Wholesum’s Amado expansion will bring Beefsteak tomatoes
Wholesum’s Amado expansion will bring Beefsteak tomatoes
AMADO, AZ — Six acres of Beefsteak tomato seedlings will be placed in the new Amado greenhouse expansion of Wholesum Family Farms Inc. The massive glass-house construction brings this Wholesum facility to a total of 18 acres.
Jose Covarrubias, operations manager of the Amado, AZ, greenhouse.On Aug. 26, Jose Covarrubias, operations manager of the Amado facility, walked The Produce News through the final stages of the new construction. Using only the newest technologies, this greenhouse produces organic hydroponic tomatoes. Some new construction improvements are based on experience with the adjacent 12-acre facility, which became operational in late 2013. Tomatoes-on-vine are grown in the existing building.
Covarrubias said the first Beefsteak harvest would come in the third week of October.
When it is up and running, the new facility will require an additional 25 employees, which will bring the total Amado greenhouse staff to almost 110.
Wholesum packs on site all of the tomatoes grown at this greenhouse. On Aug. 26, Covarrubias had received a brand-new, bright red grading machine for the new Beefsteak production.
In late August, harvest of tomatoes-on-vine approached an end on a planting that was 51 weeks old. These will be replaced by a new TOV planting in the third week of September.
Covarrubias said productivity declines as the vines age. A normal packout for the facility is 95-99 percent, but that was down to 80 percent at the end of the productive commercial life of the TOV plants.
Amado is 29 miles north on Interstate 19 from Wholesum’s Nogales headquarters.