Salt Lake City broadcasting network Fox 13 recently visited Houweling Tomatoes' 28 acre Ultra-Clima greenhouse in Mona, Utah.
In the news item, Houweling's marketing manager David Bell explained how the large semi-closed greenhouse complex uses the emissions from the adjacent power plant to heat and fertilize the crop with heat and CO2. This was a key factor why the Canadian grower decided to build in Utah.
Bell explains to the reporter about the intense root structure. In the video you can see how the plants have been propagated on Grodan rockwool cubes and have been transplanted onto MillenniumSoils coconut husk and fiber growbags.
Next to this, Bell showed how they use Atlantic bumblebees hives from Biobest that have a special entrance to prevent the queen to exit the hive. This allows only the worker bees to exit the hive, which creates no risks to natural pollinators in the area.
Houweling's employs about 100 workers in the winter and 150 workers in the summer to deleaf, prune, pick and pack the crops. The tomatoes can be found at Smiths, Costco, Sam's Club, Whole Foods and Walmart. The greenhouse grower confirmed to Fox 13 that they are looking to double the size of the Utah facility in 2018.