Increase Tomato Profits
November 4, 2010 
Variety choice plays a big role in the success of a tomato greenhouse business. The question that needs to be answered, however, is: How do growers determine the best greenhouse tomato varieties to grow?
According to Hanna Y. Hanna, a professor at the Red River Research Station, Louisiana State University’s AgCenter, growers first need to determine the yield they need to be profitable. For example, he says about 700 tomato plants can be grown in a 30-by-96 foot greenhouse, and they should produce about 25,000 to 28,000 pounds of tomatoes per year. To hit this goal, growers must choose varieties that are not only high yielding but also disease resistant, boast good color and flavor, and have a long shelflife.
Variety Recommendations
To help growers determine the best greenhouse tomato varieties to produce, Hanna tested about 20 over the last several years at the Red River Research Station in Bossier City. From his research, he came away with several varieties from Monsanto to recommend for the southern U.S. environment.
“We recommend the tomato variety Geronimo because it produced the greatest yield in our trials for many years,” he explains. Specifically, Hanna says Geronimo produced 10 to 12 pounds of fruit per plant in the fall and 28 to 30 pounds of fruit in the spring.
Starbuck also is on Hanna’s recommendation list because it did well in the university’s grafting operations, but he adds that it dropped green fruit in early spring.
Another variety he mentions is Torero. This tomato has fared well in in some trials, but Hanna says it needs further testing.
“We also recommend Quest because the fruit boasts a shiny color, has a longer shelflife than Geronimo, and it has good consumer appeal,” says Hanna. Despite its consumer appeal, however, he adds that Quest does not hit the same yield marks as Geronimo in trials, and it produced a significant percentage of cracked fruit under heat stress, which is temperatures above 90°F.
These varieties may be successful greenhouse producers in other growing regions at different times of the year, as well. Hanna says production success depends on air and water temperature, day length, humidity, water quality, and feed-ing techniques.
Growing Material And Pruning
In addition to making the right variety choice, it also is important to choose the best growing material because it contributes to the cost of production. After testing various types of growing materials, Hanna recommends perlite because it can be recycled for many years.
“We grew our tomatoes in recycled perlite for 14 years without one failure,” he says. “The perlite I am using now was purchased in 1996. The most important function of recycling perlite is treating the media with near boiling water to kill disease and insects in the root media. Hot water also desalinates the perlite before planting a new crop.”
Proper tomato pruning also plays a role in achieving high yields. In every study Hanna conducted, he found that pruning fruit to three per cluster was optimum.
“Three fruit per cluster increased plant yield, fruit weight, and reduced culls,” he concludes.
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