Establishing the cucumber crop Cucumbers are tropical plants. In order to grow optimally a tropical environment should be created. This implies that temperatures should not exceed 32 °C and should also not fall below 16 °C. These are optimum values and are not always obtainable. Cucumber seedlings are sensitive to low temperatures. The ideal germination [...]
Trellising green beans is actually quite easy compared to tomatoes and cucumbers. One thing is sure, you have to trellis the plant. Although it is labour intensive and must be done weekly, the advantages are far greater than the disadvantages. Trellising green beans plants have the following advantages: Increases yield per square meter Reduces the [...]
Tomato fertigation is a complex subject in hydroponics. It is climate sensitive and everybody has an opinion of what works. The point is, tomatoes are sensitive to water stress (too little water) and to water logging (over watering). They are not as sensitive as peppers or cucumbers. Water stress or water logging will reduce plant [...]
Pruning tomatoes is an essential activity during the maintenance of the tomato crop. Just as the plants should be trellised every week, so should each tomato plant be pruned in order to obtain maximum yields. Pruning tomatoes ensures that the energy is used in developing fruit and the main stem. The pruning and trellising (also [...]
Trellising tomato plants is only required when growing indeterminate types in greenhouses. Although trellising tomato plants it is labour intensive and must be done weekly, the advantages far outweigh disadvantages. Trellising tomato plants has the following advantages: It increases yield per square meter Reduces the risk of disease development Improves ventilation between plants Allows for [...]
Severe zippering with secondary scarring of the tomato skin. Zippering symptoms Zippering are thin scars running from the top of the shoulder of the fruit down the length to the blossom end. These longitudinal scars have small transverse scars along it, which resemble a “zip” (thus the name). More than one of these [...]
Tomatoes originated in tropical America. Tomatoes were first exported from Peru to Italy, then to Northern Europe and finally to the USA by 1781. In 1812 tomatoes were a common sight on markets and in 1817 the first seed was offered for sale in a seed catalogue. After 1817, various tomato types were developed to [...]
Blossom drop Symptoms Blossom drop (flower buds abscise) occurs prior to anthesis under stress conditions. The early indications of blossom drop are the yellowing of the swollen area which joins the flower to its stem. After the flower has fallen or abscised, a small dried out stub is left over. Which is quite disheartening since there [...]
At some stage a grower will see thin spindly pale plants growing somewhere in the greenhouse. Although not a physiological disorder of fruit, it is a disorder of the plant as a whole. Quite often plants grow to become long and stretched out. The leaves may even be smaller than usual and the colour of [...]
