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Innovative lighting helps Kingsville greenhouse produce tomatoes year-round
In an effort to keep pace with fierce competition from producers in sunnier, southern climates, an innovative greenhouse operation in Ontario has made a big move to grow tomatoes all year round.
Great Northern Hydroponics in Kingsville built a new 14-acre greenhouse that uses high density light fixtures to extend the growing season and significantly increase its production.
Completed in 2011, the greenhouse uses approximately 7,000 light fixtures equipped with high-pressure sodium light bulbs.
Guido van het Hof, president and general manager, says expanding to year-round production from the conventional timeframe of nine months was a logical next step for the company.
“If we stand still, then we move backwards,” says van het Hof, referring to the intensifying competition from greenhouse tomato producers in the southern U.S. and Mexico. “And producers there have natural advantages over us in terms of climate, lower energy dependency and high natural light concentrations, resulting in an extended growing season.”
Great Northern borrowed a page from producers in northwestern Europe who faced a similar situation ten years ago. They installed lighting technology to compete with growers in Spain, Morocco and the Canary Islands. “We took that technology and we emulated it here to our circumstances and our climate zone,” says van het Hof.
The story is in the March-April edition of Greenhouse Canada. Click here for the online version.
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