Dutch cucumber grower opts for tomato crop in Germany:
Germany: Construction Van Gog Nursery (15 hectare) in full swing
"In the first crop cycle of this year most of our greenhouses where fully planted with cucumber crops," said Van Gog. "We where cultivating with a high wire system. Thanks to this we are able to harvest an impressive amount of 230-245 cucumbers per square meter. With the traditional system you are aiming on 200 cucumbers, but usually you will harvest about 175-180 pieces per square meter. Hence we opted for the High Wire cultivation. Next to this, the quality of the high wire cucumbers are also better than the traditional cultivated crop."
In spite of the good quality from the high wire cultivation, Van Gog nonetheless has chosen to start growing a tomato crop in the new crop cycle. "We had quite some problems with the cucumber mosaic virus in our greenhouse. In most cases, when you manage to stay clean of virus contamination in the first crop cycle, then you can stay clean in the second one. But when you got some problems in the first cycle, it is hard to disinfect the greenhouse in the middle of the season. That why we then switch towards a tomato crop."
Van Gog will start growing specialty, cocktail and vine tomatoes in his greenhouses. "We want to get some new experience with some of these crops. Especially for the smaller tomatoes, we want to learn how to grow them, before we start to grow them in our new greenhouses in Germany."
Van Gogs new 15 hectare greenhouse in Germany is currently being build. The greenhouse will be heated with residual heath from a nearby Ammonia plant. "We are currently the only greenhouse growers nearby the factory. If we want, we eventually van expand our operations over there to a total amount of 50 hectare. The first 7.5 hectare greenhouse is almost finished, and the screening and heating will be installed this week. The second 7.5 hectare is being constructed. At the end of this year the first crop is planned to be planted."
Van Gog chooses to start tomatoes in his German greenhouse because he thinks that it is the best crop to make a difference in the market. "A tomato is a product that a consumer really chooses in the supermarket. A cucumber is something they just grab. Next to this we have plans to market our tomatoes by adding value. Germans are fond of company history, so maybe we will expose our company history on the package or something. We'll see what our marketing manager comes up with!"
VB Climate will take care of the heating supply. This picture was taken earlier this year, in February.