What has the climate been like so far and how have the plants responded?
Irradiation in the summer
After the dark spring, summer is also not good in terms of radiation. Until week 32, the cumulative light sum is more than 30,000J/cm2 (10%) behind 2023 and 4% behind the multi-year average! This shortage of irradiation obviously has an impact on production. We see a significant reduction in production in all segments compared to last year.
Emergence duration and plant tax
With snack tomatoes we sometimes see more than 2-3 flowers open per branch. In that case, pay close attention to the flower quality and effectiveness of the bumblebees. In some cases the bumblebee hives appear to have been too young.
Furthermore, the growth time (for snack tomatoes) is now at a minimum of about 35-37 days. This will increase again from now on due to the decreasing insolation.
The plant loads we see along the way vary enormously; from about 480 to 650 pieces per m2. The average plant load among snack tomato growers is lower - and the fruit weight higher - than in other years, thanks to the increasingly consistent pruning policy.
Just like in other years, we see the humidity outside and in the greenhouse increasing again, resulting in increasing leaf lengths.