From seed to
the sweetest tomato
Did you know that only 20-25% of all cherry vine tomatoes in our greenhouses are good enough for Looye’s Sweetest Selection? Only the very best trusses earn the Looye Honeytomatoes or Looye SunJoy tomatoes label and can be sold as Looye Sweetest Selection.
Before our Looye Honeytomatoes and Looye SunJoy tomatoes develop their deliciously sweet flavour, they have already been on an amazing journey. From seed to the sweetest tomato: discover how the superior Looye taste is created.
Starting from seed
Our tomatoes begin their life at Dutch specialist young plant nursery Beekenkamp Plants, where the seeds are given the perfect conditions to sprout and grow into strong young plants. When the plants are exactly 55 days old, they make the move to the Looye greenhouses.
The growing phase
Once they arrive, the young plants settle into the greenhouse, where they get just the right amount of water and nutrients via a drip system. The temperature in the greenhouse is around 21°C: perfect for a growing tomato plant.
Tomato plants are fully grown in about 11 months, and in that time they can grow to as much as 15 metres tall. Much too big for a greenhouse! So we tie a string around each plant’s stem and fasten it to overhead wires. As the tomato plants grow, they wind their way up the strings.
When the plants get too tall, we carefully lower the strings and shift the plants sideways so the parts that have already been harvested now lie horizontally. This way, the plants keep growing and we get the most out of the space in the greenhouse.
Pollinating the flowers
After a while, small yellow flowers appear on the tomato plants. The flowers are enormously attractive to the bumblebees in our greenhouses. Our greenhouses contain “bumblebee hotels”, each containing up to 500 bumblebees. These little pollinators have a vital role to play in ensuring the tomato flowers set fruit. Thanks to their work, the yellow flowers transform into ripe red or golden cherry vine tomatoes in around eight weeks.
Looye’s bumblebees
Care and dedication
For the eight weeks that the tomatoes are growing, we do everything we can to give Mother Nature a helping hand. That takes real care and dedication, because a tomato plant doesn’t just magically turn into an exceptionally tasty tomato.
Every day, we walk through our greenhouses to check on the plants. We remove some of the leaves to make sure the tomatoes get enough sunlight. We also take out all the side shoots, so that all the nutrients, energy (and flavour!) go straight to the tomatoes themselves. We leave the prunings on the ground under the plants. This creates as natural an environment as possible for the plants.
Harvesting with a gentle touch
We keep a close eye on our tomatoes every day. Our harvesters pass along the rows of tomato plants with a gentle touch and a keen eye. When the tomatoes have the perfect shape and colour, they are ready to be picked. This is done with the utmost care to avoid damaging the tomatoes. Then the harvested trusses make the short journey to the packaging facility.
