Netherlands: Growers share experiences with Agrifast Tom System during annual meeting
Around 30 people visited four greenhouse facilities located in Bergschenhoek and Berkel en Rodenrijs, covering the most important crops using the Tom System: tomatoes (Companies Solyco and Mart Knaap), sweet pepper (C&R Vijverberg) and cucumber (V.O.F. Reijm en Zn)
The main idea was to share experiences between growers who already use the system and others who are interested in starting using it, as long as crop advisors who have customers who are asking them about the system.
Albert, from Solyco, pointed out his experience with the Tom System compared to the traditional twisting system to tie the plants along the twines. It was the first time that many growers and crop advisors could see a greenhouse with the plants hold by the metal rings, so there were many questions about how to use the tool, where and how to clip, etc.
Mart Knaap, also a tomato grower using the Tom System in his 10 hectare greenhouses, explained why he decided to switch to the Tom System and how was the organization of his workers in order to be able to clip every 7 days. This is a key factor in order to be efficient in work organization.
Dirk-Jan Haas, from DJ Products, the Dutch representative of the Tom System for the West Netherlands, explained the importance of choosing the right clipping interval and twine thickness depending on the tomato variety.
After that, the visitors went to the company C&R Vijverberg, one of the most high tech sweet pepper growers in Holland, who explained the differences when using the Tom System compared to tomatoes.
And finally, the visitors went to visit the cucumber grower Jan Reijm, who has started using the Tom System this year. He explained the advantages compared to plastic clipping and how he uses the tool with the weight balancer system. His workers are clipping at a speed of 1300 plants per hour, whereas the plastic clipping is much slower, usually below 1000 plants per hour.
To see a video on how the Tom-System works, you can click on the following link
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mumxYZujqM
For more information
Agrifast
Alberto Lizarraga
alberto.lizarraga@agrifast.es
www.thetomsystem.com
DJ Products
Dirk-Jan Haas
dj.haas@agrifast.nl
www.dj-products.com