More screens and less heating in The New Cultivation affects the humidity in the greenhouse. And that directly affects the evaporation from the crop. Peter Kamp of Priva states: "Optimal evaporation is essential. If a plant is able to evaporate, this contributes greatly to the fruit quality and yield. When optimizing the greenhouse climate, one should look at the evaporation of the plant."
At GreenQ Improvement Centre, Kamp works on the further development of a system for plant-based process control, the so-called TopCrop system. At TopCrop, the evaporation of the leaf is monitored by plant cameras. The data collected this way are then displayed in a graph and can be displayed together with greenhouse temperature and humidity. This increases the understanding and offers the possibility to adjust the settings. The quality and the production will therefore go up.
The new greenhouse climate with HNT has a direct effect on plant activity and water absorption. At GreenQ Improvement Centre, Grodan is investigating how the watering and fertilizing can be adapted to the evaporation under the new circumstances.
Other studies currently being conducted at the Centre are Koppert, who is investigating opportunities to increase plant resistance so fewer pesticides need to be used. "We instil a solution of amino acids and plant extracts along with the nutrient solution and we follow the development of the crop health, hoping to enhance resistance,” says researcher Ed Moerman. Additional studies involve Ludvig Svenson, Israeli company Paskal and Van Dijk Heating. The project is co-financed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Province of South Holland.
Source: Florentine Jagers, commissioned by Kas als Energiebron