October 2017 CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT AGRICULTURE · more. Take a look inside their opera - tion on...

Profile: NewHampshire’s lēf Farms

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Growing gojiberries

PAGE 30If you’re looking for a niche tohelp you stand out, this cropcould be your answer

WhatAboutHops?

October 2017 CONTROLLEDENV I RONMENTAGR ICULTURE

Which substrateshould you beusing?

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Reader Service Number 200


Jennifer PolanzMANAGING EDITOR-AT-LARGEfeedback: [email protected]

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That’s where some of our stories take us in thisissue—they provide opportunities to carve out aniche. Take, for example, our cover story on hops.Don’t be mistaken—this story isn’t a wholeheartedendorsement to run out and invest in growing hops.However, we want to be on the forefront of new po-tential crops for greenhouse growers and hopscould be one of them. They have a unique angle, forsure—growing them in a greenhouse allows agrower to manipulate inputs to create a muchfaster turn than in the field, providing more har-vests a year versus one outdoors. There are somedownsides, though, so turn to page 10 to see if it’ssomething you might want to consider.

Another potential crop is growing goji berryplants for retail sale. These berries have beentouted to have multiple health benefits, and they

are chock-full of vitamins and antioxi-dants. They can be eaten raw, driedlike a raisin or juiced. Berries in gen-eral are seeing a surge in popularityand these are a nice niche opportu-nity. You can find complete culture information about growing goji berrieson page 30.

And finally, our boss, Chris Beytes,took a road trip recently to visit lēfFarms, a hydroponic baby greensgrower in Loudon, New Hampshire(ornamental growers will recognizeowner Henry Huntington’s name fromhis Pleasant View Gardens operationand partnership in Proven Winners).This operation has created its ownniche by serving the local “neighbor-hood,” which translates to New Hamp-shire, Rhode Island, Vermont,Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticutand New York. They grow for grocerystores, restaurants, food service andmore. Take a look inside their opera-tion on page 14.

When it comes to lettuce and leafygreens, LED lighting recipes can help growers cre-ate better products with greater fresh mass, varyingtastes and plant coloration, among other character-istics. These differences can help growers createnew niche markets with leafy greens as a premiumproduct demanding premium pricing. Take a lookat some of the LED lighting research related to let-tuce on page 18.

Setting yourself apart is everything in this busi-ness. I hope we’ve given you some ideas to considerin the future and I wish you success in finding yourniche!

Small to mid-sized greenhouse growersknow the best way to make a living is to

offer something that others can’t—whetherit’s superior quality, different sizes, unique

varieties or some other way to differentiate.

Carving the Niche

From Your Editor

5

editorial

EDITOR Chris [email protected]

MANAGING EDITOR Jennifer ZurkoMANAGING EDITOR-AT-LARGE Jennifer Polanz

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Jennifer D. White

contributing writers

Anne-Marie HardieDavid KuackNeil Mattson

PRODUCTION MANAGER Kathy WoottonCREATIVE DIRECTOR Chris TruesdalePHOTOGRAPHER Mark Widhalm

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DEPARTMENTS 4 | From Your Editor6 | Insider34 | New Products

FEATURES 10 | The Potential of Hops | by Jennifer Polanz

Are greenhouse hops right for you? Let’s find out.

14 | lēf Farms: A Baby Greens GreenhouseStory & photos by Chris BeytesThe Huntington family of Pleasant View Gardens in Loudon, NewHampshire, has long been a force in the Northeastern U.S. bedding plantbusiness, as a Proven Winners partner, young plant supplier andfinished plant grower. Now the Huntingtons are branching out into theworld of greenhouse-grown veggies—baby greens, to be exact— with thelaunch of a business venture with the curiously spelled name lēf Farms(pronounced leaf).

18 | Static Cookbook | by Hans Spaholz & Ricardo HernándezEffects of light quality on indoor lettuce production.

22 | Keeping Control | by Ryan DicksonHaving success with container edibles means being vigilant in the early stages.

26 | Having Substrate Issues? | by David KuackWhen growing hydroponic leafy greens, lettuces, herbs andmicrogreens, make sure the substrate, crop and production system arecompatible.

30 | Goji Berry Plant Production Tipsby Paul Cockson, Ingram McCall & Brian E. Whipker Coupled with its antioxidant and nutritional wealth, goji berry plants arenow being offered by greenhouses.

CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT AGRICULTURE

October 2017

ON THE COVERHops are still an enigma for many growers,

especially ones who grow in greenhouses. But asthe craft brewing market continues to be popular,perhaps it could be a niche opportunity for you.We explore multiple aspects of hops to see if it

would be a good fit for your operation.

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Insider

All About Labor, or the Lack of ItNatureFresh Farms, the Canadian greenhouse vegetable growerthat built 45 acres of tomato greenhouses in Delta, Ohio, is hold-

ing off on its continued expansionplans until it can find the workers topopulate future greenhouses. Theplan was to expand to almost 180

acres under glass in the next seven years, a plan we detailed ex-tensively in the February 2017 Inside Grower print supplement.

However, NatureFresh Farms Founder and CEO Peter Quiringtold the Toledo Blade the next 45-acre expansion would require90 to 100 new full-time, year-round employees, and Canadiansand Americans don't want to do greenhouse work. They start at$12 an hour entry level with the potential to move up to $18 anhour with more experience. What’s really telling is this quote:

“We’ve interviewed around 600 people in the last two years.Of that 600 people, about 30% to 40% didn’t pass a drug test. Andwe don’t care about marijuana, by the way. This is heavy drugswe’re talking about,” he told Toledo Blade reporter TyrelLinkhorn. “It’s a sad fact.”

He added they hired close to 300 from that pool, and somenever showed up, while 40 were dismissed and 90 quit, somewithin the first few days.

LED Growers’ GuideGrowers who use LED supplementallighting for crops like tomatoes, cucumbersand peppers have an additional resource attheir fingertips for free in the newdownload from LumiGrow called “LEDGrowers’ Guide for Vine Crops.”

The guide focuses solely on those threecrops and offers lighting guidelines forboosting yields, increasing crop quality and

eliciting desired plant characteristics. The recommendationsmade in the guide are based on commercial and research trials.LumiGrow offers smart lighting and adjustable spectrum LEDlights for horticulture.

You can download the guide at lumigrow.com.

Pot Town, U.S.A.The name of the town is actually Nipton, California, with a popula-tion of somewhere between 20 and six, depending on which newsreport you read. Marijuana tech company American Green re-cently announced it purchased Nipton with the idea to turn it into“the country’s first energy-independent, cannabis-friendly hospi-tality destination.”

However, law enforcement in San Bernardino County mighthave something else to say about that. According to a story onCapitol Weekly, once the news got out about the purchase, thecounty sent a notice to American Green about a county ordinancebarring unincorporated areas (whichNipton is) from all sales, distributionand production of cannabis. The storyquotes project manager StephenShearin as saying he knows about theordinance, but still thinks something can be worked out. “Thatdoesn’t mean this is not going to happen,” he says in the story.“We’re concerned about it, but not anxious.”

The town actually has some pretty cool roots: it was literally atthe crossroads of two mining wagon routes in the early 1900s(anyone hearing Clapton in their head yet?), and consisted of ahotel and a trading post, among a few other buildings. AmericanGreen bought everything for $5 million, including an RV park andcampground. Here’s the plan, according to the company’s mediarelease: “Ultimately, the company would like to offer a variety ofcommercial and recreational attractions including: CBD and min-eral baths, cannabis-product retail outposts, artists-in-residenceprograms, culinary events, and Bed-and-Breakfast lodging tocomplete the charming, small-town experience.”

Sunset Tomatoes & Coal MinersMastronardi Produce Ltd., in conjunction with an agtech startup, has identified former coal miners as apotential source of labor, creating a possible dou-ble win for both the workers and the grower. The

grower, which has theSUNSET brand of fresh produce, isworking with AppHarvest to bringhigh-tech greenhouses to the

Appalachian regions of Kentucky and West Virginia.More than 10,000 jobs have been lost in Eastern Kentucky

due to the decline of coal, according to a statement released byMastronardi Produce. “The spirit of the region is unmatchedand we want to work alongside those hardworking men andwomen,” says AppHarvest Founder and CEO Jonathan Webb.“Our goal is to provide economic development and opportunityfor this region.”

The plans call for a 1.8 million sq. ft. greenhouse in EasternKentucky on top of a reclaimed coal mine. Jonathan says ap-proximately 65% of the U.S.’s population and income live withina day’s drive of the site. Mastronardi will be the exclusive mar-keter for AppHarvest.

Growers will have another tool in their belt with Howler, a uniquetrademarked biological fungicide from AgBiome that will be mar-keted by AgBiome Innovations. This fungicide is OMRI-listed foruse in certified organic production and hasan excellent non-refrigerated shelf life. Ac-cording to the company, Howler is a “revolu-tionary fungicide that harnesses the powerof the plant microbiome to create an effica-

cious fungicide with multiple modes of action that provide pre-ventive, long-lasting activity on a broad spectrum of soilborne andfoliar diseases.”

It can be used effectively in all phases of produc-tion and combats botrytis, phytophthora, Pythium,rhizoctonia and more. It’s effective on lettuce, pep-pers, spinach, strawberry, tomato and others.

Find out more athttp://agbiome.com/howler/.

Howler: An OMRI-listed Fungicide

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Combating Pepper Weevils (plus Mobile Education)Sharing is caring and the folks at NatureFreshare hoping that sharing will result in better re-sults for everyone when it comes to takingdown pepper weevils. One of the company’s

IPM Managers (aka co-captain of the BugBrigade) Tina Friesen, recently wrote a blog post

on the NatureFresh site about dealing with the pest,which has been a thorn in the side of Ontario green-

house growers for a while now.While they’re working on it internally, it’s a larger problem impact-

ing lots of growers. So now there’s a pepper weevil message board de-signed specifically for industry growers to share their thoughts andhow they combat the pest. It’s free to register and view what others aredoing, as well as contribute what you’re up to: http://weeviltalks.proboards.com/

Stateside, NatureFresh deployed its mobile Greenhouse EducationCenter again during the summer for a third year; it’s a 38-ft. custom-built vehicle that shows exactly how the company grows its vegetablesin a greenhouse. The company employs college students to run themobile GEC and act as brand ambassadors, and so far, it’s been workingto help steer consumers toward the NatureFresh brand.

“We are able to immediately impact consumers purchasing deci-sions at store level with the knowledge we share about how we growgreenhouse vegetables,” says Cole Burkholder, GEC Team Member andthird year Environmental Science Major from Ohio State University.“The look on people’s faces when we explain the greenhouse growingprocess and they see the live plants with real fruit, it’s priceless, youkind of see that ‘a-ha’ moment in their eyes. We’ve even had customersshow us their shopping carts when leaving to show us the tomatoes orbell peppers they have purchased because of our conversation.”

New Container Growing UnitA Finnish company called Exsilio has created a re-designed container for cultivating lettuce greens andherbs, among other veggies, in urban environmentscalled the EkoFARMER. And now the company wants topartner with restaurants, farmers, researchers and otherusers with their EkoFARMER product. According toExsilio, the 13-meter long farming module (approximately42.5 ft. long) is a turnkey growing solution that “only re-quire a location, water and electricity outlets.” Everythingelse can be controlled efficiently in order to produce opti-mal yield and flavor.

“EkoFARMER is an excellent option for businesses inneed of salads, herbs, (edible) flowers or medicinal plants,for example,” says Thomas Tapio,CEO of Exsilio. “Thesocial aspect of urbanfarming is also promi-nent. For this reason,our solution is suit-able for associationswanting to earn someextra income, or soci-eties wanting to offermeaningful activitiesfor the unemployed, for example. This is an opportunityto create new micro-enterprises.”

The module can produce approximately 55,000 pots ofsalad per year and the price will likely run slightly over100,000 euros or $113,000 U.S. dollars. Thomas says therealso will be a leasing model for a monthly payment.

Find out more at http://ekofarmer.fi.

In April, the National Organic Standards Board met to discuss thecontroversial issue of how and if hydroponic and other container-grown systems should be certified organic. While some had hopedfor a vote on the issue, others suspected that NOSB would delay

the matter. And a delay is what we got. The committee that produced a

“discussion document” recommendingthe elimination of hydroponic,aquaponic and aeroponic productionmethods from the USDA organic pro-gram presented their case to boardmembers. But the board indicated theywant more information, analysis andtime.

It’s important to note that between the November 2016 NOSBmeeting (where they also sent the issue back to committee for fur-ther clarification) and this meeting, five NOSB members rotatedoff the board and five new members arrived.

Lee Frankel, executive director of the Coalition for SustainableOrganics, which supports allowing the certification of these vari-ous forms of production, gave his take to their membership on themeeting.

Lee wrote, “The most common theme emerging from the

thoughts shared by the board members was the sense that theywere ‘conflicted.’ Most board members expressed that theythought organics is primarily about the soil, but that containersystems seemed to have an important place as well in organics.”

Lee says, “Most members expressed a desire to find some typeof compromise that would restrict some current production of or-ganics but to include enough container production systems toavoid the rise of a strong competitive label (similar to non-GMOcertified) for growers using container production systems.”

There’s also a sense that NOSB wants to make sure the organiccommunity can vet and respond to a proposal. Lee says they wantto ensure that “any decision by the NOSB would have credibility inthe eyes of the industry, USDA and elected officials.” (The NOSBonly makes a recommendation to the USDA on how to proceed;their vote does not equal a final rule change.)

So, what can we look forward to? It’s possible you could see arevised proposal by this fall, but it’s also possible that they won’thave something ready to vote on until spring 2018. For now, hy-droponics, aquaponics and all other forms of container productioncan still be certified organic. The NOSB, which meets twice a year,is scheduled to meet in person October 31 to November 2 in Jacksonville, Florida. The meetings are open to the public but will not be broadcast via webcast.

NOSB Delays Organics Container Decision, Again

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Philip’s Huge New Russian ProjectPhilips Lighting recently announced it will provide LED horticul-tural lighting for the largest LED growing facility ever at nearly 62acres, or 2.7 million sq. ft., about 350 km southwest of Moscow.The facility will grow tomatoes and cucumbers in greenhousesthat will be equivalent in size to about 40 soccer pitches.

Philips is working with Dutch partner Agrolux and Russianinstaller LLC ST Solutions for the installation over the next threemonths. Philips Lighting will provide light recipes optimized forgrowing tomatoes and cucumbers, training services, and 65,0001.25m long Philips GreenPower LED toplights and57,000 2.5m long Philips GreenPower LEDinterlights.

The design will reduce the electric-ity consumed to light the crop byup to 50% as compared with con-ventional horticulture lightingand uses light recipes to boostquality and crop yields by up to30% in the darker winter months,says Udo van Slooten, businessleader for the company’s horti-cultural lighting business.

A brand new study was just released by the USDA’sEconomic Research Service on Food Safety Prac-tices and Costs Under the California Leafy GreensMarketing Agreement (LGMA).

A little backstory: the California LGMA is an over-sight program designed to ensure leafy green prod-ucts are grown, processed and shipped safely. Thenewest report highlights the costs associated withgrowers and processors related to the regulations re-quired by the LGMA. These are all field growers, butthe report shows some interesting findings related

to how expensive it is to meetthe California requirements.

For example, the No. 1 andNo. 2 costs are for workers im-plementing the food safety

plans—for food safety and clerical staff, and at theforeman harvesting level. The No. 3 cost was forthird-party audits, which are often required by buy-ers, and the No. 4 cost was for lost product associ-ated with animal intrusion (something ourgreenhouse and vertical growers—hopefully—don’thave to worry much about). And rounding out thebottom was the cost of water-quality testing, whichonly accounted for about 2% of the measured costs.

So why incur these added costs? The report high-lighted a rather startling statistic—one you may haveheard before. The CDC attributed 46% of all food-borne illnesses with a known food vehicle from 1998to 2008 to produce. Of that, 23% (the largest category)were from leafy green vegetables.

Traceability Made EasierPart of food safety is being able to quickly and easily traceproducts and who was responsible for them down theline. Dynamic Systems has released a new end-to-endtraceability system for aquaponic, aeroponic andhydroponic growers using the SIMBA line of barcodetracking and labeling solutions. Previously DynamicSystems had released SIMBA for field production use.

This system gives the processor the ability to record,label and track products fasterand more accurately while in-cluding multiple data points. It

uses an automated system to track producers througheach stage of growth, using tablets or touch screen com-puters in the growing area to collect details like producetype, nutrients added, start and end time at each stage,harvest date and time, etc. The software is able to collectlot or batch numbers, maintaining traceability from seedthrough growing and packaging.

It can also print labels, as well as interface to scales andautomatic label applicators, for a fully automated process.

To find out more about this system, go to http://dynamic-systemsinc.com/software/produce/.

Grow-Tech’s New Plug DesignCalled the CatEyePlug (a trademarked product), the new introduction fromGrow-Tech LLC can be squeezed with one hand, opening up the “eye” andallowing a cutting to be stuck easily without forcing it into the media. Onceyou let go, it closes, holding the cutting in place. According to the company,the plug is designed for easy transplanting of delicate plant material liketissue culture, microcuttings and other hard to start plants.

“Grow-Tech works with several companies that produce tissue cultureplants,” said Edwin Dijkshoorn, CEO of Grow-Tech. “Following the success-ful launch of our ZenPlug for large tissue culture root structures, theCatEyePlug is designed for small delicate root systems.”

Grow-Tech also announced that it joined the Dümmen Orange familyof brands. According to information released by both companies: “Grow-Tech will benefit from Dümmen Orange’s expertise and innovationpipeline and will be better positioned to serve its customers. DümmenOrange welcomes Grow-Tech’s products and market know-how and itsup-to-date understanding of customer needs, especially in the North

American market.”Edwin adds this: “We

are very excited to bepart of this team … Thedeal between two privateequity owned companieswas straight forward, rec-ognizing the trend tomarket consolidation be-tween growers and theirsuppliers.”

The Maine-basedGrow-Tech will continueto operate as an inde-pendent company.

Insider

Food Safety Continued


10

Hop cones are rather pretty right off thebine (yes, bine, not vine) and they tasteeven better when added into your favoritebrew. The craft brew industry has skyrock-eted in the past 10 years, and while currentnumbers show growth slowing a bit, there’sstill a need out there for quality hops.

That’s where the greenhouse growercomes into play. If you’re looking for a nicheproduct to grow, you might want to con-sider hops. Here, we’ll explore multiple as-pects of the crop and you can see if it’s theright fit for your operation (or if it warrantsfurther exploration).

THE HOPS MARKETFirst let’s take a look at demand. Accordingto the Brewer’s Association, an organizationfor small and independent craft brewers,the craft brew industry grew by 6% last year.That’s slower than the double-digit growththat had been seen each of the previouscouple of years. But as more craft brewerscome online, they seem to be searching forunique varieties that create different flavorprofiles and varying degrees of bitterness,along with the traditional, more popular varieties.

The industry is going through some con-traction, too, with brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev buying up several small craftbreweries, such as Goose Island(Chicagoans!), Blue Point, 10 Barrel, WickedWeed and Kona Brewing, among others. It’snot just A-B, either, as MolsonCoors boughtRevolver Brewing, Hop Valley and Terrapin.As those craft breweries move into the port-folios of larger brewers and get wider distri-bution, it creates somewhat of an openingfor smaller, independent breweries to com-pete in their regions, touting locally brewedbeers.

WHAT’S INVOLVEDFor the nuances of growing hops in agreenhouse, we turned to plant stress phys-iologist and craft beer lover Bill Bauerle, aprofessor at Colorado State Universitywho’s studying the science (and art) ofgrowing Humulus lupulus under glass inthe state-of-the-art CSU Horticulture Cen-ter. Right now, he’s working in a 40-ft. wide

Crops

by JENNIFER POLANZ The Potential of Hops

Are greenhouse hops right for you? Let’s find out.

Bill Bauerle studies thescience (and art) of growinghops in the state-of-the-art

CSU Horticulture Center.

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by 80-ft. long greenhouse bay that totals3,200 sq. ft.

His five varieties (Cascade, Centennial,Chinook, Galena and Willamette, whichare all publicly released by the USDA) aregrown hydroponically in an artificial sub-strate, allowing precise control of nutri-tion and drip irrigation. He’s experimentedwith several different types of media andhas found that most inert media like perlite and coco coir will work.

He’s tried multiple types of starts—likefrom rhizome, rooted cuttings and tissueculture—and hasn’t yet settled on whichis best. The crops are lit with two types ofLED lighting: top lights and intracanopylights, allowing Bill to control the pho-toperiod and manipulate flowering.

Bill says different varieties respond todifferent cultural changes, like daylength,temperature and nutrition, so one sizedoes not fit all. Part of the key, too, ingrowing hops indoors is having enoughroom vertically—they grow very quickly.There also are early-, late- and middle-flowering varieties, so the results can bevariable based on the plant.

“Basically, what I’m seeing there is, be-cause we’re in a controlled environment,we can actually flower the plants in a lotearlier stage than you can in the field,” headds. “You can shorten that window up.The detriment in doing that is you possi-bly jeopardize your yield … because theplant is smaller if you ask it to flowersooner rather than later.”

Colin Clark is the head grower ofHydro Hop Farms, the only commercialhydroponic hops farm in the country (sofar). The 5,000-sq. ft. greenhouse in North-ern Colorado contains 2,000 Columbus,Chinook and Cascade hops plants.

“I saw the demand of craft beer sky-rocketing and realized the productionand distribution of hops was very lim-ited,” says Colin, whose background is inhydroponic greens. “I wanted to changethat by creating top-quality hops in anyclimate at any location during any time ofthe year.”

He’s found hops require more workover the winter and in early spring, sinceit’s a perennial.

“This was a new challenge for me, butwe quickly found success in our meth-ods,” he notes. “Growing 25-ft. hops on a10-ft. trellis was also a challenge that wewere able to overcome by using tech-niques perfected in the hydroponictomato industry.”

Colin says right now he only harvestsfor one extended season, April through

October, but he believes with proper light-ing and controls, growers can get multipleharvests per year.

Back at CSU, under the Philips LEDfixed lights and with individual nutrientinjectors for each variety, Bill can get aminimum of three turns with a maxi-mum of five turns a year. And thoughhops are fast and relatively easy to grow,there are still pest issues to contend with.

Bill has seen spider mites and thrips,and to a lesser extent aphids. In terms ofdiseases, the possibility for powderymildew, verticillium wilt and a few othersexists. He’s gone biological in combatingpests, incorporating predatory mites intothe greenhouse. Colin also has contendedwith aphids, caterpillars, mites, thrips andgrasshoppers.

“I’ve created an intense IPM programthat utilizes the appropriate pesticide ap-plication mixed with the usage of benefi-cial predator insects,” he says.

WHERE’S THE NICHE?So how could an ornamental or herb andveggie greenhouse grower compete inthis space? Here’s the rub—field-grownhops can only be harvested one time ayear, in the fall. In the greenhouse, de-pending on a multitude of factors, turnsseem to range from one or two up to five.The beauty in that is a steadier supply ofhops, as well as a larger niche of “wet”hops, or freshly harvested product.

“Wet hops are a rarity,” Colin says.“(They are) usually harvested withinhours of being dropped into the brew ket-tle. Wet hops are usually sold at a higherprice per pound than dry hops. Fivepounds of wet hops equals one pound ofdry hops.”

Some brewers create specialty brewsas soon as those cones are off the binefeaturing the wet hops, which creates a“buzz” (forgive the pun) around exclusiveseasonal releases. Examples includeFounders Brewing Co.’s Harvest Ale,Sierra Nevada’s Northern Hemisphere,Deschutes Brewery’s Hop Trip and 3Floyds Brewing Co.’s Broo Doo. They’rerare, though, because of the difficulty ofharvesting and quickly getting the hopsinto the batch.

Greenhouse growers also have the po-tential to maximize the essential oils andflavor profiles of the hops by manipulat-ing the nutrients provided at the flower-ing stage, which can be a uniquemarketing position for a hops seller. Forexample, some hops are called bitteringhops, which are added in the beginning of

the brewing process, and they havehigher alpha and beta acid contents.They’re important to the brewing process,but very little of this flavor profile actuallypersists into the final taste, Bill says.Other hops are called aroma, which havelower alpha and beta acids, but higher fla-vor compounds are added at the end ofthe brew to give the beer more flavor.

Another positive is the ability for asmall or mid-sized grower to create a re-lationship with a brewery to supply one ora few local establishments consistently.Colin says while he doesn’t necessarilycontract with brewers because right nowdemand is outpacing production, he doesbuild those relationships.

“I do encourage every brewer to comeout to the farm and inspect the cones be-fore we harvest,” he says. “I feel the closeconnection between the brewer and thefarming practice is important.”

The team at Rough Bros. Inc., acommercial greenhouse company inCincinnati, recognized the potential forgreenhouse hops as well. They featured ahydroponic hops system in the booth atCultivate’17 in Columbus and saw lots ofinterest from smaller growers looking fora unique niche.

Rough’s Keith Bemerer says the sys-tem can work one of two ways—a green-house grower working with brewers togrow their hops or a brewer adding agreenhouse on-site to grow their ownhops. Either way, Rough is creating aturnkey approach with two differentsized greenhouses available: a 30-ft. by108-ft and 30-ft. by 60-ft.

“That way we keep it simple,” he says.“The beauty of this system is the house isexpandable; if the person wanted to putanother range on they could do that.”

THE DOWNSIDESAs with many crops, there are downsidesto hops and the main one is labor. BothBill and Colin commented about how dif-ficult it is to harvest hops.

“The cones develop throughout theentire plant … you can’t ask it to flower atdifferent portions of the bines at differenttimes,” Bill explains. “That’s why it’s sointensive out in the Pacific Northwestbecause all of these hops come intoripening all at the same time.”

He adds that out in fields it’s aboutthree weeks to a month of constant pick-ing by hand to get all the plants har-vested, and the same thing happens inthe greenhouse, but as of right nowthere’s no automation that can do it for

u

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you. It’s not like in the field, wherethey’ve been able to develop some au-tomation to pick the flowering hops.

Colin’s comments were similar, not-ing that it’s a pain point for greenhousegrowers looking at adding hops. “To finda proper balance between yield and labor,two harvests per year is what I recom-mend,” he says.

Keith at Rough says the greenhousesthey’re proposing for hydroponic hopsgrowers would be mostly automatedwith fertigation and growing equipmentcoordinated through an environmentalcontrols system, allowing one person torun the house for most of the growingtime except for harvest.

The market is still an issue, as well.The wet hops would have to continue tocommand a premium price, which likelywouldn’t happen if there are more wethops available with increased commer-cial production. So in the end, it would—as with all greenhouse crops—comedown to decreasing input costs and laborcosts to make a profit or creating a pre-mium product through exclusive vari-eties and enhanced flavor.

GLASS HALF FULL?Colin sees a promising future for green-house hops as long as others jump onboard to create niche markets.

“It will take more than my efforts tocreate a new industry out of hydroponichops, but I truly feel that the future looksgood,” he says. “I’ve spoken with manyother small farms looking to follow in ourfootsteps next season. I see a slow,steady growth over the next three to fiveyears.”

Bill says future success will be basedon yield and will depend on brewers pay-ing for a premium product. However, thepossibilities are there.

“Like poinsettias or other floriculturecrops, you could actually now have hopvarieties ripening every week or howeveroften. I didn’t know how important thatwas, but come to find out these brewerieshave very timeline-specific schedules forhow they make these brews project outto months in advance. There is a lot ofpotential there similar to the poinsettiacrop arriving at Christmas.”

I think we can all raise a glass to thatpotential.

MORE RESOURCES

l Learn more from Colorado State UniversityProfessor Bill Bauerle at www.hoponics.com.

l Colin Clark of Hydro Hop Farms has createdthe Hydroponic Hop Manual for thoseinterested in learning the ins and outs ofgrowing hops indoors. It can be found atwww.hydrohopfarms.com.

l Find out more about the hydroponic hopsturnkey greenhouse at www.roughbros.com.

Crops


This summer, we sat down with Henry Hunting-ton to learn more. Our first question? Why?Wasn’t Pleasant View Gardens keeping the fam-ily busy enough?

“Absolutely!” Henry answered with a laugh.He went on to explained that the next generation(his son, John, and his brother Jeff’s sons Andyand Ben) was coming into the business and thefamily wanted to diversify their horticultural in-vestments to something beyond bedding plants.Henry said he’d long been intrigued by green-house vegetables and also saw a “huge” oppor-tunity in the local food movement—especially ingreens.

“Go into a grocery store and what do you seein the lettuce section?” he asked. “You seeabout this much head lettuce (makes a narrowgesture with his hands) and you see this muchbaby greens (holds his arms wide). And it’s all

from California. We saw that as a huge opportu-nity to grow baby greens locally.”

That is, if they could fully automate the grow-ing and harvesting. “The last thing I wanted todo was have a ton of people out there with scis-sors because that just defeats the whole pur-pose,” Henry said, in recognition of the scarcityand cost of labor.

To oversee the operation, the Huntingtonsturned to Bob LaDue, whom they met duringtheir preliminary business explorations. Bob hasmore than 20 years of greenhouse greens expe-rience, most notably at Cornell’s floating lettucerange. He impressed them with his knowledgeand experience, and they realized he was key tothe success of their venture.

They broke ground September 1, 2015, withthe hopes of being in production by June 1 ofthe following year, but delays with the Finnish hy-droponic system (see sidebar) pushed back the

first sowing until the fall of 2016, with the firstsaleable harvest coming in January of this year.They used the fall of 2016 to work the initialkinks out of the system—something they’re stilldoing as they transition through the seasons.

SALES THUS FARTheir first eight months of effort has been in fivemarkets: grocery stores, restaurants, hospitality,institutional food service and distributors. Distrib-utors were the first to jump on board, sellinganywhere from 50 to 300 cases per weekacross New England. In fact, they recentlysigned on with the nation’s two largest, Ciscoand U.S. Foods. We assumed the first cus-tomers would be small grocers, not big distribu-tors. Henry assumed that, too.

“Yeah, I thought we were going to get intothe supermarkets before we got into the distrib-utors,” he agreed. “I thought they were going tobe the tougher ones.”

He admits it’s been a slow start because ofprice resistance, but lēf has held firm, saying,“We think once people try this, they’ll like it—es-pecially the higher-end restaurants.” Henry saysthe distributors wanted him to lower his price,arguing that at $5.00 a pound, they might sell 20cases a week, whereas at $3.50 per pound,they’d sell 200 cases a week.

“We said we were willing to start out at 20cases a week because we were confident itwould build,” he says. “We’ve stuck to our guns,

14

The Huntington family of Pleasant View Gardens in Loudon, NewHampshire, has long been a force in the Northeastern U.S.bedding plant business, as a Proven Winners partner, young plantsupplier and finished plant grower. Now the Huntingtons arebranching out into the world of greenhouse-grown veggies—babygreens, to be exact—with the launch of a business venture withthe curiously spelled name lēf Farms (pronounced leaf).

Grower Profile

lēf Farms: A Baby Greens GreenhouseStory & photos by CHRIS BEYTES

15

and I’m glad we have, because it has built.”One of the reasons they haven’t yet cracked

the grocery stores is because of another regionalgreens competitor that hit the market six monthsahead of them, and to whom the stores havemade commitments. But Henry is confident inlēf’s superior quality and says those chains arecoming around. “They now have determinedthat they want the product; now it’s just a nego-tiation on price.”

lēf is at about half capacity right now, Henrysays. They spent a year learning to grow in thehydroponic gutters at their PVG R&D facility,where they were able to achieve 3 lbs. of greensper trough. “Right now, we’re getting maybe apound and a half per gutter, so we know thatonce we get some of these kinks worked out ofthe system, we can get three pounds. And that’swhen we’ll really hit our stride and make somemoney on this product.”

The first seven months have offered a fewchallenges, such as having to battle neighborsover light pollution from the greenhouse’s HIDlights (they got past that one by promising to putin a blackout curtain when they do their next ex-pansion). Meeting food safety requirements is anongoing task. For instance, every bag of greensgoes through an x-ray machine to scan for for-eign objects.

“That’s been interesting,” Henry says of foodsafety. “You don’t have anywhere near that onthe flower side of things, right? And with all the

new FSMA [Food Safety Modernization Act] reg-ulations, just trying to figure out how to managethat within a new organization. The good newsis we were more proactive about it.” He points toone example: the extra thick and durable floorcoating in the packing area (which cost an extra$50,000).

“We’re starting out way ahead of where mostcompanies are, especially in this region. We’renot in an old barn that has swallows up in therafters. So when the state came in and did theirinspections, they were blown away by howclean we were because their experience is notthat.”

But the biggest challenge has simply beenlearning the growing system and the crop’s re-quirements as they transition from season toseason.

“I just want to get through a year,” he sayswith a weary chuckle.

ENTER THE MACRONThen there’s that funny name, lēf Farms. Weasked Henry if he knew what the little line overthe “e” is called.

“A macron,” he answered. “Very good! Not too many people know that,”

we replied.“Thank you,” he said with a smile. “Our IT guy

figured out a way to change everybody’s com-puters so when they spell ‘lef’” it automaticallyputs in the macron.”

He then explained the genesis of the name. “Based on our experience with Proven Win-

ners, we knew that we needed to be different,we needed to stand out. Even though we mightbe one of only one or two local producers, thereis still a whole [produce] case of California let-tuce and greens out there. We wanted ourpackaging to be different, we wanted a differentname, we wanted to be able to tell our story—about how it’s sustainably grown and pesticidefree—all that kind of stuff. We wanted to build abrand that was recognized.”

Speaking of building, the column stubs forphase two of lēf Farms are already being set.The current production line will support 150,000sq. ft. of greenhouse, and the cooler and pack-ing line can support 300,000 sq. ft. “At the mini-mum, that’s our goal,” says Henry.

“I think we’ve got a lot of room to expand justin this small market that we’ve started in, thisnorthern New England marketplace,” he con-cludes. “There are markets that we haven’t got-ten into yet, like home-meal-delivery services.And if we can take it to other parts of the coun-try, that would be something we’d like to do,too. We’d like to be able to build a national lēfbrand.”

At which point, everyone will know what amacron is.

Center: A sea of baby greens and a gutter just headed to harvest.Above: Henry Huntington, president and CEO of lēf Farms, spends about half his time at the family’s new baby greens facility.

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Once sown and watered in, thegutters are put under the main layerof gutters for a few days to germi-nate. Then they’re conveyed up tothe main layer for growing on, mov-

ing slowly from one end of thegreenhouse to the other, eventuallygetting spaced out just a bit.

After 14 days, the gutters moveinto the 38F (3C) cooler/packing

The system comes from aFinnish firm called GreenAutomation, which claims 2.1million sq. ft. of automated saladgreens systems installed overthe last 30 years.

It features 19 ft.-long plasticgutters that move automaticallythrough the facility—from fillingand sowing to germination,finishing and harvest, then backfor cleaning and refilling—allcontrolled by computer. It takesjust 14 days, start to finish, for agutter to travel through thesystem. That’s why they choosebaby greens over standardgreens: With such a quick turn,there’s little risk of insects ordiseases, allowing lēf to growpesticide free.

One major change lēf madeto the system was the use of apeat-based media rather thanthe rockwool that GreenAutomation usually uses. Bobsays they didn’t want to dealwith the disposal headaches ofrockwool. This required aredesign of the gutters and theirintegrated irrigation channel,which added time to the project.Each gutter has two long,narrow channels filled with soil.

The seeders are interesting:vertical disks with vacuum holeson one side that drop seeds intothe gutters as they passunderneath. Multiple seedersallow for fast changeover ofvarieties because there aremultiple varieties growing at alltimes. That’s how lēf makes theirmixed greens recipes.

16

The seeders are unique, featuring vertical spinning disks that dropthe seeds into the gutters passing beneath.

Young greens that have just come up from germinating underneaththe main layer of gutters. In about 10 days, they’ll have traveled tothe other end of the greenhouse and will be ready to harvest.

Greens are fed by variety to the bagger as needed for theblend they’re making.

Each bag is x-rayed before boxing to spot anyforeign objects. E-coli and other diseases areprevented through strict sanitation protocols.

The packing machine turns loose greensinto mixed bags.

Spinning stainless steel blades shear off the baby greens as thegutter passes below.

TheFinnishLineWe got the details on

lēf Farm’s hydroponic

system from VP/COO/

head grower Bob LaDue

area, where a pair of horizontalspinning blades slice off theyoung greens, leaving just thestems. The gutters head backto the production area for emp-tying, washing and refilling, whilethe greens get sorted by varietyonto multiple buffer lines.

The computer knows whichblend is being created and callsfor the appropriate greens to beconveyed to the filling ma-chine—a towering hulk in thecenter of the packing room.Greens are sorted and bagged,x-rayed for foreign objects, thenboxed. The whole system takesminimal human input.

Currently, lēf Farms offersthree baby greens mixes:Smooth (leaf lettuce, pac choi,mizuna and oakleaf), Spice(arugula, mustard, cressida,mizuna and leaf lettuce) andBalance (red and green kale). Allare offered in 5-oz. retail and1½-lb. institutional bags.

Grower Profile


18

Lighting

StaticCookbook Effects of light quality onindoor lettuce production.

by HANS SPAHOLZ &RICARDO HERNÁNDEZ

The production of leafy greens—such asmicrogreens, leafy lettuce and head lettuce—in closed growing environments commonlycalled vertical farms (VF) has gained muchinterest across the U.S. In order to producehealthy, high-yielding crops under VFconitions, it’s imperative to monitor andcontrol the different environmental factors,such as humidity, temperature, carbondioxide, nutrients, light intensity and lightquality (spectrum).

Most of the environmental factors can bemeasured and quantified relatively easily. Forexample, nutrients can be measured by moni-toring the EC and pH. However, light is one ofthose variables that’s less straightforward tounderstand—in particular, the spectrum. Lightintensity is also a key factor and a range of 10to 14 mol.m-2.d-1 is sufficient to produce leafygreens.

The less-understood key component tolight is the light spectrum requirements. Thespectrum requirements often depend on thegrower’s objective. Some spectrums maxi-mize plant growth (dry mass accumulation),plant weight (fresh mass accumulation), plant

Figure 1. Young lettuceplants in the researchers’light quality chamber.

19

architecture (leaf area, number ofleaves), plant coloration (chlorophyll,anthocyanin) and plant flavor (bitter-ness, crunchiness). By changing thelight spectrum, we’re able to influencethese physiological responses.

In our research group, we’re focus-ing on developing recipes that maxi-mize a variety of desirable plantresponses (growth, weight, architec-ture, coloration, flavor, etc.). In addition,we also would like to fully harness thecapability of LED technology to create“dynamic light recipes” that change ac-cording to plant growth stage. Usingdynamic light recipes not only willmaximize plant growth, but also reduceelectricity consumption. Currently,we’ve been working on understandingplant responses to “static light recipes”(Figure 1), which we define as providingone permanent spectrum for the entiregrowth cycle. The result from this re-search will provide key information todevelop and test dynamic light recipes.

RESULTS: STATIC LIGHT RECIPE RESEARCH The purpose of our research is to find ablue to red light ratio that’s best forgrowing lettuce; a light recipe that con-siders maximizing both morphologicaland nutritional components (phyto-chemicals). To examine different blueand red light ratio recipes, Red Oakleaflettuce was grown indoors for 42 daysunder a 13 mol.m-2.d-1 DLI with an 18-hour photoperiod. All light was sup-plied with LEDs and all but onetreatment had blue, red or both. Thetreatments and a summary of the re-sults are detailed in Figure 2.

The “sun” treatment was the onlytreatment that included additionalwavelengths and was created to ap-proximate a sunlight spectrum. Thissunlight treatment was set up to satisfythe ratio of each color range by propor-tion of UV (200 to 400 nm), blue (400 to500 nm), green (500 to 600 nm), red (600to 700 nm) and far-red (700 to 800 nm).

Two things should be noted aboutthis specific light recipe: First, from the

plants’ point of view, the UV portion ofthis recipe was satisfied only with UV-A and completely lacking UV-B (UV-Bis needed to illicit certain UV-B plantresponses). Secondly, this recipe hadsimilar energy consumption as to therest of blue:red ratio recipes; however,due to the fact that different LED colorshave different efficiencies in convert-ing power into light, the “sun” treat-ment has lower total photosyntheticactive radiation (400 to 700 nm), but thebiological active radiation (300 to800nm) remained the same among alltreatments.

In our study, lettuce plants underthe various light treatments had simi-lar fresh weight after 42 days. Thismeans that if the grower is selling let-tuce by weight, any of the testedrecipes will provide the desirableweight. More interestingly, the blue andred light ratio treatments had a muchlarger effect on leaf area.

For example, the “sun” and 100% blue

Figure 2. Plant responses to different fixed spectrums using LEDs. Different letters show significant differences between treatments on eachparameter. Plant responses are ranked from higher to lower according to the letter: a>b>c, ab = a = b, bc = b = c.

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light treatments had the largest leaf area,while all the remaining treatments weresignificantly lower. It should be brought toattention that the 100% blue light treat-ment had a unique leaf area response,since the increase of blue light is known todecrease leaf area. The 100% blue light and“sun” treatment both had 38% more leafarea than the lowest performing treatmentfor leaf area (80% blue and 20% red). If thegrower is selling by the head, then using atreatment that increases leaf area will bemore beneficial.

In addition to these morphologicaltraits important for product quality andmarketing, the impact of light treatmenton nutritional and antioxidant phyto-chemicals is also of interest to our work.For phenolic content, the ratio of blue tored light didn’t have a significant effect, asall treatments that contained blue and redhad the highest concentration of phenoliccontent (100% red and “sun” treatmentswere significantly lower in phenolic con-tent, with 100% blue having content statis-tically similar to both the high and lowgroups).

This trend was similar for anthocyaninconcentration as well. If the grower de-sires to create a new product that’s tailoredtowards nutritional content and poten-tially create a product with a “guaranteed”antioxidant concentration, then a recipethat increases anthocyanin and phenolicconcentration is preferred.

However, if we want it all (large leafarea, large weight, high phytochemicalcontent) then we have to look for a betterapproach by using dynamic light recipesthat promote vigorous growth at one stage,while “finishing” a crop with a light recipethat triggers max coloration and nutri-tional content. We’re currently working ondeveloping those dynamic light recipes.

In horticulture, LED light systems canbe categorized as either “fixed” spectrumfixtures or “tunable” spectrum fixtures.Fixed spectrum fixtures come with a cer-tain ratio of colors, typically red and blue,and are not tunable. Fixed spectrum LEDsystems often have higher electrical effi-ciency (use less electricity) and are alsomore affordable.

Meanwhile, “tunable” LED systemscome with an interface—either physicaldials or a software-based method—which provides growers the ability tochange light intensity and spectral qual-ity using the same fixtures. These tun-able systems also have the capability tocreate entire preset programs thatchange light recipes over time. Thisgives each grower the ability to createcustom light recipes that fit their spe-cific needs.

For growers with fixed spectrum fix-tures, the presented results can be help-ful information for choosing a lightingsystem. For growers with tunable fix-tures, we hypothesize that our nextphase of results will provide recipes thatmaximize both growth and plant qualityto a greater extent than what a fixedspectrum can provide.

HANS SPAHOLZ and RICARDO HERNÁNDEZ are inthe Department of Horticultural Sciences at NorthCarolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Lighting



22

Consumer demand for culinary herbs, leafy greens, and fruitingand vegetable crops grown in containers is increasing. A big dif-ference with container edibles is that growers are restrictedfrom using many agri-chemicals commonly used in ornamentalproduction—mainly pesticides and plant growth regulators.Therefore, growers must rely more on biological pest control op-tions and good cultural practices to produce high-quality ediblecrops. This article reviews common strategies for pest and qual-ity control in container edibles.

CONTROLLING INSECTS AND DISEASESPreventing and controlling pest and disease outbreaks is one ofthe biggest challenges when growing edible crops. However,with a little knowledge of biological pest control options, you canbegin to stock your grower toolbox for success.

Biological control agents can be very effective if used prop-erly. Common commercial products include beneficial bacteriaand fungi (for example, Trichoderma, Bacillus subtilis and vari-ous mycorrhizae), as well as predatory insects and nematodes(for example, Steinernema nematodes and Amblyseius mites).These products are most effective when applied early and atregular intervals to suppress and reduce pest populations.

Cutting-edge information on using biological and alternativepest control strategies include research by Raymond Cloyd atKansas State University, Lance Osborne at the University ofFlorida, Rosa Raudales at the University of Connecticut, Anissa Poleatewich at the University of New Hampshire, andMargery Daughtrey at Cornell University, as well as atwww.greenhouseipm.org.

A few non-biological options are available and are safe to useon edible plants. These include products such as horticulturaloils, peroxides and potassium bicarbonates. Additional strate-gies include using good greenhouse environment and culturalpractices. For example, lowering humidity with proper ventila-tion and avoiding over-watering help prevent root and foliar diseases.

REDUCING SOFT AND LUSH GROWTHPlants with soft and lush growth tend to be more susceptible topest issues and damage easily during shipping. We tend to thinkof soft growth as excessive stem stretch and leaf expansion. Wecan minimize soft growth and increase plant tone by focusingon a few cultural practices.

We can start by looking at plant density per container. Toomany plants can promote initial stem stretch after planting,which can result in toppling as shown in Figure 2. Too fewplants can result in an overall sparse looking container that’sundesirable. Consider running simple tests to see what plantdensity works best for your crops.

Too much nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) from the fertilizerpromotes soft growth. Fertilizer nitrogen also comes in three

forms: ammonium, urea and nitrate. Fertilizers high in nitrate(>70% of N as nitrate) typically promote toned and higher-qualityplant growth.

If mixing water-soluble fertilizer into your irrigation water, agood starting point is to irrigate with approximately 150 ppm Nof mostly nitrate and 20 ppm P in the water. You can thenincrease or decrease fertilizer rates depending on how plantsperform.

Keeping Control Having success with container edibles means being vigilant in the early stages.

by RYAN DICKSON

Production

Figure 1. Container edibles packaged and shipped to grocery stores.

Figure 2. Basil that toppled over after overhead irrigation.

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In addition to fertilizer, over-watering and not allowing thesubstrate to dry between irrigations also promotes soft growthand root diseases.

Warm temperatures tend to speed up plant growth, but alsopromote stem stretch and leaf expansion. Growing cool has theopposite effect, slowing down growth and resulting in moretoned and compacted growth. Species differ in their temperature

optimums—lettuce prefer cooler temperatures, whereas basiland tomato perform best at warm temperatures (above70F/21C).

Depending on your climate, consider using DIF to controlplant stretch. Positive DIF means that days are warmer thannights, which is common under natural conditions and pro-motes some stretch and leaf expansion. Negative DIF meansthat days are cooler than nights, which tends to reduce stretchand keeps plants more compact. The larger the DIF, the greaterthe effect, with 5 to 15 degrees F being a typical target range. Ifnegative DIF isn’t possible, dropping air temperatures for a cou-ple hours before and after sunrise is usually effective. Then letthe greenhouse slowly warm back up as sunlight increases.

Some greenhouse operations use mechanical conditioningstrategies to tone plants. An example is shown in Figure 3,where plants are brushed periodically using soft plastic hang-ing from irrigation booms. This disturbance causes plants to re-lease a natural hormone that makes them more compact withthicker leaves. The same happens with blowing air or strongwind. In this scenario, avoid brushing wet foliage and sterilizethe plastic regularly to help prevent the spread of disease.

UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCES Figure 4 shows a fairly common scenario where multiple ediblespecies are grown in the same production space. This presentsa potential challenge in that plant species sometimes differconsiderably in their cultural needs.

Lavender, thyme and rosemary are examples of species thatFigure 3. Plastic hanging from a travelling irrigation boom used to brush container edibles.

Production

tend to prefer a drier substrate and are more sensitive to highfertilizer salts. When placed under the same irrigation and fertil-izer regime as tomato and cucumber, which use more water andtolerate higher salts, it’s easy to over-water and over-fertilizethese crops. Basil is sensitive to chilling injury below 55F (12C)and is less compatible to grow with species that perform betterat cooler temperatures, such as chives and lettuce.

Species tend to differ in how quickly they grow into an ac-ceptable crop or crop time. For example, thyme tends to growslowly and requires a longer crop time compared to tomato. As-signing the same crop time to all crop species may result in vari-ability across products. Accurately determining crop times andscheduling appropriately is critical to supplying consistent anduniform plants to your customers.

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHERThe key to successfully growing container edible crops is a com-bination of proper knowledge and use of biological pest and dis-ease control options; understanding how water, fertilizer andenvironmental conditions affect plant quality and growth; andknowing how species differ in their cultural needs.

As a simple management strategy, growers may considergrouping species that have similar cultural needs together in thesame production space. For example, crops such as lavenderand thyme tend to perform better with lower fertilizer levels anddrier soil compared to tomato and cucumber. Placing thesespecies in separate zones can help you supply water and fertil-izer regimes to match crop needs.

Consider training staff on scouting for insects and diseases,cultural practices and recognizing problems in the crop as a way to improve the quality and consistency of your containeredibles.

RYAN DICKSON is an Associate Extension Professor at the University of New Hampshire.He can be reached at [email protected] 4. Multiple container edible species grown in the same production space.


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Growers who produce ornamental or vegetable plants in con-tainers and who aren’t recirculating their irrigation water havefewer concerns about the substrates used to grow those plants.

“Growers who use loose substrates like peat, perlite and coirin hydroponic production systems may have issues with man-aging hydroponic systems that need to run clean,” said TylerBaras, special projects manager at Hort Americas. “Debris fromthese loose substrates can lead to clogging of irrigation lines inhydroponic systems like nutrient film technique [NFT]. In thecase of a deep water culture floating raft system, the goal is toflush the system as infrequently as possible because there is somuch water involved. Growers want to keep both of these hydro-ponic production systems fairly clean.

“The loose substrates used by traditional ornamental plantgrowers can break apart, so that there is some peat and perlitefloating in the system or sinking to the bottom of the pond orwater reservoir.”

Rens Muusers, technical account manager for the U.S. at Gro-dan, said whether a hydroponic crop is grown in a greenhouse ora vertical farm, the substrate does much the same thing.

“The substrate has the same type of functionality regardlessof the type of facility it is used in,” said Rens. “One of the mainconsiderations is what kind of production system is going to beused and how does the substrate fit into that system.”

One of the first things to think about, said Rens, is how andfor how long the plants are going to be propagated. “If theseedlings will be kept longer in a propagation area, then a largeramount of substrate will be needed to allow adequate space forthe plant roots to develop,” he explained. “Holding the plantslonger in propagation will also likely require an additional pro-duction area to allow for proper spacing of the plants.”

Tyler is conducting trials with loose substrates and morecommonly used inert substrates for hydroponic systems. Hesaid examples of these inert substrates include preformed plugs,such as Grodan stone wool plugs or cubes, Oasis foam blocks,stabilized medium like synthetic polymer peat plugs (i.e., JiffyPreforma, Flexiplugs, Flexitrays) and wrapped plugs, which canhave an outside coating, such as Riococo Closed Bottom OrganicPlugs and Ellepots.

DEVELOPING A STRONG ROOT SYSTEMIn the greenhouse trials that Tyler is doing with lettuces andbasil in NFT and deep water raft systems, he’s studying the dif-ferences between peat and coir.

“Coir has more water retention from what we have seen,” hesaid. “It really depends on the production system, the growers’staging strategy and how the seedlings are watered. There are alot of factors that are similar and they both have the possibilityof being used for hydroponic production.”

Left: For hydroponic systemsthat recirculate water, thesubstrate shouldn’t crumbleand fall apart, which couldlead to clogging of irrigationlines and filtration systems.Photo courtesy of Tyler Baras, Hort Americas.

Right: Seedlings held longer in a propagation area require a larger amount of substrate to give plant roots adequatespace to develop.Photo courtesy of Grodan.

Growing Medium

Having Substrate Issues? When growing hydroponic leafy greens, lettuces, herbs and microgreens,

make sure the substrate, crop and production system are compatible.

by DAVID KUACK

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Left: Consider the outside temperature and humidity when choosing a substrate formicrogreens grown in a greenhouse. Photo courtesy of Grow-Tech Inc.

Below: Water draining off NFT channels should be run through a filter system to collectany debris before the water is returned to the reservoir.Photo courtesy of Tyler Baras, Hort Americas.

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Tyler said that coir is often used as a substitute for peat.“Often when coir is used, growers have to change their irriga-tion strategies,” he said. “Fine coir holds more water than peat.Once the seed has germinated and is at the seedling stage,the goal is to establish a strong root system regardless of thesubstrate used. The plug should be dominated by roots. Aslong as the plug has a large enough root mass once it is trans-planted into a hydroponic system, there is a good chance forsuccess.”

Growers should consider young plant development strate-gies specific to the substrates they’re using.

“An example would be plugs with some type of wrappingaround the outside,” Tyler said. “The bottom is open, but theplants should be grown until there are enough roots to coverthe bottom of the plug so it doesn’t fall apart once it is placedin the hydroponic system.”

OPTIMIZING SPACE UTILIZATIONRens said the length of time growers hold seedlings in thepropagation area will impact the size of the plugs that areused.

“This is a major reason why growers are choosing to use 1-in. or 1½-in. plugs,” he said. “Growers using 1½-in. plugs wouldbe keeping their plants in the propagation area longer to opti-mize space utilization. The longer the plants are kept closertogether in propagation, the longer the crop can benefit fromthe microclimate.” Additionally, plants held longer in propa-gation results in less space needed in the final growing area.

“Transplanting small plants into the final spacing is not an effi-cient use of space,” said Rens. “Holding the seedlings longer beforetransplanting them into NFT channels or a deep water pond re-quires less space in the final growing area to grow the sameamount of plants.”

Rens said sometimes transplanting larger plugs can speed upthe production of a crop.

“When transplanting plugs from a propagation area that has anoptimum microclimate into a greenhouse is like putting theplants out into a desert,” he said. “In indoor vertical farms, theoret-ically the climate is managed in a more optimal way. Growers canmanage the microclimate around the plants, but they have to con-sider how cost effective that is. The space in a vertical farm isgoing to be more costly than in a greenhouse, so it is even morecritical to optimize space utilization in a vertical farm. For anyparticular type of growing, space utilization is critical. All of thesesteps impact the substrate that is used. Depending on the spacing,the substrate needs to be able to manage those kinds of processesas well.”

DIFFERENT NEEDS FOR DIFFERENT CROPSRens said the length of production time for a crop will influencethe substrate choice.

“There are significant differences in production when growingleafy greens and lettuce versus growing microgreens,” he said.“Microgreen crops require seven to 14 days max; that’s a reallyshort crop. A lettuce crop can require as long as 45 days.”

There is a relationship between the length of the crop time andthe amount of substrate that has to be used as well.

“For microgreens, a thin Grodan Cress Plate is an ideal sub-strate volume for the crop,” said Rens. “But this substrate wouldn’twork for a head of lettuce, which requires more volume during thegrowing cycle. Growers typically use plugs for lettuce.”

Although microgreens are a short-term crop, they’re not assimple as they seem.

Growing Medium

29


“If microgreens are being grown in a greenhouse, one has tobe aware of the outside temperature and humidity when choos-ing a substrate,” said Siebe Streekstra, account manager for thewest at Grow-Tech Inc. “I’m working with a greenhouse growerin Las Vegas who is producing microgreens. It is hard to growmicrogreens because the circumstances are so harsh. The hu-midity is very low and the temperatures are so high that theevaporation is immense.”

Siebe said that the grower uses a thick BioStrate mat sub-strate in order to keep up with plant transpiration. Growers whoare producing under harsh climate conditions should considerusing a thicker medium.

“This Las Vegas grower is actually moving into an indoor con-trolled environment production facility where he can control thetemperature and humidity,” said Siebe. “That should make pro-duction much easier and consistent. Growing microgreens in agreenhouse kind of depends on where the operation is located.In general, people in greenhouses don’t control their circum-stances as well as in an indoor production operation.”

LIMITED ORGANIC SUBSTRATESTyler said growers doing organic hydroponic production have amore limited selection of substrates.

“Growers who want to grow organically can’t use stone wool,foam blocks or any polymer peat plug,” he said. “Organic produc-tion is generally limited to loose substrates. This would includeloose peat- or coco-based substrates and coco plugs. There aren’ta lot of options.”

If a loose substrate is used and it falls apart into the produc-tion system, it can quickly clog the irrigation system. Tyler saidit’s important to have a solid root structure before transplantingthe plugs into an organic hydroponic system.

Whether growing organically or not, when using loose sub-strates in hydroponic systems Tyler said growers need to have agood filtration system.

“Anything coming off the tail end of the NFT channels isgoing to have to be run through some kind of filtering stage tocollect any debris before the water goes back into the reservoir,”he said. “The irrigation lines are usually ¼-in. or smaller andthose can clog quickly when loose substrates like peat or cocoare used.”

For more: Hort Americas, (469) 532-2383; http://hortameri-cas.com. Rens Muusers, Grodan, [email protected];http://www.grodan.com. Grow-Tech Inc., (888) 805-8916;[email protected]; http://grow-tech.com.Some of the information presented in this article appeared in

the June 2017 “News from Hort Americas!” e-newsletter,http://hortamericas.com/blog, and the Urban Ag News Blog,http://urbanagnews.com/category/blog.

DAVID KUACK is a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas. He can be reached [email protected].

Culture Notes

30

The goji berry plant (Lycium barbarum) is a member of theSolanaceae family. This family includes a diverse range ofplants sometimes referred to as nightshades. The nightshadesinclude tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, all of which have significant worldwide economic importance.

The goji is grown primarily for its berries,which have gained global recognition andconsumption (Figure 1). This recent recogni-tion coupled with its antioxidant and nutri-tional wealth means the goji berry is now aplant being offered by greenhouses. Cur-rently, there is limited greenhouse produc-tion information. This article highlightsgreenhouse production tips for goji berry.

Greenhouse growing guideTEMPERATURESGiven that gojis are native to the Himalayas,a temperate climate, their native tempera-ture fluctuations vary greatly. For green-house production (See Table 1), daytemperatures of 60 to 75F (15 to 23C) and night temperature of 60to 65F (15 to 18C) are recommended. For rooting, temperaturesare higher at 65 to 70F (18 to 21C). If plants are to be held, 40 to50F (4 to 10C) temperatures can be used. Alternatively, plantscan be overwintered by leaving them in an unheated poly houseover the winter and providing irrigation as needed to avoid let-ting the plants dry out.

LIGHTThe goji plant requires full sun. The light requirements for thisplant are high, which means 6,000 to 10,000 foot candles or a(DLI) of 12 to 24 mol.m-2.d-1 are needed. Low light conditions willnot only stunt growth, but may also result in lanky plants withexcessive intermodal stretching. These conditions will producesub-par plants and also will increase lateral growth resulting inthe plants crowding each other.

IRRIGATIONThe goji plant requires a medium to medium-high level of irriga-tion. This means that the plants should be watered thoroughlyand often. In addition to thorough watering, a constant moisturecontent should be maintained through the entire root ball andthroughout the entire growing process. While the goji prefers to

have adequate moisture, care should be taken to avoid standingwater in the pots, as this will result in diminished root healthand could foster disease conditions. Drought stressing the plantswill result in flower and fruit abortion.

CONTAINERSGoji can be grown in many different potsizes, depending on the desired plant volumeand market. Table 2 outlines the time tablesfor different pot sizes. One plant per potshould be utilized.

SUBSTRATEUse a well-drained substrate. Avoid usingmaterials that retain excess moisture. Exces-sive watering and/or standing water will re-sult in root rot and may cause conditionsthat favor disease. An 80/20 peat/perlite byvolume mix worked well with our researchstudies at North Carolina State University.

FERTILITY & pHThe goji plant is a medium feeder. A targetrange of 150 to 200 ppm N with a complete

fertilizer should be maintained. Using a calcium plus magne-sium fertilizer will be beneficial as the goji is a Solanaceous cropand has a high requirement for those nutrients.

If growing out to berry production or for ornamental pur-poses, as soon as green berries emerge after pollination, it’shighly recommended that a calcium plus magnesium fertilizerbe added into the fertilizer mix. This will ensure that berry qual-ity is maintained and nutrient deficiencies are avoided.

If stressed, goji fruit will develop blossom end rot, much like atomato. The target EC levels are 0.6 to 0.9 mS/cm using a 2:1 ex-traction method, 1.3 to 2.0 mS/cm for SME, and 2.0 to 3.0 mS/cmfor PourThru extraction of top irrigated plants during the maingrowing season.

In a trial conducted at North Carolina State University, nutri-ent disorders were induced on goji plants. Nitrogen, manganeseand phosphorous deficiencies were the first to appear (Figure 2).Iron deficiency was next to manifest (Figure 2). Iron and man-ganese deficiency can be an issue if the pH is too high. Thesenutrients should be monitored, as they are most likely to be thenutritional issues growers encounter.

The substrate pH should also be monitored closely in goji.The optimal pH range for goji is 5.0 to 6.5. A pH that’s too high

Goji Berry Plant Production Tipsby PAUL COCKSON. INGRAM McCALL & BRIAN WHIPKER

Source: Proven Winners, 2017.

Table 1: Growth stage temperature requirements for goji.

Growth Stage Day Temp Night Temp

Rooting 65 to 70F (18 to 21C) 65 to 70F (18 to 21C)

Growing Out 60 to 75F (15 to 23C) 60 to 65F (15 to 18C)

Holding 40 to 50F (4 to 10C) 40 to 50F (4 to 10C)

Source: Proven Winners, 2017.

Table 2: Pot size to finish time.

Pot Size Standard Growing Times

Quick Turn Growing Times

6 in.–gallon 8 to 10 weeks 4 to 6 weeks

10 to 12 in.–2 gal. 12 to 16 weeks —

18 in.–3 gal. 16 to 20 weeks 2 to 16 weeks

Figure 1: The goji is grown primarily for its berries.

31

will result in chlorosis and stunting (Figure 3). To adjust the pH, lime can beadded to raise the pH and acid to lowerthe pH. A PourThru method will help youmonitor both the pH and EC and shouldbe done at the beginning, middle and endof the production cycle. Fertilizers canalso affect pH, as most mixed fertilizersare acidic. To avoid altering the pHthrough your fertilizer, choose a neutral-reacting fertilizer mix.

PLANT GROWTH REGULATORSGiven that goji is an edible, there are noPGRs that are labeled for use on plants forconsumption. An alternative method tocontrolling growth is to use a fertilizerthat’s low in P and doesn’t contain excesslevels of ammoniacal-nitrogen, such as13-2-13 Cal-Mag. Avoid fertilizers, such as20-10-20 and 20-20-20, which can result inexcessive growth.

Trouble shootingDISEASELike any crop of economic production, thegoji berry is not without its pests and dis-eases. Many of the common diseases andpests that afflict the Solanaceous familywould likely be an issue for goji berry. Thefollowing diseases have been reported,but aren’t typically observed in green-house production of goji berry plants: Al-ternaria leaf spot, Anthracnose leaf spot,Cercospora leaf spot and Fusarium solaniroot rot.

INSECTS Thrips can be a pest on goji. Proper sani-tation and scouting will help alert you totheir presence. The sooner you identifythis pest, the more effective any treat-ment will be. Using a spray program orbeneficial insects is the best way to con-trol thrips, although any spray programshould take into consideration that thegoji is an edible. The use of sticky traps tomonitor the population is a good scoutingpractice.

Aphids can cause serious issues ongoji (Figure 4). These insects will attackthe newest growth and underside of theleaves resulting in distorted growth, andin some cases, death of the leaves andtips. Green Peach (Myzus persicae) aphidscan be particularly problematic. Whentreating aphids, it’s important to remem-ber that the goji is an edible. Always

Figure 2. Nutrient deficiencies of goji. The figures above show nitrogen (A), phosphorus (B), manganese (C) and iron (D) in goji. These four nutrients are most likely to cause nutrient deficiency issues in goji, as they manifestedearly in deficiency trials.

A B

C D

Figure 3: This goji plant is stunted and exhibiting signs of interveinal chlorosis due to a high pH.

u

32

follow the label when apply-ing any chemical. Naturalpredators can also be utilizedto control aphids, as well asinsecticidal soaps and someorganic oils.

Spider mites can be prob-lematic on goji. These insectsare particularly difficult tocontrol. Any chemical con-trol must be labeled for edi-bles. Biological control can beutilized quite effectively forspider mites, although careshould be taken that anysprays applied won’t also killyour beneficials.

Fungus gnats also can bea pest on goji. These insectswill eat the roots of theplants as larva and then theadults will emerge, mate andlay their eggs. The best con-trol method for fungus gnatsis cultural. Avoid overlymoist substrate conditionsand ensure there aren’t rot-ting leaves or plant materialin the pots. If populations be-come excessive, the use ofyellow sticky traps is a goodway to control and monitorthese insects.

If growing goji in a nurs-ery setting or if hardeningthe plants outdoors, birds canbe an issue. Birds will eat theberries and may cause dam-age to the plants by eatingthe berries. Using row coversor shade tents will help reduce damage from birds.

ENVIRONMENTALThe goji is native to a temperate climate, and as such, excessiveheat and cold are the greatest environmental stress concerns.Avoiding excess heat will ensure the plants don’t become waterstressed and drop their leaves. Temperatures over 80F (26C)should be avoided. Avoid excess cold, as this could result in frostdamage to the roots, berries and foliage.

Blossom end rot can also be an issue with goji plants. Thisissue is brought about by a calcium shortage in the plant, whichresults in an undeveloped region of the fruit. This region willoften be a site of infection and the end of the fruit will then roton the plant. To avoid this situation, two steps can be taken.First, ensure the plant has adequate calcium during fruit initia-tion and maturation. This can be accomplished through a foliarspray or by supplementing calcium into your fertilizer mix. Sec-ond, if blossom end rot does occur, it’s important to remove thedead and dying fruit, as this can become a source of disease andpests.

Fruiting & flowering considerationsFLOWERINGThe goji plant will bloom anytime fromlate spring to mid-summer, dependingon your location. In greenhouse opera-tions, control over blooming time ismuch greater. Goji does require a vernal-ization period to bloom. You can hold theplants over the winter in a poly houseoutdoors with no heat, or for a speediervernalization, control your temperaturesat 40 to 50F (4 to 10C).

Flowers form on the new growth; gojiwill flower heavily. The flowers are avibrant purple to blue and attract bees,which is an added marketing point(Figure 5). The flowers are self-pollinatingand don’t require the use of pollinatorsfor fertilization to occur. After flowersopen, frequent fertility checks (SME,PourThru, etc.) should be done to ensureadequate nutrient levels are maintained.A tissue sample can be submitted ifdesired for highly accurate fertilityinformation.

FRUITINGAfter fruit fertilization, the flowers willfade and abscise. Shortly after abscis-sion, green ovular berries will emerge.These berries will then change colorfrom green to yellow-orange and finallyto red (Figure 6). The goji is an extremelyprolific bearer of fruit. The berries andnatural cascading shape of the plantmakes it a good container pot for largeplanters or accent piece (Figure 7).

It should be noted that the berries will change color beforethey’re fully ripe, and consequently, a dark red coloration is agood indication of ripeness. The berries will ripen in the mid-summer through mid-fall. The berries are high in antioxidantsand have a sweet flavor with earthy undertones.

The goji is a beautiful plant with many attractive characteris-tics. They bear heavily and have a natural cascading habit.These plants make excellent potted plants and will provideberries, attract bees and be a wonderful centerpiece in the garden.

Literature Cited:• Cockson, P. and Whipker, B. E. 2016. Goji berry: high pH induced chlorosis. e-Gro Alert 6.26. • Farr, D.F. and A.Y. Rossman. 2017. Fungal databases, U.S. National Fungus Collections, ARS,USDA. Retrieved August 1, 2017, from /fungaldatabases/

• Proven Winners. 2017 Sweet Lifeberry Goji Berry Lycium. 2017. Cultural Information: ProvenWinners.

PAUL COCKSON is a greenhouse agroecology student, INGRAM MCCALL is a researchtechnician and BRIAN E. WHIPKER is a Professor of floriculture at North Carolina StateUniversity

Figure 4: Aphids can cause seriousissues on goji.

Figure 7: Full cascading potted goji plant.

Figure 6: Goji berries change color from green to yellow-orange to red.

Figure 5: Goji flowers are a vibrantpurple to blue and attract bees.

Culture Notes


34

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