Just like the rest of the sector, professional greenhouse horticulture is in constant turmoil and oriented towards innovation. MG Vivai in Fondi (LT) makes no exception. The nursery, which is run by the Marrazzo family, was set up in 1992 and has always worked hard to produce high-quality seedlings, i.e. such as to meet the demands of a modern and demanding sector.
Robotised grafting
The area dedicated to nursery activities covers over 11 thousand square meters, entirely covered and computerised, in order to control the management of climatic parameters and fertigation. A few years ago, the company welcomed the son Giosuè into the production department, who improved the production processes by implementing the grafted plants section.
Processing
After all, it was no longer possible to continue without them, given the regulations limiting the use of disinfectant molecules. Added to this are the difficulties of the sector caused by climate change and the development of new pathogens, which also make the use of grafted plants increasingly necessary. With this in mind, MG Vivai has been experimenting with innovative grafting techniques since 2022 to obtain seedlings with high performance and quality standards.
"We were among the first in the area to use a fully robotised grafting technique," says Giosuè Marrazzo. "The system effectively eliminates manual grafting operations, which have always been considered a possible vehicle for the spreading of pathogens."
"The robotised process inserts rootstock seedlings on one side and graft seedlings on the other. The cutting and fastening operations take place mechanically inside the robot, in an environment sterilised with ozone so as to eliminate the risk of infection. Cutting and fastening are precise, in the order of a few microns, thereby improving graft/rootstock fastening with remarkable performance benefits for the grower. The system can also be managed remotely and adapts to variable climatic parameters. All the rooms - the one used for grafting and the one used for acclimatisation - are fully sterilised."
"Such a process makes the use of high-quality raw materials a must," explains Marrazzo, "starting with peats, cells and fertilisers, right through to defence products. In this regard, during the running-in and fine-tuning phases of the robotised process, we used the Ficus F1 rootstock both because it is one of those recently introduced in the Fondi area with a complete resistance package, and because of its qualities in terms of plant emergence and uniformity, conditions, which make grafting much easier in the nursery and allow a higher percentage of useful plants to be obtained, thus offering our customers greater quality and uniformity of seedlings. This was not a random choice, because the Ficus tomato rootstock (Sakata hybridised and marketed by Esasem spa) is the most popular solution among farmers in our area."
"In fact, elements such as the combination of vigour and resistance package, including that to the three strains of Fusarium, play in its favour. This rootstock variety is used today on cultivars such as the smooth round bunch tomato, oblong tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, and plum tomatoes for both the long and short summer cycle.
For more information:
MG VIVAI
Via Guado II
04022 Fondi(LT)
+39 0776 761522
info@mgvivai.it