The global tomato market generates an average of $190 billion a year. Growth operations and greenhouse facilities are in fierce competition to get tomatoes to grow and ripen fast. They utilize various techniques and agricultural tools to get their fruit to market as soon as possible. Growers have a few factors that must be controlled to ensure healthy plant growth and maximize harvests. These factors are:
- Light
- Moisture
- Temperature
- Nutrition
Gaining Control Over the Growing Factors
One tool the tomato grower can use is reflective agriculture fabric. This fabric is used as a ground cover and helps control light, moisture, and temperature. It’s used to retain moisture, maintain soil temperatures, and prevent erosion. Because the fabric is reflective, light bounces up and outwards. This shrouds the plants and hanging fruit in ultraviolet light, speeds up growth, and evens the ripening process across all plants.
Using Red Light for Red Ripe Tomatoes
When light hits a colored reflective ground cover, the color’s reflected wavelength affects the tomato plants and their fruit. During the vegetative stage of growth, white reflective fabrics bounce back full-spectrum light and enhance photosynthesis for the plant’s overall growth.
Red ground covers reflect red wavelengths of light. This type of light promotes flowering. Flowering is governed mostly by the plant’s phosphorus uptake, one of the three main nutrients plants metabolize (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium- or simply, NPK). Red light stimulates a tomato plant to use more phosphorus, which creates more flowers and, in the end, more fruit.
Another effect of red light on tomato growing is the production of ethylene gas. Red light has been shown to promote more ethylene, which is a ripening hormone. The fruit on tomato plants emit this gas as their sugars concentrate and water swells the fruits’ cell walls. This is a reproductive security measure that hastens the ripening process across the entire plant, ensuring that all fruit ripens simultaneously. When tomatoes ripen evenly, the time to market is shortened, and profits are maximized.
For more product information and help choosing the right ground cover for your operation, contact us.
