On Monday, March 18, 2024, Jian, Lianne, and Manuela, students of the Cultivation & Technology program, harvested this year's first peppers in the greenhouses of Zone College in Zwolle. In the pepper greenhouse, the students conduct various experiments. This involves comparing different types of substrate mats and an experiment that is concerned with topped peppers. Jian provides us with an update.
Preparation and collaboration with the industry
The students are responsible for the entire cultivation process, which means that they have to prepare all experiments themselves. According to student Jian, they had to initiate contact with various industry professionals, such as growers, cultivation advisors, and substrate mat suppliers. "At first, this was quite intimidating, but when we noticed these parties took us very seriously, it became a lot of fun!"
Rigorous planning
Subsequently, the students drafted a research plan to ensure that they knew in advance what they had to document. They then ordered the pepper plants from the plant nursery. Student Jian says that this was quite challenging: "Since we wanted to experiment with topped pepper plants, the plant nursery had to top the plants at a very early stage. As this is not common practice, we had many discussions with the nursery.
In the second week of December, the plants were delivered. Manuela and Lianne highlight that this process followed a tight schedule. In a single day, the cucumbers were harvested, the greenhouse was cleaned and disinfected, and the new pepper seedlings were placed in the greenhouse. Manuela and Lianne found this quite stressful: "Everything went smoothly thanks to all the planning and documentation that we did in advance.
Responsibilities and greenhouse maintenance
After that, we had to hang three (biodegradable) ropes above each pepper plant before the Christmas holidays. We are also responsible for the climate settings and the irrigation," says Jian. "So, we have to check and adjust these factors regularly."
Biological control and challenges
We also had to closely monitor biological control, say Lianne and Manuela: "At the beginning of the year, we had an outbreak of whiteflies. Through deploying additional biological controls in time, we managed to control this outbreak."
The students are now very eager to see the results of the various experiments: "We've worked very hard the past few months, and we're looking forward to seeing the result of our work."
For more information:
Zone College 
Koggelaan 7
8017 JN
Zwolle, the Netherlands
Tel: (088) 26 20 500
zwolle@zone.college
www.zonecollege.nl