Jose Maria Martin Tenorio He is a veteran farmer from San Bartolomé de la Torre (Huelva) who manages some 12 hectares of strawberries. For about ten years it has been using the company's patented hydroponic system New Growing System (NGS) on a plot of just over one hectare located in the area known as 'Dehesa Boyar'.  agrodiariohuelva.es He has traveled to the farm to know the results of this cultivation method.

Martín Tenorio, who resorted to hydroponics to be able to use his own land that had been greatly altered by the works of the San Bartolomé variant (A-495), does not hesitate to describe as positive his long association with this different form. and innovative to produce strawberries in the province of Huelva.

Although he admits that the initial investment (about 16.000 euros) was somewhat high, he acknowledges that in the end it has compensated him and has even “amortized more”, especially because “after buying all the materials necessary to start the production process, only He had to spend an additional 3.000 euros, about three years ago, to renew some bands that had deteriorated. For the rest, the metal structures installed under the macrotunnels (six lines in each one of them), the coconut fiber that serves as a substrate and that is found inside the polyethylene bags, and the closed irrigation circuit that gives water coverage to the plantation are the same that we used from the first campaign ”.

The average production obtained each season with this system is between 55.000 and 57.000 kilos of strawberries.

Another important characteristic that José María Martín wants to highlight is that the hydroponic strawberry "has higher quality and organoleptic properties than the one produced in the soil". The reason, he adds, "is that the farmer can control the development of both plants and fruits throughout the season through the closed irrigation circuit. If they require more nutrients they are added and if they have excess of something, they are taken away. In the field, the fertilizers that we use remain in the soil and the plants continue to eat it even if they no longer need it ”. In addition, it ensures that the strawberries that are collected in this alternative system always have a certain uniformity in terms of size and texture.

José María Martín assures that the initial investment made in the NGS system It is more than amortized, not only because production costs are reduced by reducing the consumption of water, fertilizers and phytosanitary products, but also because this hydroponic system allows the farmer to plan the next campaign with a certain "comfort" . “When the strawberry season is over, we close the plot and don't return to it until the end of September or the beginning of October. So, with a thick glove we remove the dry plants and without having to extract the roots, we place the new bushes for the next season. On earth there is no rest for the farmer. As soon as the campaign is over, the preparations for the next one begin ”.

Appearance of plants and strawberries in mid-May, a few days before the end of the campaign.

Regarding the strawberry varieties that he has used in the plantation, he comments that “we have not had a continuity with any of them. Each campaign we dedicate some lines to test the new ones that are coming to the market and we study the results. The ones that are most interesting for this system, due to the experience acquired, are those that generate long peduncles because they make harvesting tasks much easier ”.

The farm where the NGS hydroponic system is used is located in the Dehesa Boyar, in San Bartolomé de la Torre.

Finally, José María Martín, who is a partner of Strawberry de San Bartolomé de la Torre, a cooperative that markets strawberry production through the Valencian group San Lucar, specifies that "it is still early" to know what the average price will be for each kilo of strawberry that has been collected and that has Poland as its main destination, but is convinced that "it will approach more than 0,80 cents and it will not exceed the euro ”.