Tomeco's cultivation company, VW Maxburg, recently finished a lengthy tomato growing season, achieving a yield of 110 kg per square meter. The Belgian company is proud of this outcome, but what was the reason for choosing such an extended cultivation period?
"Last summer, we were challenged with finding the best way to organize and grow different crops across the various Tomeco locations," they explain on social media.
For their 2.2 hectares of Tomélon and 2.5 hectares of cucumber, the growers needed to decide on the best timing and space allocation. At VW Maxburg in Meer, they had two options: either end the current cultivation early to plant an interim crop or extend the cultivation period longer than usual and then start directly with Tomélon and cucumber. "We chose the latter, which was less conventional but ultimately proved to be the right decision."
The tomato plants from this unusually long cultivation period grew continuously for 79 weeks, starting from sowing at the nursery to the final harvest. Harvesting occurred over 62 of those weeks. The plants reached a total length of 13.2 meters and produced 51 trusses.
"The decision not to go with an interim crop saved us a lot of costs, such as those for thorough cleaning and disinfection, new substrate, and purchasing additional plant material," explains location manager Mitch Vermeiren. He adds, "Choosing the interim crop would have meant nearly 10 weeks of labor, energy, and fertilizers without any production. Instead, we were able to maintain reasonable production levels right up to the end."
