Since last year, the head growers of Windset Farms have been trailing the new De Ruiter rootstock DRO141TX. According to Aldenzee, the rootstock is extremely suitable for the cultivation in Windset's Santa Maria Ulta Clima greenhouses.
"In the Ultra Clima greenhouse, the head of the plants tend to experience a warmer temperature than in a conventional greenhouse design, because we are cooling from below and there are no regular vents", Fons explains. "Not every crop is suited to this, and we often experience leafscorch and shorter leaves. That is why we have been searching for a way to make our crops more resilient, and we knew that a different rootstock could play a key role in this."
In order to create a stronger crop that could better withstand the high temperatures in the higher CO2 levels of the greenhouse, Aldenzee opted for a trial with different rootstocks. "In a trial we changed the Maxifort rootstock with the new DRO141TX and we experienced good results with the DRO141TX; during difficult periods, the crop tends to be a bit more vegetative; it keeps the right leaf length more easily and it is less susceptible to leafscorch.”
"After two years of trials in Santa Maria, we have now switched to the DRO141TX rootstock on almost our entire acreage in Santa Maria", Aldenzee said.
The grower consultant stressed that Maxifort is still a rootstock of choice for other greenhouses. "The DRO141TX is just extremely suitable for this type of greenhouse and in this type of climate in Santa Maria. We will still use other rootstocks in our other operations, it is a matter of analysing and making the right decisions by studying and reviewing each location and crop as a separate situation."
For more information on De Ruiter seed & rootstocks:
De Ruiter Seedsseminis.deruiter@monsanto.com
http://www.deruiterseeds.com