Page 62 - Simply Veg Issue 3 2019

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The Benefit of Experience – Sweet
Thai Basil with AutoPot Watering
Systems
From hobby gardeners to commercial growers, every horticulturalist wants to see their hard work rewarded. But what happens when you can’t be there for your plants, the fruits of your labour?
For gardening enthusiasts, with busy lives, holidays are often key to maintaining sanity. For commercial producers, ensuring that plants can be left unattended - for long periods if necessary - is key to profitability and success. Growers of all stripes need to leave their plants in the hands of a watering system. When they do so they need to know that their hard work isn’t going to go to waste. AutoPot have spent years working with gardeners
and commercial producers alike, sharing experiences in order to develop productive, reliable and efficient irrigation solutions.
Recently we got privileged access to the U.K.’s biggest Sweet Thai Basil Nursery.
This two-acre glasshouse is yet to be widely publicised so AutoPot were delighted to get the inside line on the hush-hush basil. “Why such favour for AutoPot?”, you may well
cry. Well, we’re thrilled to announce that our easy2Propagate and easy2grow systems will be there taking care of, respectively, 72,000 seedlings and 8,400 plants at a time. The aim is to produce up to 1,000 kg of basil per
One of 240 AutoPot easy2Propagate units in action raising 72000 seedlings
week, with capacity to increase production should demand dictate.
For up to nine months of the year the nursery expect to be growing. Depending
on the weather in the early part of the year, they hope to start picking within 8-10 weeks from seed germination. Expert care from the team, together with the responsiveness of
the AutoPots means just one crop should be necessary per annum. As a rule the basil is going to be grown as a “cut-and-come-again” crop, although plants may be swapped in and out, as required, if they are tiring.
Leaf production and close inter-nodal spacing between the leaves are all important and dictate that the feeding regime includes a high concentrate of nitrogen. However,
the exact (tippy-top secret) balance of
NPK formula used to feed the plants is under constant review. That review
is all dependent on the water supply. Whether you’re growing
commercially or recreationally, checking your waters is an
absolute must. At home it can be as simple as investing in some easy-to-use, accurate, last-a- lifetime water monitoring kit to
give you a better understanding of where you’re going, or where
you might be going wrong. Growing in easy2Propagate
units and easy2grow modules marks a departure from the
rockwool-drip irrigation technique with which the nursery are accustomed.
They are keenly anticipating the cost benefits of growing power-free with AutoPot.
No water or fertiliser is ever wasted or recirculated with an AutoPot. Again this promises to reduce cost but also negates the risks and added complexities of
using water and fertiliser whose quality is diminished by recirculation.
Sweet Thai Basil gives its best to high humidity levels and temperatures of up
to 30 degrees Celsius. Therefore the greenhouse’s location has been an important consideration. Latitude makes a huge difference when it comes to cultivating plants that, traditionally, hail from warmer climes. Even in a comparatively small territory such as the U.K. the benefits of growing tender crops like basil in the south are clear. High light levels for a longer periods of time, combined with much warmer temperatures in southern areas, mean vast savings on lighting and heating. Hobby growers will obviously not be relocating in order to grow temperature sensitive crops. However, the cost of supplementary heating or lighting can be offset by the water efficiency and power free operation of AutoPot systems.
Early pictures from the nursery are already storming away on our social media feeds, stay up to date with further developments @ AutoPotSystems on Facebook and autopot_ global on Instagram.
Once matured the plants move to the 4200 AutoPot easy2grow modules that comprise the 8400 pot system
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