price of all fresh veg to skyrocket in the coming months including all greenhouse grown produce.  It is just further proof unintended consequences will come back to bite.  Why we keep shooting ourselves in the foot and making it harder for less wealthy people to access affordable fresh, local winter fruit and veg astounds me.  This hurts everyone both the grower and consumer.

The fact some growers are not even planting in the winter to avoid heating is also an indication of the imbalance that may occur with production flows later in the year and during Summer.  There will be bargains for the consumer then but another migraine for growers.

 

This week I visited one grower that even with screens could barely hold 10 degrees above 0.  The effects on this cucumber crop are noticeable – it is not a total disaster but if you are growing cucumbers, at this time of the year, and you cannot heat sufficiently your production will come to a grinding halt. 

I am predicting the price of fruit and veg to increase – I hope I am wrong.

 

Article written and compiled by Stefan Vogrincic

All Article’s checked and edited by Marie Vogrincic

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

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Categories
Technical

Greenhouse Hygiene Practices

Horticulture NZ Conference August 5th 2021

 

This year I honoured to be hosting a panel of growers, for a thirty-minute discussion on greenhouse hygiene practices, at the Horticulture NZ conference held at Mystery creek in August.

 This will be a great opportunity to share various international industry standards and adopted protocols already used in New Zealand by our most diligent growers.  I will be joined by several leading NZ greenhouse vegetable growers that have been at the forefront of hygiene measures.  It will offer the opportunity to learn from their experiences which may help us consider other hygiene measures that we may not have applied in practice.   This will be a collaborative session using the best researchers which is of course growers.

With new viruses threatening the tomato industry growers are now having to look for every possible way to prevent the spread and identify vectors/pathways for these virus entering greenhouses.   This is not solely for greenhouse tomato growers but a conversation for all protected cropping growers.

 

I have added discussion points below.  Time is limited so if there is any specific points you would like discussed please e-mail me at stefan@grower2grower.co.nz

 

Staff and crop hygiene:

  1. Equipment movement
  2. Disinfection between plants
  3. Greenhouse and or building entry and exit strategy
  4. Clothing policy, jewellery policy, phone policy
  5. Lunch room policy
  6. Glove protocols
  7. Keeping staff separate per compartment

 

Crop Rotation:

  1. Prevent cross contamination
  2. Remove all crop, crop residues and loose materials
  3. Disinfection

 

Irrigation Systems:

  1. Clean internally and external
  2. Disinfection

 

Business and Premises:

  1. Crates and Pallets
  2. Supplier and visitor protocols

 

If you have not registered for the confernece click the link bleow.  TomatoesNZ members are eligible to send 2 delegates per levy-paying member.  Tomatoes NZ will reimburse conference registration and Thursday night’s dinner, plus up to $500 + GST towards travel and accommodation.  To take up this offer we are asking growers to let Tomatoes NZ know as it’s first-in-first served for a maximum of 15 member entities.   

 

events/nz-horticulture-conference-/