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Scoop1

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Posts posted by Scoop1

    Tomatoes In Rainy Season

    in Organic Farming, Smallholding and Kitchen Gardening

    Posted · Edited by Scoop1

    Hi Stevehaigh, yes that is correct, with regard to deleafing as i have explained, those leaves directly below and directctly above a fruit truss are very important to that particular fruit truss, but as the plant grows they will eventually, and naturally, yellow and slowly die off, but usually the truss has ripened by then, if you remove them too early other leaves on the plant have to compensate for the assimale production for that fruit truss and there is only so much to go around. Most gardeners would not notice any difference at all but in a commercial situation where they may have 50,000 plants it can and does make a big difference, particularly in the taste department when they grow F1 hybrids that are bred and grown for kilograms not taste, if you can fine tune what you are doing, then why not. Pinching out the lateral shoots is up to you as to how many stems you want to run, that mostly depends on, "Photosynthetically Active Radiation" { PAR } = { Sunlight } that is available to the canopy, if you have to many stems and thick canopy then not enough sunlight gets to the lower leaves, so that really is counter productive. In a greenhouse situation PAR levels are very important so deleafing and layering of the plant helps to get the PAR to the lower parts of the plant and enables, as you said, better ventilation, there needs to be a balance between fruit trusses and leaf area,

    Cheers

    Scoop

    "what about the buds that pop up between the stalk and the leaf stem?" = lateral shoots that develop between stem and leaf internode, sorry could not help myself, lol

    Subforum

    in Forum Support Desk

    Posted

    Hi all, i was wondering if there would be enough people on here that are interested in Hydroponics to have a Subforum on this subject and if so how is this achieved

    Thanks

    Scoop1

    Tomato Cropping

    in Farming in Thailand Forum

    Posted

    Hi Pigeonjake, i am glad you are doing well with your single truss toms, are you growing in a garden or in pots ? and do you notice the enhanced taste ? and what toms are you growing? tell us a little about your system if you dont mind, it may help others who sometimes have trouble growing good toms.

    Cheers

    Scoop

    Tomato Cropping

    in Farming in Thailand Forum

    Posted

    Hi all i thought this may be of interest, I have used this system at times with hydroponic tomatoes and it may interest some growers who sometimes struggle to get the results they require in Thailand, i have used this system before and it worked great for a short term crop of long term cultivars [ indeterminate }, which may help in Thailand's weather {a quickie before the rainy season } its known as "Single Truss Cropping" and for those who are not aware of this system of cultivation it has some benefits in, fruit flavour , fruit size, and can be quicker than normal long term cropping , the seedling is treated as normal until the development of 2-3 leaves immediately above the first fruit truss, and then the growing shoot is removed and all subsequent lateral shoots are removed as they appear, and the plants can be grown at a density of about 10-12 plants per square metre as long as there is enough sunlight to drench the plant's leaf canopy, which is great if you don't have a lot of room or you grow in pots, since the average "Single Truss Plant" does not grow much taller than 80cm it can be grown in smaller areas than normal cropping methods, it has also proven that the taste of the fruit is enhanced and the size of the fruit is also bigger. since this "Single Fruit Truss" has no competition for assimilates from anymore developing shoots, new leaves or fruit trusses, these 7-9 leaves that each plant has all contribute to the production of that one truss of fruit, and in turn the extremely high compositional quality of the fruit in terms of sugars, acids and dry matter content and overall flavour. Single truss cops develop rapidly once the growing tip has been removed, and seedlings can be planted out every 3-4 weeks so there is a continued crop of tomato's being harvested when weather permits, the only disadvantage with this system of cropping, obviously you need a lot more seedlings.

    Cheers

    Scoop

    • Like 1

    How To Save Seed?

    in Organic Farming, Smallholding and Kitchen Gardening

    Posted · Edited by Scoop1

    Storing Tomato Seed.

    Tomato seeds will store under the corrrect conditions for about 3-4 years, after this time they will start to lose viability, the dry seeds should be stored in small air and moisture proof containers or sachels and stored in the refrigerator from 0-4 degrees , as this temperature slows the respiration rate of the seed, warm temps and high humidity around the seed will shorten its viable life and rapidly speed up seed ageing, the decreased oxygen inside the sealed sachel or container also acts to slow down the rate of repiration and further prolong the viable shelf life of the seed. It is temperature that mostly determines the rate of chemical reaction within the seed including the rate of respiration. Once the sealed container is opened and is no longer air tight the seed is exposed to increased oxygen and humidity and this will also speed up the the rate of respiration and lower the expected shelf life. So its is a good idea to store only the amount of seed you need to plant out in seperate containers , so you dont break the seal in the containers containing the seed that you dont need, a safe seed moisture level for sealed storage is about 5.5%. Seed extraction should only come from at very least mature green fruit, seeds will germinate best in complete darkness at a temperature of 20-24 degrees and germination rates are less at temps of 15 degrees { lowest ] and 35 degrees [ highest ] a sterile media can also be used in the germiniation process if its available, seeds can also be dusted with a fungicide before planting if you are that way inclined.

    Cheers

    Scoop

    Everything Is Getting Eaten!

    in Organic Farming, Smallholding and Kitchen Gardening

    Posted · Edited by Scoop1

    Maybe you could get some bug mesh to hang over them after you spray them, if they are in pots move them out of the rain and then you contol the watering rather than the rain drenching the root zone with water every time it rains, also it is a good idea to vibrate the flower truss by tapping on the stem just behind the the truss as this will aid in pollination in that humid enviroment, tomato flowers are not such an attraction to bees because of the low nectar content contained in the flower, in a commercial system mechanical bees are used to vibrate the flower truss to help with this.

    cheers

    Scoop1

    Tomatoes In Rainy Season

    in Organic Farming, Smallholding and Kitchen Gardening

    Posted · Edited by Scoop1

    Hi SunnyAfternoon

    Try and keep the rain off them with some sort of plastic cover, and as loong sugested make sure they are not too close together, air flow is very important to have some control over fungus problems, but it is also important not to remove any healthy leaves as a developing fruit truss will assimilate mainly from the leaf above the truss, the leaf opposite, and the leaf immediately below the truss, the leaves growing below an immature fruit truss should not be removed because they contribute to to the formation of assimilates and to the remobilisation of mobile nutrients. Leaves retained below the lowest fruit truss on the plant will result in a larger fruit size on that truss as these leaves produce assimilates which is directly imported into the fruit on that truss, deleafing reduces fruit dry matter, which reduces sugars and and soluble solids which is directly related among other things to the sweetness of the fruit, this is so often overlooked when growing tomato cultivars. Another thing to remember is that the rain is a problem not just because of the fungus issues ,it also has a direct relationship with tomato taste and fruit cracking, if you let the plant dry out a little and then you get a lot of rain entering the root zone the plant will readily absorb this excess moisture { basically the fruit gets a gut full of water } and that weakens the nutrients and this in turn also lowers the fruit dry matter and the fruit swells faster than the fruit skin can expand and this pressure causes the fruit to crack.

    Cheers

    Scoop1

    PS, how many stems are you running on each plant, how many and what type of cultivar are you growing.

    Spend A Night Into A Tribe? Teach Them English?

    in Chiang Rai

    Posted · Edited by Scoop1

    Posted Yesterday, 12:25

    "Hi. Me and my wife would like to go in a tribe near chiang rai. We would lile to exchange with them... Maybe teach them a little bit of english... We would, if possible, avoid touristics visits of tribes... It seems to be like Disneyland tours... Thank you really much for your advices in order to visit authentic tribes.

    Same for monks btw. We d like to exchange with them. "

    I'm weak in the type of way that I can't resist picking on this type of post, but if you want to teach anybody English, perhaps you should brush up on it.

    I work part-time in journalism and it makes my skin crawl when people proclaim themselves to be English teachers but don't know that 'me' is not a subject pronoun, or use a word like 'touristics'. Does the word even exist? But more importantly it's serving as an adjective, and adjectives can never be plural. 'Advice' is a non-countable noun, but the OP has added an 's' to it. Finally, 'exchange' requires a direct object, but the OP hasn't bothered to include one.

    I really don't feel I'm being pedantic here because in the OP's short post, he has made 4 basic mistakes as well as displaying some questionable style, yet he feels qualified to teach English. Cripes, it's no wonder that English teaches get such a bad reputation in Thailand.

    Very well said, i have spent 25 years in the media and it makes my skin crawl when i hear or read "me and"

    Coco Peat

    in Farming in Thailand Forum

    Posted

    Hi Rice , just got an email from Knaap, with the specifications of their product, EC less than 1.2 { thats way too high } EC less than .3 is normal , i guess i will keep looking. 55ltrs 150bt

    cheers

    Scoop

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