Please enjoy this guest post, provided by Houweling’s Group.
Since starting out with growing the first 6 acres of beefsteak tomatoes, Houweling’s Group has grown to over 205 acres in not only tomatoes, but also cucumbers and bell peppers, with greenhouses in three locations: Delta, British Columbia (50 acres), Camarillo, California (125 acres), and Mona, Utah (28 acres). At Houweling’s, we take pride in greenhouse growing fresh, local, and tasty produce, as well as leading the industry in technology and environmentally friendly respects. From seeds to packing, every step to a flavorful product is crafted the Houweling’s way. So, where do we begin?
Table of Contents
Greenhouse Propagation
Master under glass doesn’t come easy, and it all begins with seeds. There are hundreds of tomato seeds to choose from so through data collection and insight from consumers, retailers and seed companies, we can decide which seeds to grow and eventually graft.
Tomato seedlings grow quickly, and before you know it they become too crowded, so we use a grading machine to pluck the plugs, or small seedling plants, from the trays, take digital pictures, and assign new trays based on height and leaf surface area. Although there is plenty of automation, the programming necessitates the care of a skilled operator. The entire cycle takes 42-56 days. But there is still a lot to do before the young plants are ready to leave the propagation house.
After grading, comes the critical step of grafting which is done by hand with surgical attention. It is very important to fuse a matching size of scion and rootstock. Each rootstock and scion is cut at a 45 degree angle with a razor and then held together with a small silicon clip in a high humidity chamber. The vigorous roots of young seedlings quickly outgrow the seed tray. That means transplanting by hand into a larger block (casing) made of mineral wool that is saturated with warm, nutrient-rich water on a conveyor belt. A mobile dispensing machine collects the blocks from the conveyor and moves them to various destinations in the greenhouse for continued growth. Six to eight weeks from seeding, we are ready to ship 12’ plants.
Greenhouse Growing Tomatoes
Once our plants are spread out among the 205 acres under glass in California, British Colombia, and Utah, they can grow for about 9 months (dependent on variety). Every week the plants are truss pruned, lowered, harvested and deleafed.
- Truss pruning is the clipping of new flowers, so each truss (cluster of tomatoes) only holds about 5-6 tomatoes. This allows the tomatoes to size and ripen uniformly. (Seven to eight tomatoes on a truss would result in tomatoes of different sizing all ripening at different times.)
- Nine months worth of growing plants can get pretty tall, so our plants are tied to a predetermined length of string, which hangs at the top of the greenhouse. The string is moved to the right and one notch each week, so that the plant forms a “J” shape, allowing it to continue growing without running into the ceiling. Now that the plant is lowered, forming the “J” shape, we are able to harvest at hand level every week instead of climbing up the plant.
- Plants are cut at the top of their truss and go directly into the shipper box, where our self driving power bees will escort them to the greenhouse for PLU stickering and quality check.
- Finally, our plants are deleafed where the trusses have been harvested. This ensure that leaves below the fruit are not taking up sugars and nutrients that could be going to the fruit.
Why Grow in a Greenhouse?
One of the many advantages of greenhouse growing is the ability to provide local vegetables year-round. Other benefits include:
- Our greenhouses can produce 24 times the amount an equivalent acreage of field plants would produce. For example, 125 acres in greenhouse production (60 kgs/132 lbs annually) is equal to 3000 acres of field production.
- Of the produce grown, approximately 97% is graded #1.
- The hydroponic irrigation and water recirculation techniques used in our greenhouses result in using ⅙ the amount of water versus growing in the field.
- The controlled environment allows for an increased effectiveness of biological controls and the use of fewer pesticides.
Overall, being able to produce local, tasty, and fresh produce in both an economically and environmentally sustainable way is the largest advantage to greenhouse growing.
More About Houweling’s
In the 1950s, Corenelius Houweling, a dutch immigrant, began a small berry farm and floral greenhouse business just a few miles outside of Vancouver, British Columbia. Passion, hard work, and reliability gave him a trusted reputation for producing quality products. These traits were instilled in his 8 children and eventually Casey Houweling would join the family business. With the same passion for growing, Casey urged the company to purchase farmland in Delta, British Columbia and began the expansion into vegetable growing with beefsteak tomatoes. Now, Houweling’s Group grows tomatoes, bell peppers and cucumbers.
This guest blog post was provided by Houweling’s Group. To learn more about them, you can visit their website, or find them on Instagram and/or Facebook at @Houwelingstomatoes. You can also reach out to them with any questions or feedback at Info@houwelings.com.
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WOULD LIKE TO BUY SOME SEED OF THE MINI CUKE’S FOR MY HOME GARDEN. THANK YOU
Hi Floyd, Please reach out to Houweling’s directly. Their contact information is included at the end of the post. Thank you!