IN MIDWINTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 136, 11 June 1938, Page 13

IN MIDWINTER.

TOMATOES FLOURISH.

AN EXPANDING INDUSTRY.

CROPS IN AUCKLAND

While Auckland shivers in mid-winter tomatoes flourish in the genial temperature of suburban glasshouses, from which the city annually draws mamtons of choice fruit. Though still a young industry, tomato growing under {.lass has assumed considerable import a nee. At least ISO growers are engaged in the production of tomatoes out of leason t.i the local market, and the number -nn g n# ♦I""* ?u cstimat «l at nearly •>OO. Of these, the majority are of the ordinary unheated type, but there are sufficient equipped for production in the winter and early spring to support a .aim that tomato growing in Auckland is now all the year round. To learn how the fruit is grown and ripened in the winter one must visit the houses where the plants are now approaching the production sta»t? Healthy, green growth and flowers forming under conditions as pleasant as those of a tropical isle give promise of tomatoes for Auckland tables in late July or August. But ask the owner to estimate his crop, and he will not be tempted. Science, he tells you, has not yet found a substitute for sunlight, and without warm, sunny days the fruit will not appear. "We can supply that heat, but Nature controls the sunlight," he said, as he walked around his plants this morning and talked of the difficulties of raising tomatoes in an Auckland winter. He remarked that the plants needed plenty of sunlight for firm growth, that they had a deeper green after a spell of sunny days, and that magv of the flowers failed to set. Tomatoes All the Year Round. If conditions were moderately favourable, he continued, fruit should be forming in bunches during ths next few weeks. The later crops, from the unheated houses, would be forming in September and should begin to ripen from late October and on till after Christmas. Then the outdoor growers would take possession of the market for several months, but towards the end of tho autumn the glasshouse tomatoes would again come in. There was hardly a mouth in the year when Auckland was not supplied with tomatoes locally grown.

A merchant was next approached wit , - an inquiry as to the average annual crop. "Some thousands of tone, at least," was his reply, after a moment's thought. "Yes, tomatoes make up a huge quantity taking the whole year's production. The factories alone buy perhaps a couple of thousand tons or more for sauce and other requirements. ,.

Further inquiries revealed that one Auckland grower, who had over a dozen glasshouses in production, marketed several tons a week at the peak of the season, and planted aboujt 30,000 tomato plants each year. The largest individual glasshouses were capable of holding up to 2500 plants, and there were numerous jiTowers producing from as many as 10,000 to ISjOOO plants. \ During the past 18 years," it was stated* there had been,- an enormous increase. The area under glass had been multiplied ten times, in as many years, and although the rate of progress had been diminished by >the depression a further steady expansion was recorded annually.

Costs and Efficiency. An average yield around Auckland, said a grower of long experience, was about 2Alb a plant. On busy mornings in November and December/ 700 or 800 cases were sold at the Auckland markets, and after Christmas the turnover went still higher. The supply and. demand had been rising annually. Like other industries, he said, tomato production had to contend with the pr. blem of rising costs. During the early spring there was often difficulty due to competition from the islands, and jthat, he declared, was the greatest menace to the local grower. No objection could be taken to the importation of island tomatoes in the winter, when the market was short of supplies, but if considerable shipments were brought in after mid-October the market wae immediately depressed, causing a loss to local industry. This competition was unfair because the economic conditions in Auckland were entirely different from thoce in the islands, where not only was labour plentiful and low-paid, but the tomatoes could be grown in the open, which further reduced the expenses of production. Local growers considered they were entitled to the market in the two and a half months from the middle of October until after Christmas, and it was only by obtaining remunerative prices in those months that they could recoup their heavy outlay on glasshouses and labour. "We need an average return of 9d a lb, which means a price of lOu in the markets." Jie stated. "Dining the five years of the depression and early recovery period the average Mas below Hd. In the last two years there has Wii an approach towards 9d, but against this wages have increased from £3 a week to £4 3/, and all other costs have advanced. Still, costs are not yet above the level of 10 years ago." He concluded by aaying that it was ID years since the grower's return from glasshouse tomatoes had averaged 1/ a lb. The industry was to-day more efficient:, as well as more extensive, than at that time, and he considered the best Auckland methods equal to those of English growers, including producers in the Channel Islands-.