I’ve been in greenhouses all my life. I live in Noord-Holland and helped my father by pinching out the tomatoes in the greenhouses. I already knew then that I would become a market gardener later. I found it great to see small cuttings grow into large plants and finally pluck beautiful, red tomatoes. I am Karel (Carl) van de Pas, a grower from the very beginning. After studying at the HAS in Den Bosch I took over the greenhouses from my father. That is how I was able to combine my father’s knowledge with what I had learned while studying.You can well imagine that things have changed now. The introduction of rockwool in those days made growing a lot more professional since it doesn’t leave anything to chance. I have everything under control and that gives me a lot of satisfaction. For the last two years, I have been growing both personal and commercial crops.
From the dunes
Where I live in Noord-Holland, the water comes from the dunes and has an EC of 1.1 which is quite high. After discussing this with CANNA I could choose to either mix the water half/half with osmotic water, or to push the EC up to 2.7 and give a lot more feeding (but less often). Doing this rinses the salts out of the rock wool more easily. It’s important that the EC rise too much in the slabs.
Cuttings
I always make my cuttings from the same amazing mother plant. Because of this I know that they are good quality cuttings that will grow into fine plants. Of course, it is very important that the cuttings come from a strong mother plant. During the first week I make sure that the plants receive a lot of light. They really need 18 hours a day at this time to become strong.