André Leendertse, grower at VanderMeulen Greenhouses Inc.
“Baselga RZ is the best yellow pepper variety at the moment where colour and shelf life are concerned”

“We grow Baselga RZ because it produced at least 10% more in my trials last year than the standard variety at that time. At the moment it is
the best variety. Its shelf life is good and the colour stays bright yellow,” says André Leendertse. He is manager/grower at VanderMeulen
Greenhouses Inc., a 5-ha nursery where three different pepper colours are grown.

“We grade our own product. Baselga gives the fewest problems. It is an ideal variety in summer. I think the shape is not quite so good but for our market the beautiful, bright yellow colour is more important than shape.” At the start of the crop I did make the mistake of using lower pre-midnight temperatures, by the way. That shows up as a lot of seedless peppers and deterioration in the quality of the fruit. By growing the variety differently now, the crop is doing just fine.”
André Leendertse retains three main stems per plant which are tied separately to the crop wire. “The average fruit weight is 205 g and the weight never dropped below 195 g throughout the season, up to mid-July.” The fruit load curve of Baselga fluctuates from 22 to 35 fruits per m2.

Watering
André Leendertse does not water during the night. That is not necessary in his opinion. “The moisture content of the growing medium does drop during the night, but not enough to cause problems.” He starts watering two hours after sun up. “After the last watering round it takes a minimum light sum for the first watering round to start the next day. In summer that is 500 joules for instance.” The total volume of water goes up as the year progresses and the amount of light increases. “I start at 1.5 times the light sum and in summer take it to 2.5 times the light sum. One watering round is 100 ml per plant.” He starts with an EC of 2.8 and reduces it by 1 EC at midday. In extreme cases, with a high temperature and insolation, he shaves off another 0.2-0.3. The average EC works out at 2.1. The EC in the slab averages out at 3.2-3.3.

Temperatures
“The average night temperature is 19.5°C and the day temperature, in summer, is 25°C. That translates into a 24-hour temperature of 23.5°C. In
spring I do not use a pre-midnight decrease but in summer, when it is warm, I do, as it would get too hot otherwise. My lowest pre-midnight temperature set point is 19°C. Towards the morning the temperature is often 20.5°C and the day temperature around 21.5°C. At the end of the day I give an extra temperature boost to keep the plants active with a temperature set point of 22.5/23°C. I do not use huge day/night differentials or a big drop in the premidnight temperature compared with other varieties. Baselga sets very easily, so I do not need to push it.

Area: Sowing date: Planting date: Growing medium: Stem density: Average fruit weight:

1 ha yellow Baselga 1 November 2007 11 December 200 sawdust in bags 7.2 stems/m2; three stems per plant 205 g

Seeds & Services Canada, september 2008