Tropical greenhouse strategies improve consistency under Thailand's challenging climate
Source: HD.com
According to Menno Keppel, CEO and Founder of Take Me Home Tomato, adapting propagation and greenhouse management practices has enabled the company to maintain production despite temperatures regularly exceeding 36°C before Thailand's rainy season. "The plants recover inside humidity tents where temperatures can exceed 40°C.
"The grafting itself is quite straightforward if you work clean, but keeping the plants alive during the first week is the difficult part." © Take Me Home Tomatoes LED lighting improves nursery consistency One of the biggest improvements came from introducing supplemental LED lighting in the greenhouse nursery. Plants stretched less during low-light periods, recovered faster after grafting, and we achieved around a 95% success rate." The company also adjusted its propagation protocol by delaying topping until plants are more established.
"We use the maximum available light during the morning and afternoon, but once greenhouse temperatures exceed 29°C we deploy the outside screens. Because the vents remain open, natural ventilation continues while greenhouse temperatures can be reduced by 5 to 9°C without active cooling." For nursery production, Menno recommends additional shading together with high humidity during graft healing.
Why this matters: For operators, this is a water-management story. The useful signal is that direct substrate measurements can help cut drain loss materially without giving up yield or fruit quality, which is exactly the kind of controllable efficiency gain a facility can build on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does substrate sensing matter in free-drain strawberry systems?
Because drain percentage tells a grower what already happened, while substrate moisture and EC data show root-zone conditions directly. That makes it easier to cut water loss without guessing.
What is the operator takeaway from this trial?
If the thresholds are understood well enough, growers can reduce drain water materially while protecting yield and fruit quality, which makes sensing an operational tool instead of a reporting tool.
