HORTOCLIPS tutoring rings together with HORTOMALLAS support netting provide the complete tutoring solution for vegetable crops.
The tutoring rings can be used together with support netting and clips to tutor plants.
The importance of having a good tutoring system for vegetable crops based around HORTOMALLAS support netting and HORTOCLIPS tutoring rings is clear: an upright plant separated from soil moisture grows free from the amount of plant pathogens that affect untutored crops or those that are in direct contact with the soil. Training tomatoes using raffia or netting is becoming more common. Horticultural support netting offers some advantages when compared with using raffia or sisal twine, as it only requires two workers to stretch out the netting along the furrows and they can cover one hectare in a day, compared with the six workers normally required to cover such an area.
Whether a vegetable training net or raffia is being used as a support system for crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers, chilies and bell peppers or even melons or eggplants (aubergine) some farmers like to use tutoring rings to fasten the plant’s new branching stems onto the support system, instead of weaving them between the strands of the netting.
Tutoring rings (also known as tomato clips) streamline the work of guiding plants. Being made from very hard-wearing sun resistant polymers, they are re-usable and not affected by the use of agro-chemicals. The tutoring rings can be easily opened and closed with one hand also when used for SCROG or SOG plant training techniques. The plant and the thread or netting are fastened together inside the tutoring ring and in this way the plant is held in place together with the weight of its fruits and vegetation. One the crop cycle has come to an end, the rings are removed by simply squeezing their clasps, allowing you to arrange the plants as desired and to remove and store the netting, or throw away the raffia thread. The rings should be thoroughly disinfected before being used again to prevent pathogens that might have come into contact with them from contaminating the next crop cycle. Tutoring rings can be used both in open fields and in greenhouses or shade houses. In greenhouses they can be used with clips for raffia, suspended from the crosspieces of the structure, which is a commonly used method with a wide variety of crops.