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Frost Hit US Wasabi Farmer Replanting
I have just been contacted by a US wasabi grower who was badly hit by serious frost damage last year. He tells me they have replanted two of their greenhouses and purchased some heaters so this doesn’t happen again. 🙂
They even included some photographs to show their determination to continue. Good luck to them.
You will notice they use a gravel system with overhead sprinklers to provide the water needed by the growing wasabi plants.
Apart from the new heaters (which are not shown) there does not seem to be any other environmental controls used to maintain the correct wasabi growing conditions which probably means they lucked into finding the right area to start with. Not everyone can be that lucky and will need to set up a growing facility with a bit more than this simple setup.
The gravel system used by this grower does have some limitations and makes it difficult and expensive to expand their growing ability as they are limited by floor space.
This is the simplest and least expensive way of setting up a commercial wasabi farm, but as I said above there are limitations to expansion and increasing productivity.
It looks as though this US grower will be able to supply some fresh wasabi rhizomes in 12 – 18 months. Hopefully they don’t have any more serious setbacks.
Note the use of measuring sticks to get the planting positions for the wasabi plants correct for this type of growing. They should be approximately 12 inches apart in order to produce decent size rhizomes. Using a different growing method it would be possible to decrease the spacing significantly and improve productivity.
Haven’t heard anything from the Canadian growers since they sold out to the New Zealanders. No news is good news I suppose.
There is more information on growing Wasabia japonica using this system for members of the Wasabi Growers Club.
Michel Van Mellaerts (The Wasabi Maestro) is the recognized World authority and expert on the practical Growing, Processing and Marketing of Wasabia japonica. He and his wife have been commercially growing Wasabia japonica longer than anyone else outside Japan.
Trained as an Electrical and Mechanical Engineer he has invented and installed many improved growing systems into their farms. These enable high quality Wasabi to be grown anywhere in the World.
The Wasabi Maestroes have set up commercial Wasabi growing farms from the Arctic Circle to Southern New Zealand, including the Equator. They have worked with individual growers, national governments, and investment groups on four continents.
These growing systems have reduced growing times by nearly 67%, improved yield and quality of the Wasabi rhizome, and increased the levels of active ingredients by nearly 100%. It is these active ingredients that independent scientific studies show kills cancer cells and improves human health.
They pioneered the use of Wasabia japonica in the Nutraceutical and Medical industries. They are at the leading edge of research into the benefits of Wasabi on human and animal health.
The Wasabi Maestroes offer a Training and Consultancy service for potential and actual Wasabi growers who only want to learn from the best. Others spend their time floundering around trying to find out what information is useful and what isn’t.
The Training has been proven and improved over the last 20 years plus of personal commercial Wasabi growing. This has been hands on, getting wet and dirty work – not guesswork from behind a desk.