
High hopes of improving quality and yield while reducing costs
Father and daughter team Lucian and Laura Ene run the biggest and most high-tech gerbera cultivation facility in Romania. The last expansion, in 2019,

‘Everything is focused on delivering the right quality for our customers’
Everything Agrokultura Group does is focused on improving the quality of its fresh produce. It combines its agronomic expertise with advanced greenhouse technology and

‘High-tech greenhouses the direction for Chinese horticulture’
As part of a joint venture with Haofeng Food Group, in 2018 the Chinese state-owned building materials company China National Building Material (CNBM) set

‘This greenhouse has everything a grower could dream of’
Little Leaf Farms is a semi-closed high-tech greenhouse facility in Devens, Massachusetts, USA. Horticultural entrepreneur Paul Sellew was keen to offer consumers in New

Austrian grower: ‘Flavour is our most important asset and we treasure that’
Quality, quality and more quality. That is key at Frutura Thermal-Gemüsewelt, an Austrian company that produces its vegetables exclusively for the Spar supermarkets. Although

The cousins Jos and Bram Moerman: ‘We keep the nursery in the family’
Many greenhouse operations are family businesses, and it can often be difficult to persuade the next generation to take the company on. At Sunnyside

‘Hybrid lighting guarantees high-quality tomatoes all year round’
A more generative plant, 10 to 12 % more production, and Brix measurements at summer levels all year round are the key results of

“We fine-tune the amount of water to the plant’s energy supply”
In Next Generation Growing, everything revolves around the needs of the plant. In the past, much of the way growers controlled the climate was

‘We aim to grow the best basil in Europe’
Christ en Jacqueline Monden of De Kruidenaer in Etten-Leur had hybrid lighting installed in their new high-tech greenhouse, in which they grow basil, just

“Combination of breeding and production is key to success”
Despite having gained a growing reputation in the world of plant breeding over the years, cultivation of pot and bedding plants is still German

“We’re aiming for 5% higher yields with more and bigger fruits”
The roofs of many new greenhouses now contain glass with an anti-reflection (AR) coating, which improves light incidence. For a long time there was

Dutch growers grow pink tomatoes in Azerbaijan for Russian market
John and Jolanda van der Lee have swapped the Netherlands for Azerbaijan to run an 11 hectare tomato nursery there. Before they left, they

“Knowledge of soil organisms is key in ideal potting mixture”
Bark, the main ingredient of orchid substrates, is steamed at high temperatures. This kills off all the impurities and pathogens. But unfortunately it also

Multiple sensors and app shed more light on slab root environment
Snack tomato nursery Vitensa of Vierpolders, the Netherlands, uses a monitoring system with multiple wireless slab sensors in two of its greenhouse sections in

“We also need to continuously improve our efficiency through automation”
The Gartneriet PKM nursery was founded by Poul and Marie Madsen north of Odense, Denmark, in 1948. Since then, their son Kristian and their

Education, business and research meet in challenging Dutch project
The World Horti Center was officially opened by Queen Máxima of the Netherlands in March 2018, although the building in the Dutch town of

“It’s all about the right balance between yield and fruit weight”
Grow light is gaining ground among high-wire cucumber growers. Reijm & Zn in Berkel en Rodenrijs in the west of the Netherlands are among

Double screen plays key role in quest for uniform climate
Don’t throw away your old shoes before you get new ones – that’s an adage the Dutch sweet pepper grower Stephan Persoon firmly believes

‘Focus is on looking for efficiencies and further increasing our yields’
New Zealand Gourmet was founded in 1985. It started off growing and exporting capsicums (bell peppers) to Japan, and blueberries and other crops such

Rootstocks: an extra instrument to achieve production goals
In the past the use of rootstocks represented an important step in the fight against soil-borne diseases. But rootstocks offer many more possibilities: Improved