An Italian grower out of Sicily released a video on a V-shape steering technique he adopted, which was already showing very positive results. Now, some time has passed, and the cycle is getting near the end. “Plants are placed 30-45 cm far away from each other, on average,” he says. “We put two plants, leave an empty space, and then another two plants, and so on.” Currently, he points out that plants are getting a little stressed because of the number of fruits on the plants. “Plants are not super full of tomatoes, but this is the production goal we reach and can’t go beyond this.” This is because the water sources around the greenhouse are a little salty.”
Some accidents might happen during cultivation, and one plant is showing the signs. “During the branching, a plant broke, so we left that with four main branches.” At the top of the plant, tomatoes keep growing and ripening. “Comparing this to the nearby plant with three main branches, you can see that there’s not much difference in terms of yield. This proves that even if there are four main branches, we will keep achieving a high productivity level.” Yet, when it comes to quality, then we are dealing with a completely different beast. “You need a method for that,” he chuckles. “Crucial is the rootstock. There are some that might damage the fruit both in terms of aesthetics and quality. There are others, however, that boost and promote the genetic potential of the variety in question. But this aside, next year we will keep using this V-shape, double row method as results are really good.”