March 2013 | www.FloraCultureInternational.com 13 12 www.FloraCultureInternational.com | March 2013

Greenhouse facility at Algen Tarim.

High quality plants successfully grown in Ellepots.

AutomationAlgen Tarim

is a specialty propagator of fruit

tree rootstocks. The state-of-the-art tissue culture

and greenhouse facility in Silivri near

Istanbul enable the company to produce

large volumes of high quality plants

which are being successfully grown

in Ellepots. The results have been

extraordinary.

by John Sutton

with a view to improvements and providing wider diversity. Testing for infection by viruses and other diseases is routinely carried out, and stock that is infected but still required is cleaned by heat therapy. Mother plants, originating from rigorously selected material, are grown in screenhouses where insect virus vectors cannot enter.Tissue culture of explant material from mother plant shoot tips is carried out in the fully controlled sterile environment of growth cabinets. The plantlets that eventu-ally result are acclimatized during the weaning process, when they are grown on to a suitable size and condition for potting. The final production phase for the company is the growing on of the young rootstock plants in greenhouse conditions for spring (April/May) delivery to the company’s custom-ers, specialist nurseries in Turkey. There they will be planted out in the open, and budded in August. Algen Tarim is also able to supply budwood if required.

Ellepot systemWhen production first began, the hardened-off plants were grown in

a peat:perlite mix in cell trays. The results were not entirely satisfactory, and Yusuf Ustun and his colleagues decided to move over to the Ellepot system.Their choice of machine from the range produced by the Danish company Ellegaard was the H111 model. This is capable of producing Ellepots up to 50mm in diameter, which is the size they wanted for their rootstock plants. All Ellegaard machines are customized, but Algen Tarim has made a start on producing other plant types, and the machine is versatile. Its range of optional Ellepot diameters goes down to 15mm.Using the same growing medium as before, they found that root development was swifter. Because of the properties of the paper sleev-ing used in the Ellepot system, the root environment is better aerated than is possible using conventional cell trays, and root development is accordingly more rapid.

Ellepot paperEllegaard offers a choice of over ten types of paper, all of them decom-posable and ecofriendly, to meet the different needs of their customers. Algen Tarim has chosen a paper which decomposes between eight and twelve months after potting

and allows easy root penetration.Even with the high standards of culture, a small proportion of the young plants fail to establish in the greenhouses after potting. Ellepots containing failed plants can easily be pulled out, whereas the same work for plants grown in cell trays is often a more time-consuming process.

Reducing logistics costsAlgen Tarim’s system is to grow 45 plants per tray. In the earlier days of rootstock production, the plants were dispatched to customers in the trays in which they had been grown, just as they had been in the greenhouse. Now, the Ellepot-grown plants are removed from their trays, a job that is quickly and easily done, and laid horizontally in delivery boxes. In a box of the same length and width as the growing tray, 175 plants placed in layers occupies the same volume in the delivery vehicle as an old-style tray of just 45 plants. Transport and box costs are of course greatly reduced.There is a further benefit, especially important in a country where the surfaces of minor roads are often poor. At the end of the plants’ journey in cell trays it was not un-common to find plants shaken out of position. Some were damaged,

and others affected needed special aftercare. Ellepot-grown plants, in full and well-packed boxes, suffer very little in transit.

Further efficienciesThere may well be scope for further efficiencies. Brian Damkjaer Schmidt of Ellegaard said that this season there will be trials of smaller Ellepot plugs – 35mm and 20mm, with paper sleeving of shorter dura-bility. ‘In collaboration with Algen Tarim’s customers, we will try to optimize production and bring costs down.’Automation and mass production are among Yusuf Ustun’s fields of expertise. Handling the output of his company’s micro-propagated plant material presents him with interesting challenges. Continued success should also bring big op-portunities. Modern technology at Algen Tarim is already making a potentially huge contribution to more efficient production of fruit and other plants, in many lands. |||

was also started last year. Currently, though, fruit rootstock multiplica-tion is the lead activity. Peaches, nectarines, pears, cherries and plums are the fruit types concerned. Most of the trees that ultimately result are destined for planting in Turkey, but there is also export to some of the CIS countries.

The world’s largest producer of cherriesThe domestic market for the fruit trees produced on Algen Tarim rootstocks is very large. Turkey is the world’s largest producer of cherries, and is also an exporter of pears, peaches and nectarines. The country’s economy has seen trans-formation in the last fifty years, and now has the fifteenth largest Gross Domestic Product in the world. Home demand for commercially produced fruit has burgeoned, as the size of the country’s urban middle class has grown by leaps and bounds. In terms of population, Turkey is a match for Germany, with both countries at around 80 million inhabitants.At present, Algen Tarim propa-gates existing rootstock varieties, but breeding work is in hand

Fruit tree rootstock propaga-tion began at the Turkish biotechnology company

Algen Tarim in 2009. By 2012 annual production was approaching 6 million a year, and further expan-sion is planned. Algen Tarim’s rootstocks are produced from tissue culture, a far cry from traditional field methods of growing.

A formidable teamPartner and managing director Yusuf Ustun is backed by a formi-dable team. Altogether his staff is now 95-strong, and includes two Ph.D.s, four holders of master’s degrees, and five other biotechnol-ogy graduates. Yusuf himself is an engineering graduate who began to work in the agricultural field in 1995. He modestly claims for himself ‘fairly good expertise’ in automation and mass production systems.The company’s staff has at their disposal full state-of-the-art facili-ties located in Silivri, near Istanbul. Algen Tarim is active in genetic marker-assisted breeding and other biotechnological work. Propagating of ornamentals and some herba-ceous flowers and medicinal plants

Ellepot system is being successfully used at Algen Tarim

Ellegaard’s H111 model is capable of producing Ellepots up to 50mm in diameter, which is the size Algen Tarim wanted for their rootstock plants.

Tissue culture of explant material from mother plant shoot tips is carried out in the fully controlled sterile environment of growth cabinets.

March 2013 | www.FloraCultureInternational.com 13 12 www.FloraCultureInternational.com | March 2013

Greenhouse facility at Algen Tarim.

High quality plants successfully grown in Ellepots.

AutomationAlgen Tarim

is a specialty propagator of fruit

tree rootstocks. The state-of-the-art tissue culture

and greenhouse facility in Silivri near

Istanbul enable the company to produce

large volumes of high quality plants

which are being successfully grown

in Ellepots. The results have been

extraordinary.

by John Sutton

with a view to improvements and providing wider diversity. Testing for infection by viruses and other diseases is routinely carried out, and stock that is infected but still required is cleaned by heat therapy. Mother plants, originating from rigorously selected material, are grown in screenhouses where insect virus vectors cannot enter.Tissue culture of explant material from mother plant shoot tips is carried out in the fully controlled sterile environment of growth cabinets. The plantlets that eventu-ally result are acclimatized during the weaning process, when they are grown on to a suitable size and condition for potting. The final production phase for the company is the growing on of the young rootstock plants in greenhouse conditions for spring (April/May) delivery to the company’s custom-ers, specialist nurseries in Turkey. There they will be planted out in the open, and budded in August. Algen Tarim is also able to supply budwood if required.

Ellepot systemWhen production first began, the hardened-off plants were grown in

a peat:perlite mix in cell trays. The results were not entirely satisfactory, and Yusuf Ustun and his colleagues decided to move over to the Ellepot system.Their choice of machine from the range produced by the Danish company Ellegaard was the H111 model. This is capable of producing Ellepots up to 50mm in diameter, which is the size they wanted for their rootstock plants. All Ellegaard machines are customized, but Algen Tarim has made a start on producing other plant types, and the machine is versatile. Its range of optional Ellepot diameters goes down to 15mm.Using the same growing medium as before, they found that root development was swifter. Because of the properties of the paper sleev-ing used in the Ellepot system, the root environment is better aerated than is possible using conventional cell trays, and root development is accordingly more rapid.

Ellepot paperEllegaard offers a choice of over ten types of paper, all of them decom-posable and ecofriendly, to meet the different needs of their customers. Algen Tarim has chosen a paper which decomposes between eight and twelve months after potting

and allows easy root penetration.Even with the high standards of culture, a small proportion of the young plants fail to establish in the greenhouses after potting. Ellepots containing failed plants can easily be pulled out, whereas the same work for plants grown in cell trays is often a more time-consuming process.

Reducing logistics costsAlgen Tarim’s system is to grow 45 plants per tray. In the earlier days of rootstock production, the plants were dispatched to customers in the trays in which they had been grown, just as they had been in the greenhouse. Now, the Ellepot-grown plants are removed from their trays, a job that is quickly and easily done, and laid horizontally in delivery boxes. In a box of the same length and width as the growing tray, 175 plants placed in layers occupies the same volume in the delivery vehicle as an old-style tray of just 45 plants. Transport and box costs are of course greatly reduced.There is a further benefit, especially important in a country where the surfaces of minor roads are often poor. At the end of the plants’ journey in cell trays it was not un-common to find plants shaken out of position. Some were damaged,

and others affected needed special aftercare. Ellepot-grown plants, in full and well-packed boxes, suffer very little in transit.

Further efficienciesThere may well be scope for further efficiencies. Brian Damkjaer Schmidt of Ellegaard said that this season there will be trials of smaller Ellepot plugs – 35mm and 20mm, with paper sleeving of shorter dura-bility. ‘In collaboration with Algen Tarim’s customers, we will try to optimize production and bring costs down.’Automation and mass production are among Yusuf Ustun’s fields of expertise. Handling the output of his company’s micro-propagated plant material presents him with interesting challenges. Continued success should also bring big op-portunities. Modern technology at Algen Tarim is already making a potentially huge contribution to more efficient production of fruit and other plants, in many lands. |||

was also started last year. Currently, though, fruit rootstock multiplica-tion is the lead activity. Peaches, nectarines, pears, cherries and plums are the fruit types concerned. Most of the trees that ultimately result are destined for planting in Turkey, but there is also export to some of the CIS countries.

The world’s largest producer of cherriesThe domestic market for the fruit trees produced on Algen Tarim rootstocks is very large. Turkey is the world’s largest producer of cherries, and is also an exporter of pears, peaches and nectarines. The country’s economy has seen trans-formation in the last fifty years, and now has the fifteenth largest Gross Domestic Product in the world. Home demand for commercially produced fruit has burgeoned, as the size of the country’s urban middle class has grown by leaps and bounds. In terms of population, Turkey is a match for Germany, with both countries at around 80 million inhabitants.At present, Algen Tarim propa-gates existing rootstock varieties, but breeding work is in hand

Fruit tree rootstock propaga-tion began at the Turkish biotechnology company

Algen Tarim in 2009. By 2012 annual production was approaching 6 million a year, and further expan-sion is planned. Algen Tarim’s rootstocks are produced from tissue culture, a far cry from traditional field methods of growing.

A formidable teamPartner and managing director Yusuf Ustun is backed by a formi-dable team. Altogether his staff is now 95-strong, and includes two Ph.D.s, four holders of master’s degrees, and five other biotechnol-ogy graduates. Yusuf himself is an engineering graduate who began to work in the agricultural field in 1995. He modestly claims for himself ‘fairly good expertise’ in automation and mass production systems.The company’s staff has at their disposal full state-of-the-art facili-ties located in Silivri, near Istanbul. Algen Tarim is active in genetic marker-assisted breeding and other biotechnological work. Propagating of ornamentals and some herba-ceous flowers and medicinal plants

Ellepot system is being successfully used at Algen Tarim

Ellegaard’s H111 model is capable of producing Ellepots up to 50mm in diameter, which is the size Algen Tarim wanted for their rootstock plants.

Tissue culture of explant material from mother plant shoot tips is carried out in the fully controlled sterile environment of growth cabinets.