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In the greenhouse, the decisions you make today have a major impact on your results tomorrow. Smart innovations like cloud solutions and Internet of Things applications are connecting the greenhouse, while Artificial Intelligence learning and Big Data are allowing growers to level-up their cultivation.
Finland-based Plantui produces smart indoor gardens for sale to consumers. The company has doubled its sales volumes over the past year, driven by a number of macrotrends including sustainability, food safety, local sourcing, healthy eating and home cooking. Besides the innovative LED technology and closed-loop irrigation system, the Grodan plugs in which the edible plants are grown are a key factor in the success of these miniature ‘vertical farms’ for in the home.
Grodan has operated in the Russian market for more than 20 years. It’s a challenging market where growers have to deal with a changing climate and decreasing natural resources, while consumers increasingly demand fresh products. How can an international organization like Grodan stay in close contact with growers and thrive in such a country of extremes? And what can we do to help growers shift towards a circular economy? We posed these questions to Aleksey Kurenin, Business Manager RSM (Russian Speaking Markets) at Grodan.
Vertical farming is on the rise around the world, not least because it supports a number of major societal trends such as local sourcing and sustainability. In this article, Tico van Leeuwen explains why the right growing medium plays an important part in creating the optimal conditions for a strong and healthy crop, and why stone wool is such a good choice for vertical farmers.
In october last year, right before the dark winter months, ten parties from the greenhouse horticulture sector started growing cucumbers at the Botany research center in the Netherlands, as we learned during the first episode of this cucumber trial. These parties came together to investigate how cucumbers can be cultivated in a sustainable and efficient way during winter, with the help of extra (LED) lighting.
As one of the defining systems builders in the horticulture industry based in Horst (the Netherlands) founder and CEO of Light4food Rene van Haeff was convinced that the horizontal and vertical controlled growing systems in combination with light were to be the future solution for growing crops sustainably. Light4Food is a turnkey system builder for a wide variety of crops grown in both greenhouses and vertical farms.
The way we work today in the greenhouse industry has changed enormously. It has become more common to work remotely and digitally. We see a great demand amongst greenhouse teams and external crop advisors to collaborate on a digital platform, and share and alert each other on key growing information.
Most of you are heading into the busiest period of the year and in order to help you prepare for the peak of the growing season we’ve worked hard on new features which will unburden you and help you focus on doing what you do best: growing!
Four leading players in the indoor farming sector have joined the Resource Innovation Institute (RII) in a pilot that aims to transform the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) sector. The partnership aims to provide growers with insights and benchmarks that they can use to maximize sustainability and minimize their footprint. The pilot is funded by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture).
Since 2012 Grodan organizes the International Propagation Seminar (IPS). Over the years, this event has become the international platform for propagators and their suppliers to exchange knowledge and offers excellent networking opportunities. In our ambition to further increase the impact of this event we identified new possibilities.
Did you know that for 99,7% of the high-tech growers in greenhouses, biological control methods are the standard? To protect their plants against harmful insects, per hectare 511.000 natural enemies of these insects are used per year.
During the past winter season, Grodan together with nine other partners was involved in a cucumber trial at Botany. We investigated what effect different light recipes have on the cultivation of cucumbers in the greenhouse. The goal: growing cucumbers indoors throughout the whole year in the most sustainable, efficient way.
