TOMATOES IN WINTER

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27395, 7 July 1954, Page 6

TOMATOES IN WINTER

THERMAL HEAT USED BY GROWER “The Press" Special Service

ROTORUA, July 6. Rotorua’s thermal activity has been harnessed to produce out-of-season vegetables. Behind the Rotorua aerodrome a glasshouse was built early in the year, a 400 ft artesian bore was sunk, and a double row of pipes was led around the interior of the house. Now there is a crop of 800 tomato plants eight feet high. Day and night the bbre maintains a temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit. The absence of humidity makes this ideal for the plants, so much so that if the tops were not cut they would protrude through the roof ventilators.

Mr T. N. Ussher, who left his carpentering trade in Tauranga to come to Rotorua, says this is only a trial run. He plans four glasshouses, each with an average of 1600 plants. Mr Ussher believes that the potential for out-of-season crops is tremendous. He held up a box of tomato seedlings—sown 10 days before. They were two inches high.

The initial expense is high—bore reticulation alone cost £Boo—but Mr Ussher did not leave Tauranga without due thought. He read about midwinter vegetable production in Iceland, and then studied sunshine records over the previous five years He found Rotorua fifth on the list in New Zealand.