Grow your money with tree tomato venture

By LILLIAN KIARIE

KIAMBU COUNTY: In a small village near Limuru Town, there is a garden that yields rich juices and refined fruit salads.

Mr Benson Nyingi, who owns the garden, is making a good living selling blueberries, strawberries, tree tomatoes and sweet melons, exploiting a market whose potential is still unrealised.

The Ndenderu resident says he left his former position as horticulture manager after disagreeing with his employer on pay.

“I was fully dedicated to the job and did not picture myself doing anything else. However, when the need arose and I asked for a raise, I got a response that frustrated me and I realised my growth prospects in the company were limited. If I was to make a comfortable living, I had to be brave and branch out,” Mr Nyingi says.

To give himself a safe landing after quitting, he leased an eighth of an acre in Ndenderu. He started off growing strawberries. 

“The strawberries flourished and I started earning from the farm. I was actually making more than what I earned as a manager.

“I was able to rent another eighth and started planting tree tomatoes, mostly because they are perennial, require little attention and are high yielding,” he says.

Nyingi planted the red oratia variety after getting seedlings from a farmer in his village. The variety produces larger fruit than most others.

“I initially planted 150 seedlings — each cost Sh125. The loamy soil was good for the tree tomatoes’ growth and I was pleasantly surprised by the produce.”

His first harvest raked in three kilogrammes of tree tomatoes from each plant. He sold each kilo at Sh150.  

“I made about Sh55,000 with minimal strain. This plant does not require much work after planting. I have made it a habit to irrigate the plant with a 17kg bucket of water every Wednesday, and I spray pesticides occasionally, and that’s it,” he says.

DECENT INCOME

Today, Nyingi has more than 350 plants and 5,000 seedlings of the red oratia. When the fruit is in season, he says he harvests upwards of 600kgs of it, and it has brought in a decent income.

“As an employee, I had to rent a house in Limuru town and even kept off having children for fear of a higher budget. But today, I own several acres, I’ve constructed a house and my children attend good schools.”

Nyingi opted for the red oratia variety because, unlike the dwarf tree tomato, 97 per cent of its yield is edible, and it has a shelf lifespan of six months.

“When it is very ripe and squishy, you can store it for another month without it going bad. Farmers should be advised not to sell tree tomatoes at throwaway prices when they get ripe as they can be sold to individuals who make juice from the fruit.”

It is not difficult to get into tree tomato farming.

The plant, also known as tamarillo or matunda ya damu in Kiswahili, is shallow rooted and grows to a height of 3 to 5.5 metres. The fruits are long stalked and grow in clusters of three to 12. They are smooth and egg-shaped, with their skin colour ranging from orange or yellow to deep purple and blood red.

The plants grow in permeable soil and are not tolerant to waterlogging. To retain soil moisture, you can apply mulch, which has the added advantage of slowing the growth of weeds. Soils with a pH of 5 to 8.5 are the most favourable.

The fruit grows best in areas with plenty of sunlight, but in dry climates, you will need to provide shade.

In areas with a lot of wind, you may need to prop up the plant when its laden with fruit as it has shallow roots and could easily be blown over.

The fruit can be grown from cuttings or seeds. Cuttings give you shorter plants that are suitable for windy regions, while seeds produce taller trees.

A single tree can produce more than 20 kilos of fruits a year, if well taken care of.

Mr George Wambugu is another farmer who has found success with tree tomatoes. Three years ago, he was a small-time businessman selling pharmaceuticals in Iringa, Tanzania. His big break came when he learnt about the fruit and started growing the red oratia variety in Kenya.

PEST RESISTANT

He started off planting his tree tomato seedlings in a quarter acre. To his surprise, he had fruits ready for market within eight months.

But instead of selling his yield in kilos, he sold each fruit at Sh10, raking in Sh200,000 from his plants.

With the proceeds, he set up a tree nursery and expanded his plantation.

Demand for the fruit has grown, and he now gets customers from as far afield as Mombasa, and sells his Kenya Horticultural Crops Development Authority-certified seedlings at a minimum Sh50 each.

He says that the plants are generally pest-resistant, but may be occasionally attacked by green aphids and fruit flies. This can be prevented by spraying pesticide.

For more information on the companies profiled here, email bizbeat@standardmedia.co.ke