High density sowing is possible by using HORTOMALLAS® trellis net.

HORTOMALLAS® presents this excellent introductory article on its trellis net and plant support system.

For vegetable like tomato and cucumber, whether they are cultivate in greenhouse or the open field.

Vegetable plant tutoring specially using trellis net. Aims to keep plants straight and to support the big loads the plants withhold when hybrids or high yielding crops are sow.

Also helps a lot keeping foliage and fruits away from soil reducing disease incidence and improving production quality.

HORTOMALLAS® plant tutoring system keep plants elevated so they do not come in contact with the soil.

Avoiding unwanted diseases and fruit damages, which increases useful life of the plant and harvesting yields.

What are tutoring objectives when growing vegetables.

Trellis net allows higher density when planting and sowing.

Whenever high density sowing takes place to raise crop production, stalks are not that firm, comparing to low density sowing. Tutoring the chosen crop allows to make the main stalk stronger so that it supports properly the harvesting weight.

Using trellis mesh is adequate for high yielding crops.

By using high yielding the weight of fruits will make it  necessary to reinforce the stalk using trellis net.

The strongest case for this technique is chili pepper growing using the Yolo Wonder variety which resisted properly the weight.

This trait helped to keep the plant straight.

By changing to modern hybrids it became imperative using modern plant support netting.

So growers can have large harvests of thicker heavier fruits and avoid broken stalks due to the exceeding fruit weight.

Trellis net improves fruit quality

Crops like cucumber which it may be grow at the ground level, by being in touch with the soil, will present problems such as a green pale stain that decreases it commercial value.

Tutoring net will prevent this problem by keeping the plant away from the humid soil reducing diseases.

Trellis net allows growing all the crops all the seasons.

Tomato for instance has weak stalks and branches by the weight of its fruit bunches.

During the dry season tomato can be grow prostrate for industrial processing.

However during the rainy season tutoring will become mandatory in order to avoid mycoidal diseases such as Alternaria, tomato´s grey stain, and Phytophthora to list just a few pathogens that propagate well under humidity conditions. 

One must keep in mind that besides multiple rotting by fungus and bacteria, disease outbreaks reduce considerably total tonnage.

Trellis Mesh improves greenhouse performance

In spite of having controlled climate conditions to reduce possible diseases, cultivating inside greenhouses requires the use of good tutoring.

so as to take advantage of production rate potentials, not only as surface plant density but also considering the greenhouse´s upward volume.

This tutoring is well justified due to their high costs of greenhouse growing. Melon crops have start to be grow on the ground in Spanish greenhouses due to the unavailability of qualified manpower at a reasonable wage, while this may not the case for our Latin American countries.

Vegetable Plant Tutoring generates job opportunities for field workers.

Growing vegetables generates many job positions mainly because the plants need tutoring and pruning. Tomato growing needs more manpower than cabbage.  

In the State of California, USA, tomato for industrial process is grow prostrate and sow and harvest are mechaniz, this allows to grow the cheapest tomato in the world even though their man labor is one of the most expensive.

Plant Tutoring techniques

On yam and vainitas or climb caraotas the plant is allow to entangled to the previous corn plant´s stalk  which was sow as part of a crop rotation system and this is the way they use it in Conucos ( Small farms) so the plants entangled the corn plant.

Sticks, metal tubes or even concrete posts are use in open field plantations to support cultivars, in professional greenhouses the mechanical designs takes into account wind and rain force plus the fruit weight, using the structure for high-wire crop tutoring.

On less professional greenhouses the crops are not tutored making them weaker.

Tutoring net is support by wires or cables and crops are tie to them.

In the State of Lara, Venezuela, growers use cane sticks placed horizontally to substitute the wire used to support the crops.

For tutoring crops they use a string or raffia extracted out from plants from the Agavaceae family.

Parchita or grape cultivation can be tutor using wire crossed horizontally so they support plants that develops on top, just like they do it on Maracaibo Venezuela´s South lake.

However it is more wide use vertical trellis technique which yields better results and allows crop mechanization.

For grape cultivation every modern plantations are now make with vertical trellises using several wires that allow stalk leading and leaves it well arranged.

To tie tomato plants, several strings are attach to every branch so all of them are support.

This same technique is use for cayenne pepper in places such as Santander State in Colombia and in Táchira, Venezuela.

As a reference we cite the experience obtained using this technique on La Mesa de los Morenos and on La Grita town also, both places located on the previously mentioned countries.

In greenhouses, raffia twines are tie to the stalk´s bases , which are then roll like a snake as the plants grow.

Lateral shoots are suppress to let one, two or three axis per plant. This technique is use for tomato, cayenne pepper, melon and cucumber to cite only a few. 

It is important not to tie too strongly the twine around the stalk as not to cut the nutrients´ flow, induce adventitious roots,  and basically not strangulate the plants and fruits.

This was observe during our professional field trips with producers associated to our technical assistance  program in Montalbán on the State of Carabobo Venezuela.

In an open field, cayenne pepper is locked between two paired ropes that support the growth in the middle of the strings.

Lateral movement is suppressed using the support of neighboring plants.  This technique was also successful used with eggplant.

Flowers such as carnation and chrysanthemum among others are  grown in the middle of horizontal nets that allow the stem to grow straight.

Straight flower stems are a factor of quality for cut flowers both for domestic and international markets.

Roses are also tutored in a very similar way to cayenne pepper as mentioned, but using wire or flower tutoring net and with sticks separated a meter from the other.

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