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 ...
Strap stacked pallets securely for stable transportation
At the end of the harvesting, sorting and packing process, the boxes or crates of products are stacked on pallets. It is important to ...
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 ...
Chrysanthemum growers finally get thrips control back on track
Dutch chrysanthemum growers are feeling quite optimistic about thrips control. After years of high pest pressure, growers are getting more adept at integrated pest ...
Emission-free growing on unbuffered coco with good results
A consortium of companies is trialling and demonstrating a concept for emission-free growing at the Water Innovation and Demonstration Centre in Bleiswijk, the Netherlands ...
I’ve seen the sun rise over Africa
There’s a Dutch song that starts with those words. When I’m at home in South Africa I see the sun literally rising over the ...
“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 ...
Search for key to soil resilience is logical
Resilience is a growing trend, not only in the greenhouse horticulture sector but also in society as a whole. A survey on parents’ attitudes ...
Big data poised to navigate growers to their targets
With cultivation so closely intertwined with the Internet and with the advent of crop and climate sensors, big data is becoming available to the ...
Switchable optical filters: the future of greenhouse covering materials?
One of the main tasks of the Smart Materials project was completed last year. Greenhouse simulation models were used to explore the potential effect ...
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 ...
Making headway in East Africa
Unlike roses, the protected vegetable sector in Kenya is still quite small-scale. On a recent trip there I set out to find some larger ...
Cleaning greenhouse glass regularly should be a no-brainer
Measurements in greenhouses reveal that light transmittance through the roof improves by around five percent after the annual clean. And it just so happens ...
Spread of plant viruses calls for vigilance
Viruses are among the smallest pathogens infecting other living organisms. Plants are also susceptible to a large number of viruses that can cause serious ...
Propagation via grafting and cuttings has big impact on plants
Propagation by means of cuttings and grafting has a dramatic impact on the plant. Cuttings need to form new roots and vascular bundles have ...
Crop protection products much more effective with adjuvants
Crop protection products are sometimes unfairly labelled as losing their efficacy against pests or diseases. On closer investigation it becomes clear that these products ...
Mycosphaerella
The fungus Mycosphaerella, also known as Didymella bryoniae, can cause serious problems, particularly in cucumber cultivation. It can infect leaves, stems, flowers and fruits ...
German company grows pot plants and bedding plants for upper segment
Quality is the top priority at Gärtnerei Wolter in Babenhausen, Germany, where Ute Gorges and Jörg Wolter specialise in supplying pot plants to the ...
“Hygiene protocol and resistant varieties go hand-in-hand”
As a cucumber grower you have to have iron discipline and nerves of steel. An apparently invisible enemy – CGMMV – is always lurking ...
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 ...
Prey diets greatly improve biological control by predatory mites
Predatory mites are the most important natural enemies used for biological pest control in greenhouse horticulture. Many of these predatory mites are mass-reared on ...
Poor maintenance can slash life span of spray robot by half
In many large vegetable, flower and pot plant nurseries, a spray robot moves back and forth automatically along a pipe rail or monorail system ...
Business in Trumpland
Since November of 2016, with almost every vendor from abroad, whether they’re a greenhouse builder from Holland, an orchid breeder from Taiwan, or a ...
Researchers “grow” model of ideal plant in simulated greenhouse
3D modelling is set to play an ever greater role in research. It’s an important tool in the quest to design better LED modules, ...
Advance of LEDs seems unstoppable despite critical noises
What does it say about a technical development in greenhouse horticulture when there is a marked increase in both research projects and practical trials? ...
‘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 ...
Need for resilient crop stimulates interest in silicon
The use of silicon fertilisers is clearly on the rise. Silicon can strengthen the resilience of the crop, and with an ever declining range ...
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 ...
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