What separates the commercial tomato types?

Fruit size and how the fruit is sold. Truss is harvested on the vine as a cluster, cherry and cocktail are smaller-fruited market classes, and beef is the large slicing fruit. Plant load, harvest rhythm and handling differ between them.

Is one greenhouse design right for every tomato type?

The climate envelope is shared by all tomato types, but the greenhouse is specified for the type being grown. Internal transport, packing capacity and crop support differ enough between the types that the choice belongs in the brief before the greenhouse is designed.

Crops · Fruiting vegetable

Tomato.

Q: Why is tomato called the reference crop of the modern glasshouse?

Most of what a modern greenhouse does was worked out on tomato. Year-round supply, high-wire cultivation, carbon dioxide dosing, screening strategy and recirculating irrigation all matured on tomato before they moved to other crops.

The crop the modern glasshouse was built around.

Grow tomatoes under glass The varieties

Plan repeated harvests

A growing crop.
A continuing harvest.

In a long-cycle tomato crop, the plant keeps flowering and setting fruit while ripe fruit is picked. The planting date and first harvest are only the beginning of the supply plan.

Plants arrive ready for the plan.

Propagation, grafting where appropriate, transplant stage and establishment connect the nursery to the greenhouse.

Develop roots and canopy.

Stem training, flowering, pollination and fruit set prepare the crop for its first picking period.

New growth. New fruit. Repeated picking.

Harvest overlaps with pruning, lowering, leaf work, irrigation and scouting. The work continues throughout production.

Plan the last trusses and the next crop.

The final harvest, crop removal, cleaning and turnaround occupy time in the production calendar.

The location sets the conditions

Climate belongs
in the crop plan.

Light drives the production opportunity. Temperature, humidity and water conditions influence growth, pollination, fruit set and quality. A greenhouse design must connect them to the intended harvest season.

Low-light periods

Balance crop load and stem strategy with available light. Heating, screens and any supplemental lighting need a joined-up assessment of the crop calendar and energy supply.

Hot, dry conditions

Review cooling, ventilation, shading and water quality together. The ability to manage heat and water demand affects the feasible growing season.

Warm, humid conditions

Removing heat and moisture can be as important as adding them elsewhere. Air exchange, condensation control, disease pressure and pollination all belong in the design.

Technology follows cultivation

Roots, support
and a working aisle.

The root environment, crop-support system and irrigation each have a job. They must work together with plant spacing, access and the expected growing period.

Soil or substrate: start at the roots

Soil cultivation needs a soil, drainage and crop-health plan. Substrate cultivation separates the rooting medium from the soil and typically supplies water and nutrients through drippers. The choice changes irrigation, drainage and hygiene requirements.

High-wire support: plan for the whole crop

Long-cycle indeterminate tomatoes are trained and supported as stems extend. Wire height, crop loads, lowering and leaning, and access for crop work must be resolved with the structure. A high-wire arrangement is a support method, not a separate irrigation system.

Water and nutrients: follow crop demand

Irrigation delivery, nutrient dosing and drainage are coordinated with the rooting medium and crop demand. Recycling requires water-quality management and treatment suited to the installation.

Pollination and crop health: protect the harvest

Flowering does not guarantee marketable fruit. Pollination conditions, scouting, hygiene and an integrated pest-management programme belong in the growing routine and greenhouse design.

Organise the work

A harvest needs
a team behind it.

Tomato production combines recurring crop work with picking and packing. The labour plan should follow the crop’s workload through the season.

Crop care

Training, pruning, lowering, leaf removal and crop observation require access and an organised work routine. Stems are a useful planning unit for this part of the work.

Picking & packing

Fruit class, loose or truss harvest, ripeness and pack format change the handling steps. Saleable volume and measured work rates turn a harvest forecast into a staffing plan.

Automation with a purpose

Irrigation and climate control, internal transport, grading and packing address different tasks. Assess each against the crop, building layout and available operating team.

A higher stem count does not by itself predict more saleable fruit, fewer labour hours or a better return. The crop, climate and work plan have to agree.

Grown close, picked ripe

Tomato is mostly water, and the rest is the reason it is eaten. Vitamin C, potassium and the carotenoid that gives ripe fruit its colour all sit in that small remainder, and all of them are strongest in fruit that ripened on the plant rather than in a crate.

That is where distance starts to matter. Fruit with a long journey ahead is picked before it is ready, because a ripe tomato does not travel. It finishes colouring in transit and arrives looking finished, but the sugars and the acids that were still being laid down when it was cut never arrive at all. The cultivar on the label is the same. The product is not.

Growing near the market removes the compromise. A greenhouse close to the people who eat the crop can pick at ripeness and deliver the same week, and it can do that in February as readily as in July, which is the part a field cannot promise. The shorter the distance between the plant and the plate, the less of the crop is spent getting there.

Nutrition facts

Tomato, red, ripe, raw — year round average

Per 100 g

Energy: 18 kcal
Fat: 0.2 g
Carbohydrate: 3.89 g
Sugars: 2.63 g
Fiber: 1.2 g
Protein: 0.88 g
Sodium: 5 mg
Potassium: 237 mg
Vitamin C: 13.7 mg

Source: USDA FoodData Central, FDC 170457

Which tomato?
The commercial classes.

The greenhouse benchmark crop. The class you sell decides the plant load, the harvest rhythm and the greenhouse.

Beef Tomatoes

Beef tomato is the large-fruited slicing class, sold as single fruit rather than as a cluster.

Cherry Tomatoes

Cherry tomato is a separate market class from truss, priced on flavour and appearance rather than weight.

Cocktail Tomatoes

What are cocktail tomatoes?

TOV / Truss Tomatoes

Truss tomato is harvested as a whole cluster with the vine attached, and graded on evenness across the truss.

Tomato is the reference crop of Dutch protected horticulture, and most of what a modern greenhouse does was worked out on it. Year-round supply, high-wire cultivation, carbon dioxide dosing, screening strategy and recirculating irrigation all matured on tomato before they moved to other crops. A buyer entering tomato is entering the most documented crop in the sector, which means the design questions are well understood and the competition is experienced.

What the crop needs

The plant is a long-cycle, indeterminate fruiting vegetable grown on substrate and carried on a high wire. It is planted once and harvested for most of the year, so the greenhouse is not sized for a peak week but for a continuous rhythm of setting, ripening and picking. Because the crop is in place for so long, the structure and the climate system carry the whole season rather than a short window, and a shortcoming in either compounds across every truss the plant sets.

What separates the varieties

What splits the commercial types is fruit size and how the fruit is sold. Truss tomato is harvested on the vine as a cluster and is the Dutch export standard. Cherry and cocktail are smaller-fruited market classes with their own plant load, harvest labour and quality expectations. Beef is a large-fruited class with a different truss structure entirely. The climate recipe is shared across the whole crop, but plant load, harvest interval and handling differ enough that the greenhouse is specified for the type rather than for tomato in general.

DutchGreenhouses® specifies the structure, climate control, screening and irrigation together around the tomato type, its market and the local climate, so the envelope suits the fruit being sold rather than tomato in general. Get in touch to plan a tomato greenhouse for your market.

The greenhouse behind tomatoes