Tomato farmers are set to earn Sh4.95m per acre in 75 days with a new high yielding tomato variety from Simlaw Seeds Company, the producer and distributor of vegetable seeds for commercial and domestic use.
The new variety can produce five more metric tonnes per acre compared to money maker or Monica F1 variety and is tolerant to tomato leaf curl virus, bacterial wilt as well as nematodes.
Farmers can obtain the seeds from Simlaw seeds with 25g retailing at Sh5960, 10g at Sh2390 and five grams at Sh1220. One gram of the seeds can produce 250 to 300 seedlings in the nursery bed.
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Nyota F1 is a fresh market variety that can produce 45 metric tonnes per acre. With one kilogram of tomatoes retailing at an average of Sh110, a tomato farmer can thus earn reap huge profits within three months of transplanting.
“This variety was introduced into the market in September 2017, it is a vigorous plant with deep, red, oval shaped and uniformly set firm fruits preferable to farmers due to its long shelf life of up to two weeks,” said Charles Nyakiongora, an agronomist in charge of product promotion at Simlaw Seeds Company.
“Monica F1 for instance has an oval shaped but is usually harvested while still green due to short shelf life of five days owing to its rigidity, it cannot therefore be transported over long distances on crates as the fruits on the bottom will be crashed,”
The new tomato variety, Nyota F1 was introduced in September 2017 by Simlaw Seeds/PHOTO/COURTESY
The optimum Nyota F1 variety that a farmer can plant in one acre is 75g but the seeds are first transplanted in the nursery bed where they take about three weeks before being transplanted.
The recommended fertilizer application is 100kg of NPK 17:17:17 fertilizer per acre at planting time with a spacing of 60 by 75cm between plants and 75-90cm between rows. The crop is ideal to be planted both in the open field and in the greenhouse.
After two to three weeks of transplanting, the plants should be top dressed with two fertilizers, yara miller winner and nitrabor at the ratio of 2:1.
The plants need frequent watering at least thrice in a week and can be irrigated through drip, sprinkle or furrow irrigation.
Nyota F1 is a determinate bush type that generates suckers on the base of the plant.
Simlaw Seeds Company Ltd can be reached on +254 722 200545, +254 734 811 861
.