“Topped tomato plants carry the risk of stem splitting. Tomatoes on the vine – which we growth – are the worst variety for that, because of the variability of the height of the pinch point. Some vines are very short and others are over 4 inches. Splitting of the pinch point can lead to grow reduction, since it increases the risk of infection with Botrytis. To prevent stem splitting, we tried a couple of things, but they did not work.”
“When Bas from Royal Brinkman visited us, he saw our struggle with this problem. Subsequently, he came with the idea of using the Twinhook. The Twinhook is a twinclip that provides the node with the exact support it needs to prevent damage. We decided to give it a try on a couple of rows to see what would happen. The results were surprising. At first, we thought it had potential to cause a wound where botrytis could get in, but we did not have issues with that. Actually, we did not see any negative effects at all when using the Twinhook. It is a very safe and effective solution. That is when we decided to use it on 16 acres of tomatoes on the vine early in 2016 with great results!”