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?
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?
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
This article was originally posted on currentbyge.com
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?
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.
Continue reading 2018 Virginia Smart Farming Conference POSTPONED
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
BioBee Biological Systems, headquartered in Sde Eliyaho, Israel, is at the forefront of implementing biologically-based integrated pest management (IPM) solutions in controlled environment agriculture and open-field production systems. BioBee USA, a subsidiary of BioBee, headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., has partnered with horticultural supplier Hort Americas in Bedford, Texas, to work together to educate and provide greenhouse growers, vertical farmers, indoor agriculturalists and hydroponic growers with a wide range of biological control products.
Continue reading BioBee USA and Hort Americas partner to bring growers biologically-based IPM
From cultivation to harvest, packing, processing and shipping, agri- and horticulture faces challenges that can be avoided with environmental and crop-level data. Real-time monitoring with wireless sensor technology empowers agribusinesses to look back on their crops’ history and current status, quickly respond to prevent a range of risks including disease, rot and sunscald and take proactive measures to ensure the highest quality, best flavor and most efficient use of resources. Developed with input from leading growers, the smart sensing solution offered by Dutch-founded agritechnology provider 30MHz makes it easy for growers to deploy wireless sensors and start capture the metrics most crucial to their operations in minutes, without technical expertise.
Leading commercial horticultural suppliers Hort Americas, and smart sensing technology providers 30MHz are pleased to announce that they’ve partnered to bring the power of real-time, crop-level monitoring to growers across Canada, the United States, the Caribbean and Mexico. Hort Americas is the first North American distributor of 30MHz technology.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been growing plants in space for research since the early 1980s. Within the last five years, NASA has been focusing on growing plants in space primarily for food production and as an astronaut life support system.
Continue reading NASA developing LED light recipes that astronauts and growers can use
WILMINGTON, Mass. & KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.–Osram, a global high-tech lighting company, today announced it is providing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with a customized version of its proprietary connected horticulture research lighting system, Phytofy RL. The smart lighting software, coupled with a unique setup of connected grow light fixtures, will supplement the lighting technology used in NASA’s Food Production Research focused on production of salad-type crops for crews during space travel. All software, hardware and LEDs in Phytofy were developed by Osram. Osram has developed a broad portfolio of horticulture LEDs that irradiate the specific wavelengths needed for optimum growth of a wide variety of plants and flowers, allowing the light to be adapted specifically for the needs of various crops.
Continue reading NASA Taps Osram to Support Its Food Production Research
What started out as a way of making wastewater treatment systems more efficient with oxygen enrichment has expanded to how nanobubble aeration technology can improve production of agricultural crops. Moleaer Inc. in Torrance, Calif., filed a patent on nanobubble aeration technology in 2016 with the intention of using it as a way to deliver gas in a number of different applications.
“Controlled Environment Agriculture: Farming for the Future?” is a new report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange Division, discussing the rapid growth in controlled environment agriculture.
Continue reading New report released on expansion of controlled environment agriculture
There is a big difference between lighting efficiency for horticulture and lighting efficiency for consumer use. The difference is in who is receiving the light.
Continue reading What’s the best way to compare lighting efficiency?
When Hort Americas in Bedford, Texas, started operating as a wholesale horticulture distributor in March 2009, the company had no existing customer base.
Getting the crops to continuously grow well is the biggest challenge during the extreme summer heat in Ontario. Transpar makes the greenhouse climate at Howard Huy Farms, Leamington, somewhat milder.
Continue reading Plant continues to function better under Transpar
Low oxygen levels in the growing substrate can play havoc with the health of both vegetable and ornamental plants. Shalin Khosla, greenhouse vegetable specialist at Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in Harrow, Ontario, said a substrate oxygen level below 5 parts per million can have a negative effect on plant growth.
Continue reading What are the benefits of maintaining the optimum substrate oxygen level?
(Español abajo.)
Urban grower Karla Garcia is proud to announce the creation of her new company, Microgreens FLN based in Sonora, Mexico. Karla is a recent graduate with honors and a master’s degree in plant science from the University of Arizona. She is proud of her company’s commitment specializing in microgreens production using an indoor vertical farming strategy. Microgreens are an emerging class of specialty leafy greens and herbs. The crops are harvested when the cotyledons are fully developed and in some cases when the young plants have one true leaf.
Continue reading Growing microgreens with LED grow lights in Sonora, Mexico
