With more than 120 acres of greenhouse in Leamington, plus plans to build another 175 acres in Ohio, Nature Fresh is one of the larger family owned greenhouse companies in North America. Last year, head grower René van Paassen started to trial the Paskal Growth Analysis System (GAS) inside one of their Leamington tomato greenhouses. According to him, the trial was successful and it helped support better decision making, but it will take more experience to use the system at its full potential.
No excuses
"Since we introduced the GAS in our operations we can directly see the results of our adjustments to the growing strategy," said René. "Let's say, if you change your venting or heating strategy, you will see the effects within two days. Without the system, you will need to wait for at least one week until you see the results in the crop. And then the damage is often already done...."Van Paassen states that the system confirms whether you have or have not made the right decision: "Whatever changes that you have made in the greenhouse, whether is was opening the curtains a little too early or closing them a bit too late, the system will confirm the next day if it was the right change or not. It confirms if you are moving in the right direction or not."
Large greenhouse, many opinions
Especially for such a big company as Nature Fresh, the system is very efficient and interesting, as they work with a group of growers that all have their own ideas and visions. "The GAS helps us to analyse everyone's ideas, and we can also make better growing strategies for certain varieties, because every variety demands a different approach and the system tells you directly how each variety responds."As an example, Nature Fresh Farms' R&D manager Johnny Braun mentioned the amount of leaves on the plants; a discussion that often takes place in any greenhouse. "With the help of the system we found out what worked the best in our situation," said Braun. "It really helps to analyze what is the best for a specific variety."
Workflow
As the system is still relatively new and Paskal still continues to improve and upgrade the user interface, the growers at Nature Fresh also said that it required a lot of attention from them in the first year of use. "It is a completely new technology that has never been used, so we still need to learn to work with it at an optimal
level," said Van Paassen. "We find it a good system, but there are things that need to be improved. It is time consuming, as you will be spending a lot of time behind the computer to analyse the results and make the graphics. The workflow to create personal graphics with preferred data and information still needs to be optimized." Van Paassen added that the GAS and climate computer output create so many different parameters to select, that it takes time to find out which way is the best way to grow and to read all of your graphs. "You will have to learn to use it, as if you are learning to work with a climate computer from scratch."
Peppers
Nature Fresh Farms started with 100 Paskal GAS weighing units on 16 acres, but have now increased it to 30 acres with an additional 30 units. "As we will move all of our tomato production to Delta, Ohio, we will move all of the units to the US to use it over there. If Paskal can develop a similar system that works for peppers as well, we will try that in the future too, as we definitely believe that it helps us to optimize our business."For more information on Nature Fresh Farms, please visit www.naturefresh.ca
For more information on the Growth Analysis System:
Paskal Technologies
Eliezer Adania
T
+972 4 957 5877eliezer@paskal-group.com
www.paskal-tech.com
Click here to learn more about the Growth Analysis System in an article that was previously published on HortiDaily.com