Introduction to Tomato proagation

TOMATO PROPAGATION

At GrowNurs we propagate our tomato seedlings via Hydroponics.Hydroponics is the process of growing a plant in a liquid with added nutrients but without the presence of soil.

Tomatoes grown via hydroponics

We use Hydroponics because there  are many advantages using this technique,the biggest of which is a greatly increased rate of growth within our plants.Our plant mature faster and produce up to 30 percent more than the same plant grown in soil.

The reason for this is because the plants will not have to work hard to obtain nutrients since there is a continual supply of nutrients available via the solution being pumped through the system.This allows the plant to focus more on growing upstairs instead of expanding the root system downstairs.

A hydroponic system uses less water than soil based plants because the system is enclosed,which results in less evaporation.Hydroponics is better for the environment because it reduces waste and pollution from soil runoff and since GRowNurs strives to be Eco-friendly,this is the perfect propagation technique to use.

pH CONTROL

All of this is possible through careful control of the nutrient solution and pH levels.The pH strongly influences plant growth therefore it is important to keep the pH in the proper range in order to produce the best yields of high quality. The optimum pH range for tomato production is 6.2 to 6.8.

PROCESS

At GrowNurs we have two greenhouses when it comes to propagating tomatoes,one is the seedling greenhouse and the other the propagation greenhouse.

We ensure that our seedling greenhouse is clean and disinfested prior to use.We make sure that the seeds we use to propagate the tomatoes are fresh seeds to avoid having reduced germination rates and vigour.

We seed our crop approximately around early November and the seeds is placed directly into rockwool(rooting medium)that have been soaked with a seedling feed solution with an electrical conductivity (E.C.) of 0.5 mmho , a pH of 5.8 and a temperature of 25 to 26 degrees Celsius. The rockwool plugs is not allowed to dry out. The seedling feed solution is used to wet the plugs as required (The goal is to maintain levels in the plugs without water logging).

Many things are maintained will seedlings are growing like:

• The temperature to the root zone is maintained at constant temperature of 25 to 26 degrees Celsius for the first two weeks while the seeds are germinating and young seedlings begin to establish.
• Air temperature also maintained at 25 degrees Celsius.
• Relative humidity of the nursery is maintained at 75 to 80% until the seedlings have emerged.
• Supplemental light is applied to the emerging seedling at 160 Watts/m2 for 16 to 18 hours per day 
• Once the seedlings have emerged the rootzone temperature is reduced to 23 degrees Celsius and the air temperature is maintained at 25 degrees Celsius. 
• The relative humidity is reduced to 70 to 75%
• Supplemental CO2 is delivered to ensure a target of 800 to 1000 ppm
• Seedlings are misted once a day for the first 4 days after emergence and this is controlled by the computer operated facilities( for more information about our computer operated facilities check out our infrastructure page).
• Root zone temperature are maintained using our bottom heating systems,which are in close contact to rockwool plugs.