Flavorite Hydroponic Tomatoes -

By Andrew Conway

 

Greenworks hosted their inaugural European Tour in June of 2008. We met in Amsterdam and after a short R&R we went to the Westlands District putting us right in the heart of the major greenhouse producing area of Holland.

 

The trip offered a great opportunity to see first hand the greenhouse industry in full production, including tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicums, aubergines (eggplants), gerberas & roses.

 

The aim of each site visit was to gain a better understanding of each operation in terms of their general growing and crop techniques, yield and quality, production targets, market, labour management strategies and efficiency as well as the integration of “Cogeneration Systems”. It was also a great opportunity to see how efficiently the Dutch growers produce such a uniform product.

 

Grodan and Grootscholten Consulting organised unprecedented access to a number of greenhouse operations. We visited private family and corporate operations ranging from 2ha vegetable through to a 13ha rose greenhouse.

 

The most advanced greenhouse was a 30m Euro 5.0ha rose production facility, incorporating an automated moving gutter and delivery system that was mesmerising to watch.

 

COGENERATION

Cogeneration is also a very interesting addition to the greenhouse operations and in many cases the income gained form the production of electricity was the difference between break even and profit for the year. With energy costs more than doubling in the last three years in Holland the growers has adopted this technology to support their greenhouse enterprises.

 

The benefits of Cogeneration, using a gas powered genset (gas Turbine) to generating electricity is that the by products of heat and exhaust emissions that would normally be wasted in a conventional diesel system are utilised 100% within the greenhouse, the heat for hot water and the exhaust emission, CO2, for plant growth.

 

As the cost of energy rises in Australia the benefits of cogeneration will become a part of the greenhouse industry here like it has in Europe.

 

We also visited the Grodan factory to see how the largest producers of growing substrates meet the demands of the world for their products and growing expertise.

 

Grodan and Greenworks have been associated for the past nine years and they are exceptional hosts and we appreciate for their time, discussion and memorable tour dinner.

 

We visited “Tomato World’ whish is a unique educational greenhouse facility that is a collaboration of five growers and some forty greenhouse suppliers that show cases the history of the Dutch Greenhouse Industry.

 

We also visited the Greenhouse Research and Development Centre where they undertake all trials on new and proposed equipment in holistic growing environment before they are released for further more broad scale commercial trails.

 

We also had the opportunity to visit Van der Hoeven, a very notable greenhouse builder worldwide and a company Greenworks has been involved with for the past six years, Van der Hoeven hosted a factory tour before introducing us to a Dutch BBQ.

 

The 2008 Tours was a great success, as it exposed our clients to new ideas they could integrate into their own operations. Mark Millis of Flavorite Hydroponic Tomatoes said “Andrew & Scott did a great job and everything went really smoothly” Danny Trandos, of Trandos Hydroponic Growers said, “this tour was an unbelievable experience, the knowledge gained was priceless. Thank you”

 

Greenworks are hosting another tour this year to Holland departing June 5^th with a full itinerary, including the Provence Region in France, on the Mediterranean.

 

Finally I would like to take this opportunity to thank our great friends at FABER Greenhouses for being involved as well as sponsoring a tour dinner. Peter it is a pleasure working with you on greenhouse projects here in Australia.

 

To Horticulture Australia Limited without your support this tour would still be a dream, thanks you.

 

For further information, please do not hesitate to contact Andrew Conway on +61 2 9680 4455

(AHGA Soilless Australia Volume 2 2009)