Business development groups

A Study Tour to Belgium and Holland gave growers an insight into the highly sophisticated production systems in these countries. During the two days the growers visited two research stations, two propagators and a number of growers producing strawberries, both indoors and outdoors.

At both the Meerle Research Stations in Belgium and Brabant Research Station work was undergoing on growing crops in peat bags. The planting material being used was tray plants and with the earliest crops being heated by using a heating pipe placed directly below the line of bags. Due to the mild winter of 1997/98 it was necessary to use night break lighting to break dormancy and allow the plants to grow away properly in the spring. The yields were impressive with 5-6 kg/m2 in the spring being normal. Very little pesticides are used on the crops - biological control agents are used for pests and heating pipes are used to maintain a dry microclimate around the plants so reducing the need for fungicide application.

Strawberry growers at the end of their tour to Belgium and Holland.

Members of the Strawberry Development Group learn about growing techniques in Holland.

In Holland the propagator visited specialised in production of tray and tip plants. This is achieved by planting cold stored runners in early to mid May with approximately 20 tips taken per plant from mid-July onwards. These tips are then rooted in special trays at a density of 60 plants/m2 and in December the plant, which by that stage has a large root ball, is frozen.

Tray plants suffer less in cold stores than normal cold stored runners so are preferred for late planting. In Belgium the propagator, working on much heavier soils, specialised in producing August runners. These are large crowned bare rooted plants which if planted before 15 August and irrigated to give good establishment, will provide a heavy crop of quality berries in the following June.

In Holland where the soils are sandy most growers cropped on an annual basis. Large crown cold stored runners were planted in late April/early May and produced a crop approximately 2 months later. After harvest the plants were removed and the area planted again in the following April/May. As the crop remains within the ground for a relatively short time, rotations were not necessary and many growers had been growing strawberries in the ground for a number of years.

In Belgium where the soils were much heavier annual cropping was also practised but in this case bare rooted runners were planted in early August to give a crop of quality fruit for the next June and the plants were then removed. Planting densities are in the region of 40,000-45,000 plants/ha and although some use is made of French tunnels, most outdoors crops are grown without protection.

All the growers belonged to co-operatives which market the fruit for them and provide cold storage facilities for plants as well as providing reductions in costs of certain materials.

Due to the high cost of peat bags many of the growers were looking at alternative re-usable containers. The most popular were plastic troughs containing 6 litres of substrate and 2 litre pots held inside large plastic piping.

The growers all found the trip extremely useful and came away with new ideas for production on their own holdings.

For further details contact Joan Hamilton