A greenhouse is a structure used to protect our crop and extend our production window. Once we decide to invest in a greenhouse structure we must think in ways to obtain the maximum benefit from it. There are plenty of options for greenhouse covers. But as a grower, what should I be looking for? Photosynthesis is the main process related to crop yield. Therefore we should always be looking to optimize our greenhouse environment to promote photosynthesis.
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.
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
Incorporating air or oxygen into irrigation water using nanobubbles can improve crop yields and reduce susceptibility to disease pathogens.
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.
Whether growers are producing vegetables, ornamentals or other hydroponic crops, Hort Americas is working to provide its customers with the products and knowledge they need to be successful.
When Hort Americas in Bedford, Texas, started operating as a wholesale horticulture distributor in March 2009, the company had no existing customer base.
Hort Americas is excited to announce that it has been appointed the exclusive distributor of the Moleaer Inc. nanoBoost Nanobubble Generator. The generator delivers a supplementary source of dissolved oxygen that can significantly increase plant growth, improve size uniformity, reduce stress and prevent root diseases under extreme production conditions. It is ideally suited for horticultural applications including hydroponics, greenhouse irrigation and pond management.
Moleaer announces commercial partnership with Hort Americas
PRESS RELEASE – LOS ANGELES
Moleaer Inc., the leading manufacturer of industrial scale nanobubble generators, expands its innovative product line with the new nanoBoost Nanobubble Generator, ideally suited for applications such as hydroponics, pond management, and irrigation.
Trials with organic and conventional fertilizers in hydroponic production systems are showing it’s possible to produce edible crops at much lower nutrient levels.
Even though the Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering (GLASE) consortium is New York-based, the research it is doing has the potential to impact controlled environment agriculture worldwide.
If you’re going to use a loose substrate in a hydroponic production system, you may have to change how you handle starter plants and the treatment of recycled water.
Many growers of ornamental plants including annuals and perennials traditionally use a peat-based substrate such as 70 percent peat, 30 percent perlite. The growers, who produce these crops in containers, will often use the same substrates if they expand their crop offerings to include hydroponically-grown edible crops, including lettuces and leafy greens.
Growers have affordable options for ensuring plants receive sufficient oxygen in hydroponic production systems to maximize growth and to reduce the chances of disease.
Substrate trials in Hort Americas’ research greenhouse are looking at conventional and organic propagation substrates along with different irrigation strategies for producing healthy starter plugs for hydroponic production systems.
Hort Americas has retrofitted a 12,000-square-foot greenhouse in Dallas, Texas, for the purpose of studying edible crop production in a variety of hydroponic production systems. The greenhouse is also being used to demonstrate products offered in the company’s online catalog.
Tyler Baras, who is the company’s special projects manager, is overseeing the trialing of conventional and organic substrates in different production systems.
Tyler Baras, special projects manager at Hort Americas, is overseeing the trialing of leafy greens and herbs propagated in conventional and organic substrates. The seedlings are transplanted into a deep water culture, NFT or vertical tower production system. Photos courtesy of Tyler Baras, Hort Americas
“The trials I am focusing on are organic substrates vs. conventional substrates,” Baras said. “I’m primarily using stonewool or rockwool as the conventional propagation substrate. I am also starting to trial some loose substrates, including peat and perlite.
“The seedlings are never moved into another substrate. The seed is sown into plugs and then the rooted seedlings are moved into a deep water culture, NFT (nutrient film technique), or vertical tower production system. The plugs are really only useful for the first two weeks in propagation. Then it is really about getting the roots to grow outside the plugs so the roots grow directly in the water.”
For the organic production systems, Baras is working primarily with expandable coco plugs. He has also started working with some organic loose substrates including coco peat and perlite.
For the substrate studies Baras is working with two standard hydroponic crops, basil and lettuce, primarily butterhead lettuce.
“When I’m testing the lettuce I use either raw or pelleted seed,” he said. “With basil it’s all raw seed. Basil tends to germinate relatively easily, whether the seed is planted into a dibbled hole or sown on top of the substrate.”
Focused on irrigation strategies
A primary objective of the substrate trials is to determine the best irrigation strategies for both organic and conventional substrates.
“This is probably more important with some of the organic substrates than the conventional substrates because the organic substrates tend to hold more water,” Baras said. “One of the big challenges that organic hydroponic growers run into is overwatering their plugs because coco holds more water than conventional substrate plugs that growers are used to. Coco plugs hold more water than stonewool, phenolic foam and polymer-based peat plugs. These other plugs dry out faster than coco plugs.”
For the substrate trials, rooted seedling plugs are finished in a deep water culture, NFT (nutrient film technique) or vertical tower production system.
Baras said growers who are moving from conventional to organic production tend to use the same irrigation techniques they employed with their conventional propagation program.
“The growers will continue to irrigate the plugs a couple times per day,” he said. “With a lot of the organic plugs, when the seed is sown, they only need to be irrigated once every three days. If the plugs are overirrigated the roots don’t have an incentive to search out the water when they are planted into the production system. The search for water is what drives the seedling roots down to the bottom and out of the plugs.
“The goal of planting into plugs is to have the seedling roots grow outside of the plugs into the water of the deep water culture or NFT system. If the plugs are overwatered as young seedlings, the roots don’t make it down to the bottom of the plugs so it takes longer to start the seedlings and sometimes they just end up rotting because the plugs remain too wet.”
Type of irrigation system
In addition to looking at the irrigation frequency of plugs during propagation, Baras is studying the impact of different methods of irrigation during propagation, including overhead and subirrigation.
“When deciding whether to use overhead or subirrigation, it depends on whether raw or pelleted seed is being sown,” he said. “If pelleted seed is going to be used, a lot of times it’s advantageous to use overhead irrigation because it helps to dissolve the coating surrounding the seed. This helps to ensure the seed has better contact with the substrate. Sometimes it’s almost a little easier to get good germination with subirrigation if raw seed is used because of the direct contact with the substrate.
Growers need to avoid overwatering young seedling plugs or their roots may not make it down to the bottom of the plugs, which could delay transplanting into the production system.
“Smaller indoor growers often use subirrigation for germination. A lot of the large growers, especially those coming from the ornamental plant side such as bedding plants, usually have overhead irrigation systems installed. These growers have propagation areas set up with overhead irrigation, which can be used to start their hydroponic vegetable crops.”
Baras said most indoor warehouse growers are not going to be using watering wands or overhead irrigation in their operations.
“Most of the warehouse growers will be using subirrigation, such as flood tables,” he said. “For them it is going to be important that they select the right kind of seed to get good germination. They may have to try other techniques like using a deeper dibble or covering the seed with some kind of loose organic substrate such as perlite or vermiculite. Growers using overhead irrigation can usually sow pelleted seed without having to dibble the substrate.
“Many growers tend to have issues when they are using pelleted bibb lettuce seed with subirrigation. We are looking at ways of increasing the germination rate using dibbling with the pelleted seed or increasing the dibble size or covering the seed.”
Baras said growers who are using automation, including mechanized seeders and dibblers, prefer to use pelleted seed.
“With pelleted seed it’s easier to be more precise so that there is only one seed planted per plug cell,” he said. “I have seen automation used with raw basil seed. I have also seen organic production done where automation was used just to dibble the plug trays. Dibbling seems to be one of the biggest factors when it comes to getting good even germination.
Need for good seed-substrate contact
Baras said occasionally with tightly packed coco plugs, if the seed is not pushed down into the plug the emerging radicle may have issues penetrating the substrate.
“This helps push the radicle down so it contacts the substrate and establishes more easily,” he said. “When subirrigation is used it can be advantageous to cover the seed with vermiculite or just brush the top of the coco plug after the seed is planted to get some coverage of the seed.
“What usually affects the way that coco plugs work is the size of the coco particles. There is really fine coco. There is coco fiber, which can be mixed into the plug to help with aeration and increase drainage. We are looking at various plugs with some increased fiber content trying to aerate the plugs in order to speed up the drainage.”
Stonewool or rockwool is the primary conventional propagation substrate in the trials. Other loose substrates, including peat and perlite, are also starting to be trialed.
Baras is also looking at using loose substrates in different ratios in plugs and then transplanting them into deep water culture, NFT, and vertical tower systems.
“One of the issues with hydroponic systems and loose substrates is these substrates can enter the production system and clog up the irrigation lines,” he said. “The trick is trying to avoid having any loose substrate enter the system. We are looking at using loose substrates and allowing the seedlings to establish longer in the plug cell during propagation before transplanting them into the production system. This enables the seedlings to develop a larger root system, which can prevent loose substrate from falling into the system.”
Early results from fertilizer trials in Hort Americas’ research greenhouse show knowing the levels of nutrients in fertilizer solutions can go a long way in avoiding problems with deficiencies and toxicities.
Hort Americas has retrofitted a 12,000-square-foot greenhouse in Dallas, Texas, for the purpose of studying edible crop production in a variety of hydroponic production systems. The greenhouse is also being used to demonstrate products offered in the company’s online catalog.
Tyler Baras, who is the company’s special projects manager, is overseeing the trialing of leafy greens and herbs in five different production systems.
“We’ve got a deep water culture or raft system using Hort Americas’ fertilizer blend with calcium nitrate and magnesium sulfate,” Baras said. “We are using that same nutrient mix in a nutrient film technique (NFT) system and a capillary mat system.
“I’m using Terra Genesis organic fertilizer in a vertical grow tower. I’m also using the same organic fertilizer for all of the seedling propagation in a flood-and-drain vertical rack.”
Tyler Baras, special projects manager at Hort Americas, is overseeing the trialing of leafy greens and herbs in different production systems, including deep water culture and nutrient film technique. Photos courtesy of Tyler Baras, Hort Americas
Baras said the fertilizer recipe he is using in the deep water culture and NFT systems is based on general recommendations from Cornell University and the University of Arizona for leafy greens crop production.
Differences in nutrient levels
The deep water culture system has been running for three months. The water reservoir for the system is 8,000 gallons.
“Even if water evaporates, since it is such a large body of water, the electrical conductivity (EC) doesn’t really move much,” Baras said. “The EC has been very stable during the three months it has been operating. The reading has barely moved.”
The first trial with the NFT system, which has a reservoir of about 140 gallons, lasted for three months.
“Every week I added an additional 40 gallons of water on average to the NFT reservoir,” Baras said. “The water is evaporating and the salts are accumulating a lot faster in the NFT reservoir than in the deep water culture system. Because the NFT system has a smaller water reservoir, the quicker evaporation rate and the water replacement in the reservoir, has caused the EC to shift a lot more.”
One of the goals of the fertilizer trials is to see what salts are accumulating in the NFT system and to see how long the system can run before it has to be flushed.
Baras said even with the changes in nutrient levels all of the plants have been performing well.
“I haven’t seen any nutrient deficiencies or toxicities even as the fertilizer recipe has shifted over time. We have been trialing a wide range of crops, including butterhead and romaine lettuces, kale, spring mixes and basil. I’m trialing a lot of crops to figure out when these crops start to be impacted by possibly too much salt accumulation. I haven’t seen anything yet that is alarming.
“One of the things that I have seen over the years working with fertilizers is how wide the acceptable range is for plants to grow well. Between the NFT and deep water culture, the NFT is using half the nitrogen and the plants are performing very similarly. There are recommendations for EC, but none of these fertilizer levels are set. I have some systems that have 20 parts per million phosphorus and some that have 50 ppm and the plants look the same. Most general recommendations say 40-50 ppm. I’ll have some solutions that have 3 ppm iron and others that have 6 ppm iron. It is interesting to see how wide the range is for a lot of these nutrients and the crops are performing the same.”
During the three months that the deep water culture system has been running the electrical conductivity (EC) has been very stable with plants showing no signs of nutrient deficiencies or toxicities.
Baras said he has seen a slowing of plant growth in the NFT system.
“I’m not seeing any deficiencies or toxicities, but the crops have slowed down about a week over the deep water culture,” he said. “Depending on the crop, it’s taking a week longer to reach either the plants’ salable weight or height.
“The slowing in growth could be related to the nutrients. This could be useful information for growers. If they are checking the EC, which may have been 2.3 when a crop was started, if there is a slowing of growth, growers may want to have a water test done. The test could show that the amount of nutrients might be changing.”
Identifying what makes up the EC
During the three months that Baras had been running the NFT system he never flushed the system.
“All that I’ve done with the NFT system is add water and additional fertilizer to maintain a targeted EC,” he said. “One of the goals of the trials is to see what ions are accumulating in the system and to see how long I can run the system before it has to be flushed. When I started the target EC was 2.2-2.3. I still achieved the target EC at three months, but the composition of what was actually in the water changed.
“Originally the NFT fertilizer solution contained about 185 parts per million nitrogen. At the end of the trial the EC was the same but there was only 108 ppm nitrogen in the solution. The calcium concentration was originally 250 ppm and ended at 338 ppm. Sulphur was originally at 80 ppm and rose to 250 ppm. Nutrients have accumulated as the water evaporated. Solely going by the EC meter reading doesn’t tell the full story of what is in that water. The EC of the fertilizer solution that I started with is the same as the EC for the fertilizer solution three months later. The difference is the ions that are making up that ending EC.”
Herb production with organic fertilizer
Baras is growing a variety of cut herbs in vertical grow towers. The plants are fertilized with Terra Genesis, a molasses-based organic fertilizer. He said Hort Americas has been hearing from tower growers who are interested in trying to grow organically.
“What we are seeing is the organic fertilizer solution can change a lot over time,” he said. “The fertilizer tank solution matures as time goes on. With the organic fertilizer, the nutrients tend to balance out as the solution is run longer.
“Our city water contains calcium and some magnesium. These elements are actually the nutrients that the organic fertilizer is slightly low in. So as I run the system longer, through the addition of city water, I actually start to see an accumulation of both calcium and magnesium, which actually helps balance out the total fertilizer recipe. The balance of the nutrients has improved over time.
A variety of cut herbs are being grown in vertical grow towers and fertilized with Terra Genesis, a molasses-based organic fertilizer.
The pH was fairly unstable as it seemed to be going through several biological waves. It was moving rapidly between high and low. As I run the tank solution longer the total alkalinity has increased, which has stabilized it. The biological activity has also started to stabilize. The pH has stabilized in the upper 5 range. For the plants grown organically I have seen deficiencies pop up. The deficiencies were reduced as the fertilizer tank solution ran longer. The deficiencies appear to have balanced out.”
Baras said one noticeable difference between the NFT, deep water and vertical grow towers is how much slower the plants grow in the towers.
“I don’t know what to contribute the slower growth to yet,” he said. “It could be trying to determine the best fertilizer rate for the fertilizer. It could be the crop selection, because most of the crops in the towers are different from what I’m growing in the NFT and deep water culture.
“I’m going to start a deep water culture and NFT trial using organic fertilizer. I’ll have three different organic production systems running simultaneously so I will be able to compare the plant growth in each system. I’ll also be able to compare the growth of the same crops grown with organic or conventional fertilizers.”
Controlling biofilm, disease pathogens
Baras said one of the issues that can arise with using organic fertilizer is the development of biofilm in the irrigation lines that can cause emitters to clog.
“I am incorporating a product called TerraBella, which contains beneficial microbes,” he said. “These microbes help mobilize certain nutrients, like phosphorus, which can promote the formation of biofilms. This biofilm buildup is usually more of a problem with high water temperatures.
“About every six weeks I add a booster application of the beneficial microbes depending on the production system. The deep water culture system has a larger reservoir so I am not replacing evaporated water as often. For the other productions systems, like the NFT and grow towers, where I am replacing the water, I am incorporating the beneficials more often. For these systems, the fresh city water that is added dilutes the fertilizer solution. Also, there is chlorine in the city water that possibly could negatively impact some of the beneficial microbes.
Hort Americas’ special projects manager Tyler Baras is using a 12,000-square-foot hydroponic greenhouse to teach company staff and customers what it takes to economically grow leafy greens and herbs.
Tyler Baras is a well-traveled grower. He has worked in Florida and Colorado growing hydroponic greenhouse vegetables, including organic crops. He is now taking the knowledge and experience he has gained from those growing operations and putting it to use in a 12,000-square-foot demonstration and research greenhouse in Dallas, Texas.
Baras, who is the special projects manager at Hort Americas, is overseeing the trialing of leafy greens and herbs in five different production systems along with the testing of potential products for the company’s online catalog.
“Chris Higgins, the general manager at Hort Americas, brought me to the greenhouse and asked if I would be interested in running a demonstration and research facility,” Baras said. “He was also interested in collecting data and writing a book about leafy greens production.
“After I agreed to accept the position, I drew up blueprints of the greenhouse, preparing a design of the production systems, writing a budget and proposals on how it was going to look, and how much it was going to cost to operate, including projected sales from the produce that was grown.”
Tyler Baras, special projects manager at Hort Americas, is overseeing the trialing of leafy greens and herbs in five different hydroponic production systems. Photos courtesy of Tyler Baras, Hort Americas
The retrofitted greenhouse is located behind a grocery store and prominent Dallas garden center. The grocery store and garden center will allow Baras to test his projected budgets and produce sales.
“The greenhouse was originally built for growing bedding and flowering plants,” Baras said. “It was built with passive ventilation and was not designed for leafy greens production. We had to make some major modifications. Renovations included leveling the floor, adding a vestibule air lock, upgrading the electrical system, installing evaporative cooling pads, insect screening and landscape fabric, and upgrading the motors for the shade system along with installing new shade cloth. We have been growing in the greenhouse since September.”
Hort Americas, which is a horticulture and agriculture wholesale supply company, provided the materials for the retrofit along with the hydroponic production systems that Baras will be using. The production systems include a capillary mat system, a deep water culture floating raft system, a nutrient film technique (NFT) system, a hydroponic tower system and grow racks. Hort Americas has also provided a variety of equipment and products, including substrates, fertilizers, LED lights and other products it offers to its wholesale customers.
Collecting, disseminating production data
Dallas was chosen for the research location because it is one of the hardest places to grow hydroponic leafy greens. Baras will be trialing primarily leafy greens, including a variety of lettuces (bibb and Romaine), kale, bok choy, basil and other herbs.
“We believe that if leafy greens can be grown here then they can be grown nearly anywhere by everyone,” he said. “Year-round production here is difficult. We know that we will be able to grow during the fall, winter and spring. The tricky part is going to come during the summer when there are high temperatures and high humidity. The project will take a minimum of a year to collect the data.”
Baras said he will be collecting a lot of data including: cost per plant size, how much does it cost over the production cycle to operate each system and the labor costs involved with operating each system.
The 12,000-square-foot demonstration and research greenhouse contains five different production systems including a deep water culture floating raft system.
“The goal is to collect data that can be used by everyone,” he said. “We are going to collect data that includes the total light delivered. If growers in more northern latitudes are dealing with lower light, they can look at the light levels we maintained in the greenhouse and reach those same levels using supplemental light so that they can mimic the exact same conditions.
“The data collected will be available to whoever has an interest in reading about it. This will enable growers to be knowledgeable about making decisions about these production systems and operating them. They will also have access to some real world baseline data from trials so they will know if they are achieving the proper metrics. For example, we will share the data of how long it took to grow a certain size head of lettuce or a certain weight of basil using specific inputs. Growers will be able to look at real world environmental conditions under which a crop was grown.”
Preliminary results
Baras said based on initial production results what makes most financial sense at this time is growing basil and lettuce.
“Our initial metrics from the data that we have collected have been good,” he said. “We are producing 8- to10-ounce heads of bibb lettuce in 38 days and we are harvesting commercial size sleeved basil in 26 days from seed.
“Most commercial standards for lettuce in the U.S. are between 6 and 10 ounces. For basil there is a wide range in regards to the standard size for weight. Generally it is done by size or by what fills up a 10-inch tall sleeve. We have been able to fill a 10-inch sleeve and make it look really good.”
Preliminary production results include harvesting commercial size sleeved basil in 26 days from seed.
Having experienced a warmer than normal October, Baras said the water temperature in most of the production systems has been 85ºF or warmer.
“Generally the water temperature for most hydroponic crops is between 65ºF-70ºF,” he said. “The water temperature here is definitely warm, but we are still having really great growth. So far it is looking like we can grow a crop during the summer. But we haven’t gone through a full summer yet and that is going to be the real test.
Baras said they want to try to avoid chilling the water and will only use this production technique as the last resort.”
“We are trying to find ways around having to chill the water, including increasing the level of dissolved oxygen in the water using a variety of methods. This includes using Venturi aerators, and if needed, injecting liquid oxygen. These methods are less costly than running chillers. Chillers can be expensive and they use a lot of energy.
“We really want to find a model that is going to be acceptable to small scale growers. We are trying to keep the inputs to a minimum and still achieve our production goals.”
Teaching and trialing
Baras said the greenhouse has already been used for onsite training.
“That is one of our main goals with the site,” he said. “We want to be able to bring in people and provide them with hands-on training, both our customers and the Hort Americas staff. For example, we want to be able to show them how to blend fertilizer, what the process looks like for moving seedlings through a hydroponic system, how to measure light levels in a greenhouse and best pest control methods.
“We want to be able to assist customers who are starting to build a greenhouse and are looking to install hydroponic equipment. The greenhouse will enable them to see what is involved before they make any purchases.”
The greenhouse will be used to provide training to Hort Americas’ customers and staff, as well as the trialing of new products.
The greenhouse will also be used for trialing new products.
“Companies often approach Hort Americas about carrying their products, the greenhouse will enable us to put them through real world trials before they’re put in our online catalog,” Baras said. “Some of the products we plan to trial include dosing systems, monitoring systems for greenhouse environmental control and meters for measuring pH and EC. We are open to looking at other equipment and other automation technology.”
For more: Hort Americas, (469) 532-2383; https://hortamericas.com.
David Kuack is a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas; dkuack@gmail.com.
An agreement between Colorado State University and Philips Lighting to equip its new 27,000-square-foot horticulture center with LEDs will put the focus on using the lights for improving ornamental and vegetable plant production.
When officials at Colorado State University went looking for property to build a new football stadium they didn’t have to look far. They decided that the land on which the 65-year-old W.D. Holley Plant Environment Research Center resided was the perfect location for the new stadium.
“The old horticulture facility, which had been built in 1949, was considered a hot property by school officials,” said Steve Newman, who is greenhouse crops extension specialist and professor of floriculture. “To replace the old site, the university provided the department with a new $7.5 million 27,000-square-foot research and teaching facility. There is also a 3-acre outdoor area for plant trials.
“The horticulture center was built in eight months. The university facilities team that I worked with to design and build the center was awesome.”
Greenhouse specs
The horticulture center’s new greenhouse is a Nexus Vail model frame which is covered with Thermaglas polycarbonate. It is equipped with Ludvig Svensson retractable heat curtains and Wadsworth Control vents, Modine Effinity 93 natural gas unit heaters and American Coolair fan boxes. The control technology is all Wadsworth Control Systems.
Colorado State University’s 65-year-old W.D. Holley Plant Environment Research Center has been replaced with a new $7.5 million 27,000-square-foot research and teaching facility.
The 21,000-square-foot greenhouse is divided into six bays. All of the bays are connected by a ventilation corridor that has a 20-foot high gutter line. One bay will contain a Crop King NFT trough system consisting of six modules. The other half of the bay will be equipped with a traditional raft culture set up that has six 5-foot by 10-foot rafts.
“I’m a hard core supporter of Colorado companies,” Newman said. “We are also trying to make the greenhouse as energy efficient as we can.”
Perfect timing
In December 2014, Ron DeKok, North America director of business development, Philips Horticulture LED Solutions, visited Newman to discuss supporting LED research at Colorado State.
“Ron visited me on the same day I was given permission to talk about the budget for the center,” Newman said. “The timing was perfect. He asked me what kind of LED research CSU wanted to do and I asked him how committed Philips was to supporting LED research at the university. He said let’s equip the facility with Philips lighting and we’ll do research projects together.
“The greenhouse is being equipped with the latest Philips horticulture LED fixtures, including top lighting, interlighting and flowering lamps. One house will have suspended interlighting modules for high wire vegetables. We are looking at being able to do all kinds of ornamental and vegetable plant research using different combinations of the fixtures.”
Crops to be studied
Newman said it hasn’t been determined yet how much of the greenhouse space will be dedicated to ornamental and vegetables crops.
Steve Newman, who is Colorado State’s greenhouse crops extension specialist and professor of floriculture, said the new horticulture center will be used for research, teaching and training.
“I expect the research is going to be about 60 percent ornamentals and 40 percent vegetables, but that could change,” he said. “Initially the greenhouse vegetable production will be used primarily for teaching and demonstration. We will get into the vegetable research later.
“Our primary focus initially is going to be on ornamental plug production and reducing plant bench time after transplanting. This includes whether we can grow better quality plugs using LEDs with less plant growth regulators. We will be looking at root development under LED lights, trying to increase rooting and production efficiency. This includes trying to improve rooting of stage 4 tissue culture propagules coming out of overseas production.”
Newman said fellow researcher and horticulture professor Bill Bauerle is planning to use the greenhouse’s corridor to study hops production using LEDs.
“Northern Colorado is becoming a central location for craft breweries,” Newman said. “There is a lot of interest in locally grown hops for the craft breweries.
“The 20-foot high ventilation corridor is ideal for growing hops. We are redesigning and reconfiguring to install the LED interlighting in order to get good vegetative growth. The hops plants will receive natural light from above and the LED interlighting between the rows. The local craft brewers are very interested in the hops research that we are planning to do.”
Collaborative research
Newman said that Philips has some of its own research agenda items that it would like to study in the horticulture center.
“The research that the company wants to do is not that different than the research that we want to do,” he said. “What Philips is planning to look at fits in with everything else that we are doing in many ways. The company will be making some specific requests. The company will be funding those project directly just like any other research program.
“The Philips research team I’m working with is very grower-oriented. The company is interested in finding out how many LED lights does it take to produce a bedding plant crop more
efficiently. How LEDs can be used to produce better quality plants. Meanwhile we will be doing our own research taking advantage of the lights. The hops research was not an agenda item for the company four months ago. Bauerle went to company officials and said let’s do this hops research and they agreed that it was worth doing.”
Philips Lighting has some of its own research items that it would like to study in Colorado State’s horticulture center, but the research is not much different than what university scientists want to do.
Newman said that Philips is interested in looking at vegetable production for the warehouse farming market, which it refers to as its city farming program.
“Unfortunately we don’t have the type of facility set up to do the warehouse style growing on site,” Newman said. “I would like to see us go into that type of production eventually. Initially with our vegetable crops we will look at biomass production. We will be putting in NFT lettuce trials.
“We also want to study nutraceutical compounds, including vitamins, and if LEDs can increase the production of nutraceuticals in vegetables. I am working with my colleagues in the horticulture and food science departments looking at the mouth feel in regards to high quality lettuce production. We will also probably look at tomatoes to increase production efficiency, plant yield, and lycopene development in the fruit. We will probably start looking to do that research in the fall.”
Future plans
Newman said he is in negotiations with the university’s dining services department to produce vegetables for its dining centers.
“I am in negotiations with dining services, which is looking to start vegan salad bars in the dining halls,” he said. “Dining services wants to put in salad bars with as much produce as possible grown in Colorado. They would like to have a certain percentage of that produce be CSU student grown. We are going to redo our student farm to try to accomplish that during the growing season. We will also be trying to grow as much of the leafy greens in this new facility to provide to the dining services’ salad bars.
“I am also working very closely with a university environmental hygiene staff person. We have to be sure that we are in compliance so that whatever produce we sell to the dining halls is as safe as it needs to be. We have to set up a good agricultural practices (GAP) plan and to review the guidelines of the Food Safety Modernization Act that just went into effect. The students who are growing the produce have to be trained in the exact practices they need to follow to deliver quality, safe food. The students have to be taught the proper ways of growing and handling food from the greenhouse to the table. All of the practices that we have to incorporate are the same as if we were going to sell the produce to a retail grocery store.”
For more: Steve Newman, Colorado State University, Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture; (970) 491-7118; Steven.Newman@ColoState.edu.
David Kuack is a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas; dkuack@gmail.com.
Houston, Texas, June 25, 2015 — Indoor Harvest Corp (OTCQB:INQD), through its brand name Indoor Harvest™, is a design build contractor, developer, marketer and direct-seller of commercial grade aeroponic and hydroponic fixtures and supporting systems for use in urban Controlled Environment Agriculture and Building Integrated Agriculture. The Company is pleased to provide an update on the Pasadena, Texas Community Located Agricultural Research Area (“CLARA”) project.
On March 31, 2015 the Company announced the signing of a LOI with the City of Pasadena, Texas to fund the establishment and provisioning of an indoor agricultural facility (vertical farm) to be located in Pasadena, Texas. Under the LOI, the City was to provide Indoor Harvest, or a partner of their designation with City approval, with two facilities owned by the City for the sum of ten dollars ($10.00) per annum for a period not to exceed twenty (20) years as well as provide tax abatements on these properties for use in a CLARA project. In addition, the Pasadena Second Century Corp. (economic development entity for the City of Pasadena) has been asked by City officials to consider a budgetary proposal of $500,000 as seed money for the project’s economic development portion in north Pasadena.
Mr. Chad Sykes, Chief Executive Officer of Indoor Harvest, stated, “We’ve received a timeline for the project through the City. We’re currently in the final stages of drafting the MOU and expect to be in a position to begin work on the project as soon as August, based on the timeline provided by the City. All of the parties involved are working together to create an agriculture campus in Pasadena that we hope will become a model for the rest of the nation. By combining agricultural research, education and commercial operations in one campus, we’re working to build a foundation to turn North Pasadena into a leader in new, innovative agricultural trends. We’ve also begun discussions with several potential commercial partners and investors interested in locating operations at the CLARA campus. Although we don’t have any binding agreements, interest seems to be significant given the background and history of groups with whom we are discussing the project.”
The CLARA project, based on current negotiations, is expected to be divided into two phases. Phase One will focus on developing the non-profit aspects of the project and is envisioned to include the construction of a 6,000 sq. ft. vertical farm R&D facility and 6,000 sq. ft. of classroom and office space. Phase Two is envisioned to support a commercial retail operation with greenhouses built on approximately two acres of land adjacent to the vertical farm and education centers.
The Phase One vertical farm facility is intended to serve dual roles, with Indoor Harvest using the facility as a demonstration farm and R&D facility and Harris County BUILD Partnership, a non-profit group, using the facility for educational and charitable purposes. It is anticipated that the crops grown will be donated, or sold at cost, to provide fresh produce to low income families in the North Pasadena area. The entire proposed campus area, almost two city blocks, will be designed and built to allow the flow of tourists without impacting operations. The City has been asked to develop a project overview to be presented in August to department heads at the Pasadena Independent School District’s Kirk Lewis Career & Technical High School and the Continuing and Professional Development Department of San Jacinto College regarding academic curriculum development to be located at the CLARA campus.
The Harris County BUILD Partnership was established in January 2015 to eliminate the conditions that cause food insecurity in north Pasadena by launching a new healthy, accessible, and community-supported local food system. The conveners of the BUILD Partnership are the Houston Food Bank, the Harris County Public Health & Environmental Services (“HCPHES”) and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Additional members of the BUILD Partnership include CHI St. Luke’s Health, Memorial Hermann Health System, Brighter Bites, CAN DO Houston, City of Pasadena, Neighborhood Centers Inc., Pasadena Health Center and the U.T. School of Public Health.
The BUILD Partnership is an extension of Healthy Living Matters (HLM), a county-wide collaborative of over 80 organizations chartered in 2011 to address childhood obesity in Harris County. There is also a Pasadena-specific version of HLM called the HLM-Pasadena Community Task Force that has 23 members local to the Pasadena community.
On June 9, 2015, the Harris County BUILD Health Partnership was selected as one of seven projects out of over 300 applicants nationwide, to receive a $250,000 grant from the inaugural BUILD Health Challenge class. The announcement was made live from the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., featuring Karen DeSalvo, Acting Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and was followed by a congratulatory letter from LaMar Hasbrouck, MD, MPH and executive director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials who remarked, “I look forward to tracking your progress and learning more about your projects’ best practices and challenges.” A portion of this grant funding will be used towards setting up the academic and non-profit portion of the CLARA project.
The Phase One initial project meeting has already been held. Caleb Harper, the Principal Investigator and Director of MITCityFarm, attended the meeting. As part of the non-profit academic portion of the CLARA project, all research would be made open source. The MIT Media Lab’s Open Agriculture (OpenAG) Initiative seeks to make agricultural research and data more available to researchers through an innovative cloud based system. Indoor Harvest is excited to continue its relationship with MITCityFarm by looking at ways to deploy the Open Ag platform at the CLARA research facility.
Chris Higgins from HortAmericas, a company involved in horticulture product distribution, consulting and services, also attended the meeting. Indoor Harvest has selected HortAmericas as a project consultant to the CLARA project. HortAmericas will assist the project by evaluating methods and process and providing feedback through the design phase as well as assisting in preparation of standard operating procedures.
It is expected that the project MOU will be finalized and property lease executed by August 2015 based on an existing timeline provided by the City. Construction on Phase One is planned for completion June 2016.
Phase Two of the project is anticipated to be developed on two acres of land currently available adjacent to the existing properties being provided by the City. Indoor Harvest, as the primary developer of the campus, expects to be able to provide commercial operators who build on the CLARA campus a unique group of incentives and key advantages in regards to distribution, manufacturing intelligence and access to resourcing and key agricultural production talent. Phase Two timeline will be dependent upon securing commercial partners who have adequate funding and approval by the City. The Company is currently in talks with several commercial parties interested in building on the CLARA campus.
In addition, the City of Pasadena is currently considering creating a tax increment reinvestment zone (TIRZ) in the immediate area surrounding the CLARA campus. A TIRZ is a public financing structure that Texas law allows to target tax revenue helping to support redevelopment in underserved areas. Such a zone, if created, could provide an additional economic incentive for tangential services to locate on the project site. As of now, the City is not obligated to create a TIRZ zone and no such zone may ever come to fruition.
Consistent with the SEC’s April 2013 guidance on using social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter to make corporate disclosures and announce key information in compliance with Regulation FD, Indoor Harvest is alerting investors and other members of the general public that Indoor Harvest will provide weekly updates on operations and progress through its social media on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Investors, potential investors and individuals interested in our company are encouraged to keep informed by following us on Twitter, Youtube or Facebook.
Indoor Harvest Corp, through its brand name Indoor Harvest™, is an emerging design build contractor and OEM manufacturer of commercial aeroponic and hydroponic system fixtures and framing systems for use in Controlled Environment Agriculture and Building Integrated Agriculture. Our patent pending aeroponic fixtures are based upon a modular concept in which primary components are interchangeable. We are developing our aeroponic and hydroponic systems for use by both horticulture enthusiasts and commercial operators who seek to utilize aeroponic and hydroponic vertical farming methods within a controlled indoor environment. Please visit our website at http://www.indoorharvest.com for more information about our Company.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
This release contains certain “forward-looking statements” relating to the business of Indoor Harvest and its subsidiary companies, which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “estimates,” “believes,” “anticipates,” “intends,” expects”and similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to be materially different from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Certain of these risks and uncertainties are or will be described in greater detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements are based on Indoor Harvest’s current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on Indoor Harvest. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting Indoor Harvest will be those anticipated by Indoor Harvest. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond the control of the Company) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Indoor Harvest undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” – William
Butler Yeats
What led you to where you are today? Chances are someone or something, somewhere,
influenced you to make a series of life choices that have led you to where you
are today. For some, it is a high school
class that inspires them to pursue their career. For me it was an after school job during high
school. One persons’ desire to grow
tomatoes during the winter in North Central Kansas ultimately led me to pursue
a PhD in plant science.
At some point in your professional career you’ll most
likely be asked to speak in front of an audience. Speaking engagements for industry
professionals are generally reserved for industry trade shows and
conferences. Sometimes, we’re invited to
speak to a group of college students during what is formally known as “seminar”. Informally, it is known as nap-time!
What if you could make a potentially long-lasting
impression to a younger demographic? One
where the majority of the audience chooses a high tech career during their
middle or high school years? And you
could do this without leaving your office.
Enter, Nepris…
What is Nepris? Technically, Nepris is “an online platform
that makes it easier for teachers to connect with industry experts to bring the
real world to the classroom.” According
to their website “57% of boys and 68% of girls who chose a high tech career say
they were inspired by one person, or one event, or one class during the middle
or high school years (STEM Perceptions study by Microsoft). What is STEM? STEM is an acronym for Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
You can learn more about STEM, here.
Basically, the Nepris platform allows educators to post a
curriculum topic to the Nepris platform and then assists by finding an industry
expert to show and tell how that topic is applied in practice. Industry experts must also create an
account. The process is simple and there
are plenty of tools to help you build your presentation framework. I should also stress that the team at Nepris
is VERY helpful.
In January, Hort Americas (yours truly) was given the
opportunity to engage high school students of an advanced biotechnology class in
TX. The students are working on individual
class projects and many of them chose the topic of hydroponics. Their teacher knew little about the subject
of hydroponics and elected to utilize Nepris to help the students learn from an
industry expert. The presentation title (selected by the teacher) was “Growing
Crops with Hydroponics”. The process was
very simple. I created my online
account, found the topic, read the description and signed up as the
speaker. There were a few dates and
times to choose from, so I selected the one that best fit my busy
schedule. The Nepris team reached out to
me immediately and we set aside 30 minutes to go over the process and content
of the presentation and that was it until the day of the presentation. When the day of the presentation arrived, I
logged into my account 10 minutes early, made introductions and gave the
presentation. This particular class
repeats, so students can remain enrolled in the class over multiple semesters.
This means that some of the experiments may continue over a longer period of
time. I offered my knowledge and
services to the class, so there is the potential of creating a long-lasting
impact on some of the students. Who
knows, perhaps one of them will become one of our industry’s next leaders. You never know.
So what’s the point?
OUTREACH! Participating in this
platform allows us to tell our story to more people. It also allows us to explain the breadth of
our industry. Think about it, greenhouse
agriculture has it all. Not only does it include STEM, but it also includes
business, sales, marketing, architecture, nutrition, culinary arts and so
on. If you’re interested please check
out the Nepris website and
create an account. Then find a
presentation, tell students how cool your job is and expose them to the “real
world”.
Article written by Hort America’s Technical manager, Dr. Johann Buck.
Visit our corporate website at https://hortamericas.com
Controlled-environment growers have long known the
benefits of grafted plants. Field growers are quickly learning them too.
By David Kuack
Plant grafting of plants has been done for thousands of
years. Preparing and using grafted vegetable plants is common in Asia, Europe
and other regions and is gaining use in North American production systems. North
American greenhouse and high tunnel growers were the first to use grafting most
routinely, but field vegetable growers are showing increased interest in the
benefits grafting has to offer.
Grafting joins the root system of one variety to the
shoot of another variety to create one “hybrid” plant. The plant used for its
roots is called the rootstock. The plant used for its stems and leaves to
produce marketable fruit is the scion.
Matt Kleinhenz, professor and extension vegetable
specialist at Ohio State University-OARDC in Wooster, Ohio, said the number of
vegetable crops that are being grafted is steadily climbing.
“Currently the core crops include tomato, watermelon,
cantaloupe, pepper, cucumber and eggplant,” Kleinhenz said. “These crops are
grafted for various reasons, including their financial value and because their
production can be limited by issues that grafting can address.”
Advantages of
grafted plants
Kleinhenz said there are a number of potential benefits
provided by grafting. These benefits apply to both the person who creates the
grafted plants and the one using them.
“The broadest description of the benefits of grafting may
be that it makes better use of genetics in production,” he said. “Single commercial
fruiting varieties are often hybrids. When developing them, the breeder attempts
to incorporate most or all of the traits that matter into each one. That
process is resource demanding. It takes time and money. It’s technically
challenging and it always involves compromise. Each and every variety is
imperfect in some way. A variety may be better than its predecessors, but it is
still imperfect in some way.”
Kleinhenz said there a number of ways in which hybrid varieties
can be imperfect. They can be less resistant to soil-borne diseases or
deleterious nematodes. They can use water or nutrients inefficiently. They can
be susceptible to various forms of abiotic (nonliving) stresses including cold,
heat or salinity.
“Instead of incorporating all of the desirable traits
into one variety, grafting creates an instant combination of two varieties,” he
said. “The attributes of the two varieties are specifically chosen, but there
is no attempt to blend them into one particular genotype, as in traditional
hybrid development. Instead, grafting provides the best of both varieties by
splicing them together. Through that splicing a new “physical” hybrid is
created for use in that production season only.”
Grafting provides the best of two plant varieties by splicing
them together. Photos courtesy of Matt Kleinhenz, Ohio State University-OARDC
Kleinhenz said traditional development of a standard
hybrid must overcome barriers to the crossing of the parents, the movement of
traits from one plant to another and the possibility that bad traits tag along.
“In grafting, two varieties must be compatible to be
grafted,” he said. “Grafting allows for the bypassing of difficult and
time-consuming steps that are required to create a superior variety that is
good from top to bottom. For this reason, grafting may increase both the range
of traits available to growers and the speed into which they come onto the
farm.”
Kleinhenz said in those systems that rely heavily on
grafting, scion varieties are bred to produce high quality fruit and rootstock
varieties are bred to power the scion. The scion does not need to resist or
tolerate soil-borne stresses and the rootstock does not have to produce
marketable fruit.
He said grafting combines two excellent varieties in a
matter of seconds. However, an average of two to three weeks may be required to
prepare the seedlings to be grafted and to allow newly grafted plants to heal
before transplanting them.
An average of two to three weeks may be required for newly
grafted plants to heal before they are ready to transplant.
Grafting potential
“Grafted plants are primarily used to limit losses due to
soil-borne diseases and deleterious nematodes,” Kleinhenz said. “Grafted plants
have shown the ability to limit losses caused by organisms that attack the root
system or the lowest shoots just above the soil line. Grafted plants are not
widely used to combat foliar or fruit diseases such as late blight of tomato
that essentially attack the shoot well above the soil line. Foliar disease
management is still primarily the responsibility of the scion.”
Kleinhenz said grafted plants have also performed well under
less than ideal growing conditions.
“Tests completed where soil salinity was high, where soil
moisture was excessive, and when soil temperatures were low have demonstrated
the high potential of grafted plants,” he said. “Grafted plants have also
out-yielded ungrafted ones when conditions were good and they have been able to
use water and fertilizer inputs more efficiently. Researchers and farmers are
testing the performance of grafted plants worldwide under many conditions to
discover where and when using them makes the most sense.”
The performance of grafted plants is being tested under many
conditions worldwide to discover where and when using them
makes the most sense.
Kleinhenz said the preparation and use of grafted plants
is market-driven.
“If users see the benefits, suppliers will offer them,”
he said. “Potential suppliers will be reluctant to prepare large quantities of
grafted plants until they are confident people will buy them.
“I recommend that potential users try them. Local
suppliers and extension personnel can assist in getting started. Growers can
also prepare their own grafted plants with just a little practice. Hands-on and
free web-based training guides are widely available.”
Playing catch up
The use of grafted vegetable plants in soil-based
production systems is much more common outside North America.
“The current cost of grafted plants, unfamiliarity with
the full benefits of using them, not being sure how to use them and their
occasionally inconsistent performance may explain the situation,” Kleinhenz said.
“Early adopters are already fairly convinced. Others are taking a more
wait-and-see approach. Adoption curves for new practices and technologies tend
to be similar. The benefits have to be clear, consistent and compelling to a
core group of growers. Then, word spreads.”
Kleinhenz said even though grafting is not new, until
recently there have been limited resources available in North America for
widespread and intense evaluation.
“The demand for alternative disease management strategies
and vigorous and resource-efficient crops is high,” he said. “New rootstock
varieties are available. More and more people have at least heard of grafting,
grafted plants themselves and/or grown grafted plants. And, the pool of
research-based information to aid growers is expanding.”
David Kuack is a freelance technical writer in Fort
Worth, Texas; dkuack@gmail.com.
Learning how to graft
The “Grafting Guide,”
available from Ohio State University-OARDC, offers a detailed, easy-to-follow
look at the entire process of grafting. It would be of interest to both
inexperienced and experienced grafters.
This comprehensive pictorial guide discusses the splice-and-cleft
graft method for tomato and pepper. It provides information on selecting
rootstocks and how to evaluate the suitability of grafted plants for use in
field and high tunnel production.
Included in the guide are a tomato rootstock table, seeding
calculator, stem diameter chart, seed treatment fact sheet, healing chamber
design and other reference materials. New additions to the guide will be
prepared as experience and research-based information become available.
Grafting symposium scheduled for Nov. 6
The 2nd annual Vegetable Grafting Symposium will be held Nov. 6, 2013, in San Diego, Calif. The event is being convened by
a USDA Specialty Crop Research Initiative-Supported University-USDA-Industry
Team hosted by the Annual International Research Conference on Methyl Bromide
Alternatives and Emissions Reductions.
The symposium’s objectives include:
1. Summarizing the current status and expected future of
grafting as a technology for enhancing U.S. vegetable production systems
related to profit, resource efficiency and sustainability.
2. Increase the understanding of challenges and
opportunities associated with preparing and using grafted vegetable plants.
3. Strengthen and diversify partnerships required to
widen the application of vegetable grafting as cornerstone technology.
4. Describe the USDA-Industry Team’s goals and approaches.
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