Heinz-Watties’ tomatoes are planted
Alex had a busy winter and spring, getting the operations programme for the 2023-2024 tomato crop developed in conjunction with Heinz-Watties, McCain Foods, regenerative consultants and advisors, interested local growers, organic vegetable producers, international process tomato growers, technical field representatives and contractors. We particularly note the large inputs of Caleb Burbury and Bruce MacKay of Heinz-Watties, and Phillip Schofield from Reset-Regenerate as the complexities were worked through.
The planning and consultation for this crop was more extensive than for the previous year’s sweetcorn crop, as the inputs for process tomatoes are considerably higher. There have been several iterations of the operational plan and a ‘final’ version, which has already been changed!
Despite predictions of an El Nino summer, soil conditions remained wet through spring, so cultivation activities were delayed. Additional passes with aerators and rotary hoes were required to achieve the soil tilth required to transplant tomatoes.
Just before planting we found that the drying soil under the regenerative treatment was very compacted, and plants were unlikely to establish well. After an in-field operations group meeting, we agreed to incorporate the cover crop and use the Watties conventional planter to transplant seedlings. This was a major deviation away from the operations plan, in which we intended to plant through mulch using the live2give planter. After several trips between Hastings and Palmerston North, a lot of support from Tobi and Robert at live2give, this was most disappointing, but a pragmatic decision.
Why did we need to do this?
In the 12 months since the project started, and indeed for about a year before that, our soil has been very wet. Constant rain and then Cyclone Hale and Cyclone Gabrielle (which left almost a metre of water on our trial site) and yet more rain left the ground saturated. We tried aerating and ripping in autumn but had no success as the plasticine conditions merely caused smearing rather than lifting or shattering. And so here we were, ready for spring planting and finding the soil, which was firm when wet, was now very hard as it dried. In fact, all three treatments had “tight” soil. So, the conventional plots were deep ripped and hoed to create a bed for transplanting. The hybrid plots were hoed, then aerated and hoed again to create enough tilth. And the regenerative plots which had been direct drilled into sweetcorn stubble and mulched for no-till planting were found to need urgent attention. With about 10 t/ha of dry matter on the surface, a lot of physical work was needed to enable rippers and then the planter to work effectively. The residue was incorporated, but at what cost to soil and wallet?
We are grateful to the Watties team, Mike Kettle and Andy Lysaght who prioritised getting a lot of cultivation work done at the MicroFarm, allowing us to plant on time.
Here’s a pictorial outline of turning our cover crop into a planted tomato field.
