doubts about tomato plants throughout the year

[Nico]

I have always wondered how the large agricultural tomato industries make available tomatoes throughout the year, in Spain I know that they have tomatoes throughout the year, although where they do it is in a tropical climate and mild winter in the greenhouse, but in winter It has fewer hours of sun, I wonder will they have heating in the greenhouse? will they have artificial lights? Will they keep the same tomato plants for years? I have ever tried to plant tomato plants obtained from a mid-season cloning and they have never developed correctly, their growth is very slow and they do not finish developing well, how will they do it?
Thank you

[bower]

Good question, Nico!

[Shule]

It's possible that they grow them in different locations at different times of the year, especially if the companies are large.

I'm guessing in greenhouses they have to (or ought to) use air conditioning judiciously, too. It seems like cold helps to bring vigor to plants, if it comes at the right times. I believe proper temperature fluctuations are likely important for phosphorus and potassium utilization. Tomatoes may need a longer, colder, cooling period (not merely cooler temperatures at night), after the peak harvest has waned. It happens in nature (so, it might need to happen in the greenhouse, too); they may need to be pruned heavily at this time, too. Anyway, I don't know, though, but that makes sense to me.

I would be very surprised if they used the same plants for multiple seasons. Not to say it couldn't be a good idea, but I have my doubts that many commercial greenhouses have yet built their specifications and methodologies around long-lived tomato plants.

These links may not exactly answer your question, but they have some helpful information about industry practices:
* https://extension.uga.edu/publications/ ... 20Handbook
* A PDF on commercial greenhouse-growing

That PDF seems to indicate quite thoroughly that growing tomatoes commercially via greenhouses isn't easy. The other link isn't even about greenhouses, but I supposed your question might not have been exclusively about them.

This Google search brings up a lot more results.

[Mark_Thompson]

Was the YouTube video of the Israeli greenhouse on this forum? Super impressive

[rossomendblot]

There is a company in the UK called Thanet Earth which grow tomatoes all year round. They have heated glasshouses and artificial lighting. The lights are used from September to April. They grow two crops a year, interplanting the young plants between the older ones. The vines can reach 15 metres in length. In total they grow 450,000 tomato plants. I assume they operate in a similar way in the Netherlands where they have huuuuge glasshouses.

https://www.thanetearth.com/

[Mark_Thompson]

[mention]rossomendblot[/mention]
450k tomatoes? That’s wild. Here’s a video of what a modern indoor grow looks like.

[Amateurinawe]

[mention]Mark_Thompson[/mention] Great video. Good to see that industrial tech still can't do it all and the bee's are still required. I am not sure I expected to see a little man appear with an electric toothbrush fertilizing the flowers but having seen some videos with robots and 'electronic' eyes, it wouldn't surprise me if they develop a robot that can "blow" the flowers and select and cut the vines one day. But for now, good to see that we need the bee's.

[Mark_Thompson]

[mention]Amateurinawe[/mention]

Robots with vibrators will be the next innovation I’m sure. But it was nice to see the bee boxes, they seem to be working, some of those trusses were absolutely loaded.

[mama_lor]

Robots with vibrators will be the next innovation I’m sure.

From the research I read, the plants are not kept multiple years, but about 11 months total, which is still a lot. Netherlands uses heating and especially artificial lighting heavily, I honestly don't know how the prices are so low for winter produce. And the cocktail tomatoes taste really quite good even in february.
They all graft, that is one of the reasons for the longevity, also the climate control and perfect water and nutrition delivery.
Not sure about the rooting of suckers, I never tried midsummer since our season is not that long, but from what people say they should develop properly. I did it in the spring to clone expensive hybrids, they were fine.

[Amateurinawe]

[mention]Mark_Thompson[/mention] see vision robotics corporation...fascinating and scary

[Nico]

Thank you very much everyone for the information and videos, the truth is that it has served me well and it is a pleasure to belong to this forum of such good people, now I copy and paste an information that a friend of another friend from Spain who works in one of the most important agricultural companies in Europe, I hope it is well understood since I use the translator

[Nico]

1) There are several tomato plantings according to date and according to customer demand and according to periods of higher price:
2) There are seeds for winter crops and seeds for summer crops (all hybrids)
3) The greenhouses of Murcia, Almería and Granada are multi-tunnel or raspa y amagado (almost all raspa y amagado). And they use Bio Masa heating mostly (pellets, olive pits or almond shell)
4) Artificial light is used in Holland, Belgium ... for winter crops and for their glass greenhouses (which we don't have here). And they also use hot water heating.
The light means that there is less kg of production, but when there is a lot of light in the spring, all the kg suddenly come to you. And the cold slows down the plant, which increases the brix degrees (sugar level of the fruit), and when the temperature is regulated, more kg will also come at once. But the spring production surplus is mostly because of the light

[asmx92]

Thanks Nico!