At Seasun BV in Kapelle this season, Stayer RZ is being grown for the second year. We spoke with Jan Gresnigt on 19 January.

General information

What made you choose Stayer?
Last year we grew 4 ha of this variety and we were very pleased with it. In 2009 we grew a trial and the peppers remained slightly smaller in the summer but last year that was much better, and the production was, therefore, very satisfactory.

How were the first few weeks?
We started with excellent plants - the batch was nice and uniform. The idea was to have the first peppers come on a little lower. Last year they came in the fourth and sometimes the third axil. This year we wanted to have all the first peppers in the third axil by means of a slightly higher speed. But, unfortunately, that was not to be due to the dark weather. Because of the difficult fruit set it will, in the end, be the fourth or even the fifth axil. Other than that, the plants are looking good. As was the case last year, there is little crop work to do thanks to the limited sideshoots.

What are the set points at the moment?
The pre-midnight set point is 16°C and in the afternoon we have a brief peak of 23°C. When the weather starts to improve we will take the night a little higher again, in order to prevent large flowers forming. For the rest we are doing things much the same as last year, really. Below the plastic we have the water-EC at 3.5 and the screen has not been closed much the last few nights. Last year we left the plastic in place until mid-February; this year it will depend on what kind of weather we are still going to get.