Muchui Tomatoes

Jan 27, 2007
Ken Mellish

The Muchui Business Center has grown since we have visited last year. The sixty women in this group have been our partners for ten years since we supplied them with water tanks to collect water from their house roofs. The business center was established to enhance the marketing of the trees started in the small tree nurseries at the members farms.

The green house was built last year to provide space to graft and develop the macadamia tree seedlings. When these were moved out to harden off before grafting there was room in the greenhouse. The staff at the center planted tomatoes in the space. We were very pleased to see the healthy plants in uniform rows with clusters of green fruit. These plants were only six week old and already had full sized fruit.

Why use a greenhouse a few miles from the equator ? The plastic cover keeps of the rain and heavy dew which allows blight to form. This reduces the need for fungicides. Also, the house increases the nighttime temperature which speeds up the growth.