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Australian grower turns tobacco farm into pepper powerhouse

The LaSpina family started with a small crop of capsicums at the same time as they were still growing tobacco.

Such was its success that it soon became the main focus of their horticultural enterprise run on the Ovens River flats at Whorouly.

Joe LaSpina, his wife Kim and brother Raimond run the farm with the brothers’ parents, Sam and Mary, and combine growing capsicums with kiwi fruit as well as running cattle.

But it is the capsicum that’s king. This is a self-made business in more ways than one.

The LaSpinas grow their own seedlings to plant and even custom built their own planting machine in the quest to become efficient growers. Each year, they grow about 20ha of capsicums.

With a crop of 44 tonnes a hectare, it means they produce about two million capsicums a year.

Sowing of seeds in the greenhouse starts in September with four sowings, finishing in October. Transplanting starts in November and finishes in the first week of January.

Each greenhouse holds about 100,000 seedlings and there are six greenhouses where sowing is one week apart.

This allows transplanting to take place over a number of weeks, meaning the resulting crop is also ready to harvest over a period of about 100 days.

Joe said they spent about $70,000 a year on seeds alone to grow about 600,000 seedlings.

With about 150 seeds weighing just 1g, it is an intricate business, but the La Spinas have a machine that puts a spec­ially sourced seedling mix from Joe Faranda at Greencrop at Werribee into the pyramid shaped planting trays, plants the seed and then puts vermiculite on top to hold the moisture.

Read more at The Weekly Times
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