This article was originally posted on currentbyge.com
Meet the light bars behind “the best damn lettuce you’ve ever tried.”
Not All LEDs Are Equal: How Greener Roots Farm Is Growing Faster With Horticulture Lighting From Current
Category: Blog
Is there really that much difference between LED lamps?
Many LED light manufacturers claim their lamps can be used for horticultural production. But do they provide the right wavelengths of light to meet plants’ needs?
Continue reading Is there really that much difference between LED lamps?
Tighter farm labor market leading to rising wages
According to the 2012 Agricultural Census, contract and hired labor together accounted for 10 percent of U.S. agriculture’s total operating expenses. This share was much higher for some agricultural sectors: 40 percent for greenhouse, nursery and floriculture production; 39 percent for fruit and tree nut farming; and 27 percent for vegetable and melon farming.
Continue reading Tighter farm labor market leading to rising wages
What does light do to your crop?
All radiation from the sun, whether it is PAR light, UV or infrared, has an effect on the growth and production of crops. You can selectively manage it with coatings that increase the positive effects and inhibit the negative ones.
Continue reading What does light do to your crop?Big Tex Urban Farms is using hydroponics to achieve its Million Servings Mission
Big Tex Urban Farms and Hort Americas have partnered together to install, test and demonstrate a variety of hydroponic production systems while at the same time providing Dallas community organizations with locally-grown produce.
Continue reading Big Tex Urban Farms is using hydroponics to achieve its Million Servings Mission
Cornell University computer program helps identify food-borne pathogens
Cornell University scientists have developed a computer program, Environmental Monitoring With an Agent-Based Model of listeria EnABLe, to simulate the most likely locations in processing facilities where the food-borne pathogen listeria monocytogenes might be found. Food-borne listeria infects about 1,600 people in the United States each year with about one in five of those infections ending in death.
Continue reading Cornell University computer program helps identify food-borne pathogens
Hort Americas and VegBed Team Up to Offer New Microgreen Medium for Farms
Hort Americas partnering with VegBed to offer their sustainable bamboo fiber microgreen mats
Press Release – NEW YORK, NY [February 12, 2019] – Hort Americas, North America’s top commercial horticultural supplier, and VegBed, the leader of innovative hydroponic growing mediums have announced today an exciting new partnership to offer microgreen farms a sustainable medium to grow with.
Continue reading Hort Americas and VegBed Team Up to Offer New Microgreen Medium for Farms
First Wheelchair Accessible Farm at Local Bronx Public School
Empire BlueCross BlueShield and Green Bronx Machine to Launch First Wheelchair Accessible Farm at Local Bronx Public School
Press Release – NEW YORK – Green Bronx Machine (GBM), a nationally recognized non-profit organization dedicated to helping students live happier and healthier lives, is partnering with Empire BlueCross BlueShield (Empire) to launch the first wheelchair accessible farm and teaching kitchen in America at P.S. 721x, a District 75 school in the Bronx dedicated to educating students living with disabilities.
Continue reading First Wheelchair Accessible Farm at Local Bronx Public School
e-Gro Blog shares new greenhouse disease management recommendations
New Greenhouse Disease Management Recommendations for Vegetables and Herbs
Originally written by e-Gro (Heidi Wollaeger) on Jan 24, 2019
Continue reading e-Gro Blog shares new greenhouse disease management recommendations
What is the impact of LED grow lights on indoor horticulture crops?
Michigan State University researchers are studying the effects of sole source LED grow lights on edible and ornamental crops.
Michigan State University opened its Controlled-Environment Lighting Laboratory (CELL) in 2017. The 400-square-foot vertical farm research facility is being used to study the indoor production of high-value specialty crops, including edibles and ornamentals with LED grow lights.
Continue reading What is the impact of LED grow lights on indoor horticulture crops?
Labor is the number one topic in all the conversations we are currently having
Originally published by HortiDaily.com on 1/15/19
Chris Higgins, Hort Americas:
“Labor is the number one topic in all the conversations we are currently having”
Continue reading Labor is the number one topic in all the conversations we are currently having
How do you stop diseases on controlled environment edible crops?
Controlling the environment is a key component of preventing diseases on edible crops.
As an increasing number of growers start growing edible crops in controlled environment structures they may be facing some diseases that they haven’t encountered before. For ornamental plant growers who are adding edible crops, they will not have as many or as effective chemical controls as they have access to with their ornamental crops.
Continue reading How do you stop diseases on controlled environment edible crops?
Do you want to sell the freshest, most flavorful and fragrant cut basil?
How you grow and process fresh cut basil will impact the flavor and shelf life of the harvested product.
Basil is one of the most popular culinary herbs. Whether grown as a potted crop or for fresh cut sales, basil is an herb that’s in demand year-round. Growers looking to add edibles to their product mix should consider basil to be a must-have herb in their product offerings.
Continue reading Do you want to sell the freshest, most flavorful and fragrant cut basil?
How can sensors increase efficiency, effectiveness of your IPM strategies?
Monitoring and collecting environmental conditions during controlled environment agriculture production can assist growers in making the best use of integrated pest management strategies.
While maintaining the proper temperature and humidity is important to ensure the optimum growing conditions for controlled environment agriculture, these environmental factors become even more important when using biological controls.
Continue reading How can sensors increase efficiency, effectiveness of your IPM strategies?
Updated daily light integral (DLI) maps now available
New DLI maps have been created from an updated database that includes data from 1998 to 2009.
Daily light integral (DLI) is the amount of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) received each day as a function of light intensity and duration. DLI maps display the ambient light delivered daily during each month across the entire United States. The original maps released in 2002 were researched and developed by Jim Faust at Clemson University and Joanne Logan at the University of Tennessee.
Continue reading Updated daily light integral (DLI) maps now available
Current, Powered by GE and Stockbridge Technology Centre Partner to Research the Farm of the Future
This article was originally posted on currentbyge.com
- Stockbridge Technology Centre’s Vertical Farming Development Facility to enable growers to test and model their individual urban farm setup prior to investment
- Aims to propel the success of the vertical farming industry, projected to be worth $13.9 billion USD in 20241 and generate more “farmable land” to address future global food production pressures
- Current by GE’s Arize LED horticulture solution will help researchers test growth of crops such as leafy greens and herbs in different conditions
Does it make economic sense for you to install grow lights?
The Lighting Approaches to Maximize Profits (LAMP) project aims to determine how growers can maximize their return on investment when considering installing grow lights.
As light emitting diodes (LEDs) become more efficient and more affordable, an increasing number of greenhouse and plant factory growers will consider installing LED luminaires to light their crops. In the case of greenhouse growers, these luminaires would provide light to supplement natural sunlight. For plant factory growers, production depends entirely on the light provided by an artificial light source including LEDs, high pressure sodium or metal halide luminaires.
Continue reading Does it make economic sense for you to install grow lights?
2018 Virginia Smart Farming Conference POSTPONED
Because of unexpected scheduling and weather concerns, the Virginia Smart Farming Conference on Using Controlled Environment Agriculture has been postponed until March 5, 2019.
Our team is extremely sorry for this inconvenience but is continuing its work and is excited for what will be delivered when we gather in the Richmond area on March 5, 2019.
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Controlling basil downy mildew might be as simple as turning on a light
The use of supplemental light to control downy mildew on food and ornamental crops could be integrated into current disease management practices.
Downy mildew is a major disease on both ornamental and food crops. Whether these crops are grown outdoors or in a controlled environment, environmental conditions, generally cool to moderate temperatures and high humidity, are favorable to downy mildew development. Warm temperatures and high humidity are conducive to powdery mildew development.
Continue reading Controlling basil downy mildew might be as simple as turning on a light
