HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1994-03-16, Page 30The seven -acre Bruce Tropical Greenhouse, an intensive hands-
on operation, employs about 35 people. (Ron Wassink photo)
Farm Progress
age 13
Growing tomatoes in cold weather
by Ron Wasslnk
The temperature fell a few
degrees inside the seven -acre Bruce
Tropical Greenhouse when winter
temperatures hit record lows this
winter, but it was still balmy shirt-
sleeve weather compared to the
howling, minus 28 degrees Celsius
outside.
Even so, the bad weather did
impact operations at the facility,
which has been growing the deli-
cious Bruce Brand tomatoes for
seven years.
Ron Moes, assistant manager,
says the record breaking cold snap
lowered the temperature enough to
signal tomato plants to slow
production.
Steam from the nearby Bruce
Nuclear Power Development is
piped to the greenhouse and keeps
the facility at near constant tem-
peratures in the winter.
Though the greenhouse's interior
is a balmy 68 degrees Fahrenheit in
the winter, a combination of factors
tell the plants to slow metabolism.
Moes points to frost on the glass
roof, which stops sunlight from
reaching the plants, as another
reason tomato production drops 50
per cent in the winter.
The greenhouse has its own
weather station to tell what's hap-
pening outside. The station reports
the high and low temperatures of
the day, wind speed and
temperature.
"1t gets a little cooler in the green
house (in winter) but not an awful
lot," Moes says.
The frost on the glass is the big
problem. What happens is at night
energy curtains are unrolled on
tracks below the roof and create a
type of attic. The curtains trap the
heat in the greenhouse.
Moes says they use bumble bees
for pollination and the first question
he asks visitors to the facility is if
they1'are allergic to bees.
They also use biological warfare
on the white fly, which turns
tomato plant leaves to mould, and
also leaves a dirty, sticky substance
on the plants.
The biological white fly controller
comes in the form of a minute wasp
and 40,000 of the wasps are
introduced in the greenhouse each
week.
The snow storms of last January
worried Moes as the courier
couldn't always make it through the
closed roads. In one instance that
Left a container of predator wasps in
the corner of an unheated ware-
house. Moes didn't take any chan-
ces and he ordered a new supply of
the "Encarsia Formosa".
Bruce Tropical Greenhouse
employs about 35 people, some
who live as far away as Formosa.
It's an intensive hands-on operation.
The staff is dedicated, Moes says,
adding they often fail to get recog-
nition for making it to work in the
worst of winter conditions.
Artificial light is used in combi-
nation with natural light. If it
•turn to page 15
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