Setting Komati Fruit Nurseries up for growing success
In 2020, Vegtech Netafim completed the design, engineering and installation of a new hi-tech sterile nursery for Komati Fruit Nurseries, a subsidiary of the Komati Fruit Group.
Komati Fruit Nurseries owns a fully accredited and certified nursery in Malalane, Mpumalanga, which produces quality citrus trees using certified seed and plant material provided by the Citrus Foundation Block.
The new greenhouse nursery, where these starter materials would be nurtured, needed to meet the following objectives:
1. Grow disease-free seedlings
Citrus trees are prone to several diseases, most notably Citrus Greening, which impacts the quality and quantity of fruits, leaving them unfit for market. For the new greenhouse nursery, we needed to include a carefully monitored and controlled environment to protect the seedlings from this and other diseases, ensuring their transition to healthy, robust trees.
2. Reduce seedling mortality rates
Greenhouse nurseries fulfill the vital task of not only protecting seedlings from disease, but from pests and harsh weather too. The new nursery had to be able to create optimal conditions for each stage of the plant growth cycle to reduce seedling mortality rates and maximise crop yield.
3. Decrease the turnaround time between seed and tree
Komati Fruit Nurseries depends on being able to deliver strong, healthy plants in the shortest possible seed-to-tree turnaround time. The new hi-tech nursery therefore needed to be equipped with precision fertigation and drip irrigation systems, providing consistently high levels of care, to help the young plants grow faster.
In 2018, with these key goals in mind, Vegtech Netafim set to work planning and designing a nursery – one that would secure growing success for Komati Fruit Nurseries and ensure that its long-term investment in high quality starter material would bear fruit. Considerable work went into pin-pointing the perfect location for the nursery and how best to integrate the cultivation areas with the rest of the facility to create the sterile environment needed.
With these decisions made, our team turned to the design of the nursery itself. We analysed the specific requirements of the crop and its starter material, assessed the various growth stages of the plants, and determined climate requirements at each stage. Using this data, we decided on the type of greenhouse, ventilation, heating, cooling, and irrigation systems. We then designed the bespoke polyhouse and irrigation system, fully integrated climate and irrigation control, were hands-on with agronomical planning and support, and provided after-sales technical support after the project’s execution.
Foundations for the new nursery were laid in 2019, and despite facing several challenges during the construction phase of the project – hard rock excavation, torrential downpours and Covid-19 construction delays among them – we completed it on time and to the highest standards in 2020.
Planning a greenhouse nursery project?
Vegtech Netafim has extensive experience in designing and constructing hi-tech greenhouse nurseries. If you’re planning a greenhouse nursery project and need a partner who will understand your needs – and deliver real results for your business – get in touch today.
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