First tips for Rijk Zwaan peppers - week 52, 2009

The year 2009 was a dramatic one for glasshouse vegetables in general, but for peppers in particular. Despite this, there is expansion of 80 - 100 ha through, especially, new projects that had been planned well before now. Percentagewise, the biggest expansion will be in yellow peppers, followed by orange and red. The green-pepper area will remain about the same. What this signifies for the future, no-one knows, but it is certainly going to be an exciting time. A much-heard comment is "Now we'll see who can hang on the longest", but let's hope it won't come to that.

'Hanging on' can also apply to breeding: one minute you are market leader and the next you can be watching the game from the sidelines. That is why Rijk Zwaan is very pleased to be back in the yellow market in Holland with a good 100 ha yellow and about 18 ha red peppers. Most of these varieties have now been planted. The areas are taken up as follows: yellow varieties Inzell RZ, Stayer RZ and Sven RZ will occupy, respectively, 55 ha, 45 ha and 3 ha. Of the red introductory varieties 35-152 RZ and 35-153 RZ, 12 and 6 ha are grown, respectively.

On the day of planting it is a good idea to take it steady and to have day and night temperature set points of not more than 20°C. The max. pipe may be limited at 50 - 60°C (depending on the distance from the pipe to the plant). Within a few days the temperature may gradually be increased to 21.5 - 22°C day and night.
If we want to start working towards setting, we are going to lower the temperature, especially during the pre-midnight period. The earliest sowing dates will already be starting to do this. Around the moment of fruit set we should then aim for 24-hour temperatures of 18.5°C min. and 20°C max., depending on the amount of light and crop condition.

The new-generation varieties of Rijk Zwaan are characterised by a combination of vigour and generativity. Not for nothing did this result this year past in higher productions of good quality.
Fruit set did not pose very many problems last year and so we expect that it will not be necessary to use low pre-midnight temperatures. We do see differences between varieties, of course. Using a brief pre-midnight of down to 17°C can have a very positive effect on varieties Inzell and Sven. In view of the slightly more generative character of Stayer, we think the pre-midnight does not need to be quite that low. Incidentally, this also applies to red varieties 35-152 RZ and 35-153 RZ. Below we give you some guidelines for keeping/thinning out the first fruit set.

	2-stem system	3-stem system*	4-stem system**
Sowing dates up to 15-10	5th axil: 1 fruit 6th axil: 2 fruits	6th axil: 1 fruit	6th axil: 1 fruit
Sowing dates from 15-10 to 30-10	4th axil: 1 fruit 5th axil: 2 fruits	5th axil: 1 fruit 6th axil: 2 fruits	5th axil: 1 fruit
Sowing dates from 1-11 to 15-11	3rd axil: 1 fruit 4th axil: 2 fruits	4th axil: 1 fruit 5th axil: 2 fruits	4th axil 1 fruit
Sowing dates after 15-11	2nd axil: 1 fruit 3rd axil: 2 fruits	3rd axil: 1 fruit 4th axil: 2 fruits	3rd axil: 1 fruit 4th axil: 2 fruits

* For a 3-stem system and 2 fruits per branch: retain a maximum of 5 peppers per plant (if necessary thin down the fruits on a weaker stem to 1 pepper).

** In a 4-stem system only 1 pepper is allowed to be retained on weaker stems.

"Axil" means: the axil after the split, not counting the split. Plant size also plays a big part, of course, in deciding when to allow fruit set.

Grow actively!
At the time of writing these crop tips it is around freezing outside, thick snow and overcast. We have had cold weather for more than a week now with the attendant high pipe temperatures. This has made the plants very active and they often have more root development than is usual around this time. When the weather outside turns milder it is extremely important to keep growing sufficiently actively. That way we are keeping the crop active but what’s more, we retain the generative character in the plant.
Make sure you have a min. pipe temperature of 45°C and open the screen when the glasshouse temperature rises above the temperature set point at this min. pipe temperature. That way we keep the buds strong and we prevent that we have to start forcing fruit set by taking more extreme actions! After all, the most spontaneous setting gives the fastest-developing fruits with the best quality!

The pepper crop team of Rijk Zwaan wish you a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.

Crop advice given by the seller is not binding. Descriptions and recommendations in these crop tips are as accurately as possible based on experiences in trials and practice. We do not, however, under any circumstances accept any liability for deviating results of the product grown in accordance with such information. The buyer needs to satisfy himself that these crop tips are suitable for his local conditions and the crop he intends to grow.