It's the time of crop change in the lighted tomato cultivation, so it's the time for maintenance, too. Some chores can be done during cultivation season, but changing roll facade cloths with a greenhouse full of plants, is practically impossible.
At the different locations of Lans in Rilland the old crop goes out the door in phases. It's up to the men with van Luiten Greenhouses to spruce the greenhouse up along with the rhythm of the crop change.
Sprucing up over sixteen hectares
"We're half way through with week 13 of removing old facade cloths, right behind the removal of the old tomato crop", tells Ruud den Engelsman with Luiten. Together with the renovating team he will in the coming time replace the roll facade cloths of over 19 hectares (13.7 and 5.5 hectares) of greenhouse. If necessary, the motors will be replaced too. Later this year some facades at the Maasdijk facility will be replaced as well.
Facades for days in Rilland
Now, the first new roll facade cloths, the Ridderdoek RBO100 R FR W to be exact, have been put up in Rilland. The cloths are neatly split up before transported to the greenhouse by truck. "By making the cloths exactly to size, our men don't lift too much and everything fits right on the facade."
Powerrollers
Ruud takes out his notebook and does the math: 24 cloths for greenhouse 2 and 17 for greenhouse 3. If necessary the motors are replaced, too. "Those can be really old, sometimes they can hardly take the weight anymore."
New powerrollers come in their place, at a different spot than the old motors. "We've made a calculation, so the cloth fluently rolls itself up with the powerroller."
Erwin van der Lans and Ruud den Engelsman at the signing of the deal which includes, on behalf of Lans, Michael and Theus as technicians.
Energy saving and light proof
With the renovation, with which Luitens men will be busy for some time, following the crop changing rhythm of the lighted tomato cultivation, Lans takes a step in the field of energy saving. "The new cloths are 70% energy saving, that really is a lot", ensures Ruud. "The fabric has to be stiffer than that of horizontal cloths in the ridge of the greenhouse, so the facade cloths have a greater energy saving effect."
The cloths are also 99.9 percent light proof, because that too is important. Especially to keep the neighbours happy. "Yes", knows Ruud, "with the commotion that sometimes rises about lighting, it's important to screen that off as well as possible."
For more information:
Luiten Greenhouses
www.luiten-greenhouses.com
info@luiten-greenhouses.com
Ruud den Engelsman
ruud@luiten-greenhouses.com
