 | | Rijk Zwaan
Pepper News | 7 |
| | Crop manual Baselga RZ
Yellow blocky pepper |
| ..... | |  | Newsletter May 2008 | ....................... |
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| | Keep Baselga RZ genertive, but start to think of the summer
We can say that Baselga RZ easily gets fat in the head and makes big flowers. We want to aim for a good quality flower that does not stay open too long. So we have to watch this closely and steer the plant. We can steer with the afternoon boost period. Keep the boost in longer when you see the head and flowers getting too big. Use up the assimilates by the end of the day. Also be careful with your irrigations during this period. Watch the plant after the last irrigation in the boost period. Its possible that you have achieved a nice dark head with the boost but then the last irrigation is given too late in the day and the head will go back to a soft watery light colour again. So take notice of the plants reaction to the timing of your irrigation shots and adjust accordingly.
Having said this about irrigation; be sure you are giving enough water according to your light sum. Baselga has big fruits, a high fruit count and big leaves. And we’re pushing it with high 24-hour temperatures. So it needs more water. Irrigating in the night is ok if the slabs are drying down too much. Night irrigations might be more common when the seeding date is later in the season and the plants have had an especially high 24-hour temperature.
Again, Baselga makes a lot of kg’s, so it needs extra water. As long as your pH is stable, give as much water as you can. And maintain a high enough EC to help keep the overall fruit quality high and to keep a disease resistant plant. When it’s very hot, it’s ok to go down a bit with the drip EC, but we would rather you lean toward keeping the EC high and giving more total liters per m2.
Steer with the afternoon boost and 24 hour temperature rather than the preN. Maybe its possible to pull out the preN altogether. And keep watching to make sure you’re on temperature plenty early before sunrise. All the same generative steering that we have been advising for the earlier sets is still valid. We want to keep the speed. | |
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| | And as the season changes into summer
For example, in Ontario, you might want to consider your 24-hour temp more as we want to set the plant up for the extreme high summer temperatures coming. So even though we want to keep the speed in Baselga, you might want limit the 24-hour temperature in order to maintain the plant vigor and fruit size. Up to now the fruit size has been larger than expected. The fruits have a higher weight and the same diameter as our largest size competitor. The first set of fruits came off in 7.5 weeks after the setting of the flower and the fruits develop from first stripe of yellow to a solid yellow in 4 days. Now the fruits are coming off in 6 to 6.5 weeks.
As mentioned, the ripening speed is very fast in Baselga and is dictated by the 24-hour temperatures. So for the summer, the ripening speed will only get faster. Therefore you might come down a bit with the 24-hour average now while there is still the chance to do so. In this way we can maintain the fruit size. Keeping the fruit load to a maximum of 35 to 38 fruits will also help maintain the size in the summer.
Depending on the type of greenhouse, growers in general have started to leave an extra leaf when pruning. This can be for shading the fruits and maintaining a good summer climate. This can create a more humid climate, so in this late spring period, be mindful of your VPD’s and react with an adequate pipe temperature to keep an active climate.
As you consider what is the best for your crop, remember with Baselga to keep your generative settings in place. Depending on what area you’re in, summer can be a very vegetative climate for the plants. And vegetative plants might sacrifice kg’s in the end.
The variety descriptions, sowing, planting and harvesting dates and growing advices in our catalogues, leaflets and letters or communicated in any other way, have been composed in good faith and as precisely as possible, based on the experiences in trials and practice. However, final results of a crop depend on various factors such as local conditions. Rijk Zwaan cannot, under any circumstances, be held responsible for the results of the crop of any customer. | |
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| | More information
For more information you can contact our local advisor for greenhouse crops John DeVries by phone (519 324 6669) or e-mail (j.devries@rijkzwaan.com). Please also visit www.rijkzwaanusa.com | |
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