"Crazy Roots no problem with mix of peat and coconut"

Cut mats, excessive root growth in pots and a irregular setting. Those are all symptoms of Crazy Roots or excessive root growth. It caused problems at cultivation of Seasun last year. This year the disease is under control thanks to growbags from Peltracom. Just 1% of all the plants have the symptoms of Crazy Roots, said Jan Gresnigt during a tour through his nursery.

It caused a lot of problems for the tomato cultivation last year. Pots and mats of affected plants grew full. Grower Jan Gresnigt lost a lot of time cutting the mats open, cutting leafs and had to work with shorter plants. The conclusion after an experiment with growbags from Peltracom was that there were also Crazy Roots but now the disease wasn't a problem for the cultivation. Jan decided to use the Peltracom growbags this year instead of rock wool mats. Peltracom growbags contain a mix of coconut and peat.

Air holes
The tomato plants were planted 16th of October and were planted 5th and 6th of December directly on the mat. In the beginning Gresnigt walked around a lot. Because of the air holes it couldn't be fully dripped as with rock wool. But it turned out that wasn't necessary, it is enough to drip 2-3l/m2. The upper layer of the mat stays dry. He started with shorter sessions to control the watering. He filled the leaking mats with a watering can, it worked. The root growth was remarkably quick. After three days the roots had grown in the bottom of the mat.

Equal growth
Equal growth stayed. Gresnight is expecting at least the same production numbers as last year. Like most of the nurseries, the production stayed a bit behind, but since last week we made a big catch. "Same time last year, we saw the damage of the Crazy Roots in the proceeds. We don't have that now."

It became visible during the cultivation that the mats are getting wetter. Now we water them less and longer. Gresnight is expecting the problem to dry the mat. "There are going to be longer turns, longer breaks and we stop earlier." Gresnigt works together with Paskal weegsysteem and wet-use sensors as checks.

Plant pot
The Crazy Roots are still there. "It is still there but in smaller amounts. We don't see it so often anymore because it only stays in rock wool plant pots. The bacteria likes rock wool, but it doesn't grow through the growbags. The grower had to look for over 30 minutes to find it. "Another advantage is that we only have to administering ECA or hydrogen peroxide. "Just some ECA to disinfect the pipes."
The plants at Seasun will be on growbags next year.

Gresnight noticed a difference in taste. They seem to be a bit sweeter than usual. "The sour types are less sour. If that is tastier? I think so, but I like sweet."

Voor meer informatie:
Maaike Perneel
Peltracom n.v.
Skaldenstraat 7a
9042 Gent (BE)
Tel. 0032 09 218 03 30
Fax 0032 09 218 03 31
www.growbag.be