My Farmer Friend Atsushi and His Sauvage Method

On July 10, 2016 I visited a farm where my best friend Atsushi was growing tomatoes.

He has been well known for his film farming method

ever since he was featured in the documenatary Gaiya no Yoake.

The reason I visited his farm this time was because he was experimenting a new farming method called "sauvage" method.

Sauvage typically refers to a female hair style that is characterized by tight curly hair.

Why is his new method called sauvage?

One obvious reason is that when his tomato plants have grown large, they will look like female sauvage hair.

How so?

Well, in his two green houses where he conducts this film method,

only the main stem is kept and all the secondary buds are nipped.

The main purpose of this is to concentrate all of the nutrients into the main stem,

and therefore eventually into the fruits.

On the other hands, in sauvage methods

secondary buds are not nipped, but kept, 

except for the ones under the second row of fruits from the bottom.

This allows the plant to grow its secondary buds all over the place.

As you can see in the left picture below, the plants grow over a net that is hung over a row of arches. In a couple of months the arches will be covered with leaves, creating a tunnel of tomato leaves!

Out of curiosity I asked Atsushi, 

"But isn't it the case that if you don't nip secondary buds,

tomatoes will get less sweet, because nutrients will be stretched thin 

among a greater number of fruits?"

His answer was no.

The truth of the matter is that now that there are more leaves growing all over the place,

they create more nutrients through photosynthesis.

At the same time the plants actively expand their roots deeper and more widely 

in order to meet the demand of the expanding top.

This is something that he cannot do in film method 

because the volume of soil is limited because of the film 

that encases the soil.

According to Atsushi, his production cycle with film method has been quite streamlined already,

and he is ready for a new challenge.

On the day I visited his farm, I helped with my bilingual companion with nipping unnecessary secondary buds and also with tying the plants to nets with plastic tape

so that they would grow along the net neatly.

When the work was over, Atsushi kindly gave us a bunch of fresh tomatoes from his green house and two bags full of Thai basil leaves that he started growing recently.

My bilingual companion and I enjoyed having them both fresh the next day for breakfast.

I will visit him again to offer him a helping hand soon.

It may be around the end of August of the beginning of September

when he starts planting seedlings in his green houses in Isehara.