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Jack Pomp, senior grower at Mastronadi Produce in Leamington, Ontario, Canada:
“Consistently good setting with beefsteak tomato Heritage RZ”

“Heritage RZ is a good choice, especially in the spring,” says tomato grower Jack Pomp. “Early in the year, the climate can still be rather unstable, and that’s when a vigorous plant is important. What becomes especially apparent at that time is how well this variety sets. Even during light-defi cient periods, blossom drop is no problem with Heritage RZ. It’s simply a great variety to grow.”

The Heritage RZ plants were planted on coconut fi bre slabs at Mastronadi Produce in Leamington, Ontario, on 10th January. The plant raiser had told Jack Pomp that the Heritage RZ plants had already shown good initial development so he immediately started them in the generative phase. “We always use non-grafted plants and keep them pruned to one main stem. So we maintained a spacing of 2.4 plants/m2 throughout production. The plants arrived with a fair amount of foliage and actually retained it throughout production. The crop produced enough fl owers right from the start. For me, the easy setting was a fantastic advantage. We used truss supports on all the trusses and pruned them back to four fruits. Actually, we saw very few small trusses.”

Easy balance
“Heritage RZ has a rapid rate of growth and a lot of foliage; except for an extra round of leaf cutting, this is no problem for us. In fact, when the mercury rose above 26°C average not long ago and the fruits suddenly started to show the ill effects of this, we were only too happy to have all those leaves to provide some shade. A pre-midnight makes it easy to achieve and maintain a balance. After sunset we started with 14 - 15°C. Three hours later, the temperature rose to 17 - 18°C to reach a peak of 21°C in the afternoon. We ventilated at 20°C, at 21°C under sunny conditions.” The crop was watered from one hour after sunrise until two hours before sunset. The grower started with short one minute watering rounds and increased them, depending on light intensity, to three minutes per watering round. Until the end of June, the crop also received a nightly watering.

Beautiful presentation
“We increased the EC of the drip irrigation water, adding nutrients with an EC of 3.0. Our objective was an EC of 4.5 to 5.0 in the slab. When it got warmer, we reduced the EC. The results of our production efforts were plants that were easy to work with and that yielded 33 kilos of high-quality tomatoes per m2 in the spring crop. With an average fruit weight of between 240 and 260 grams, the fruits were just the right size for our clamshell packaging. And their beautiful round shape and good colour ensured a fi ne presentation,” added the grower. “And the fact that Heritage RZ is also appreciated not just here at Mastronadi Produce was apparent from the positive remarks we heard about the keeping quality of these tomatoes.” It seems that every link in the chain is profi ting in its own way from this beefsteak tomato.

Total area:
For Heritage RZ production:
Sowing date:
Planting date:
Growing medium:
Spacing:
Average fruit weight:
Yield:

206,000 m2
40,000 m2
30th November 2005
10th January 2006
coconut fibre
2.4 plants/m2
240 – 260 g
33 kg/m2 in week 30

Seeds & Services Canada, september 2006

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