Fabric covered buildings have become a very popular storage solution in the agricultural industry. Here at GGS, we have found that our Tasco Dome brand of fabric covered buildings are becoming the leading choice for storage amongst greenhouse growers.
Although we have generally experienced a milder winter so far, in the new year we can expect the weather to turn much colder and field crop farmers are likely to be looking for solutions to help protect their yields.
High Tunnels like the GGS Crop Protector are used by growers for this very reason. Though not a load bearing house ( ie. It is not designed to hold snow or support a crop ), these crop protectors are designed to cover crops in shoulder seasons when frost damage can dramatically affect a farmer’s bottom line.
A former Sony Corporation semiconductor factory in Japan has been converted into the world’s largest indoor farm. Japanese plant physiologist Shigeharu Shimamura, CEO of Mirai Co., partnered with GE Japan to make his dream of a water, space and energy efficient indoor farming system a reality. Despite having only started production a year ago, the farm is already shipping out 10,000 heads of lettuce per day.
Growing these proteins in tomatoes acts like an engine to boost the levels of phenylpropanoids and flavanoids. The same procedure could in the future be used to mass produce other natural occurring compounds that are the basis of many medications.
How many greenhouse operations are concerned with energy savings? I will bet almost every one of them at one time or another! Energy costs are at the top of the grower’s expenses and yet there are many operations that do not spend enough time investigating how to lower their energy use.
If you could go back and re-design your existing greenhouse, how many changes would you make? How many of those changes would be minor ones and how many would involve major structural, heating or other mechanical changes? Avoiding this in your future expansion is easy; have a checklist of things you should have in your greenhouse now and incorporate them into the next build.
Growing hydroponically in a greenhouse is not a recent innovation but for some growers it represents a change from the comfort of growing in soil. If one was to poll greenhouse vegetable and flower growers you would find that the majority in fact are growing hydroponically, and those who are growing in soil are hesitant to change from what they are confident in.
Structure maintenance and planning involves more than just new construction projects and a focus on expansion. Often the best dollar value for a grower is in retrofitting and modernizing existing greenhouse structures.
In order to reduce the high temperatures in greenhouses, chalk and shading paints can be applied. But what many growers do not know is that it is also possible to reduce the temperature inside the greenhouse with advanced polyfilms that reduce the temperature inside without influencing the light levels. This can be of interest for growers in areas with too much light.
Commercial growers are constantly challenged to improve production efficiencies on every possible angle. Competition is stiff, and growers must continually find ways to improve in order to remain competitive in their market. Saving even a fraction of a cent here and there goes a long way when you’re producing in high volume. Here are 6 of the most common production inefficiencies greenhouse growers face.