This session sponsored by     

Xiuming Hao

Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada
Harrow, ON

Dynamic & Sustainable Lighting Strategies

In this presentation, Dr. Xiuming Hao will discuss newly discovered LED lighting strategies which allow for injury-free production of greenhouse tomatoes and cucumbers with 24-h (continuous) lighting. These strategies also have a great potential to reduce peak power demand and electricity costs, in addition to the benefits on reducing light fixture capital costs and light pollution and improving energy efficiency in year-round greenhouse vegetable production.

Colin Brice

Signify America

Lead With Lighting: Advancements of LEDs in greenhouse lettuce & herb cultivation

If you are growing greenhouse lettuce under natural light or HPS or if you are thinking of implementing lettuce production into your facility, this session will provide a brief overview of commercial application research of LED greenhouse cultivation of lettuce and herbs. Join Signify Plant Specialist, Colin Brice, to learn why LEDs provide optimal light for plant growth, how LEDs are deployed in specific crop applications, how higher light intensities can profitably improve crop production, and how spectrum improves crop quality in full LED compared to HPS.

Jan Chechalk

Signify America

Lighting in High-Wire & Umbrella Cucumbers

Jan Chechalk will present findings of research in which several lighting strategies were studied including HPS and LED hybrid, full LED toplighting, and LED toplighting coupled with inter-canopy lighting. Research was conducted to understand the effect of different light levels and different spectral compositions offered by LED grow lights. Chechalk will share research findings that include the impact on yield when growing under LEDs compared to HPS, the impact that inter-canopy lighting has on umbrella mini-cukes, and the effect of spectrum on cucumber crop morphology.

Ton Habraken

Ludvig Svensson Inc.

How do you comply with light abatement regulations without compromising your crops and the growing climate?

Municipalities are implementing strict bylaws for greenhouse horticultural operations that are artificially lighting their crops. Light abatement screens seem to be the answer for containment. But what if the bylaws do not allow these growing operations to gap their light abatement blackout curtains in a proper and efficient way? This creates a big challenge for growers to mitigate high humidity and heat build-up in their greenhouse. This presentation will cover the following:

Best practices for preventing light escape and optimizing the growing environment.
How to minimize the humidity effect and control heat build-up throughout the year.
Utilizing Light Abatement Curtains together with current curtains: How to manage two or more screens successfully.

David Lubitz

University of Guelph, ON

Project Report: Stray Light Abatement in Greenhouses

This presentation will provide an update on the work and interim results of the Stray Light Abatement in Greenhouses, a collaborative project from University of Guelph, OMAFRA, and AAFC, Harrow. The overall feasibility of using drones to assess light measurements will be examined, and other options for measuring light emissions will be briefly reviewed. Plans and goals for the larger project will be discussed, which include crop trials seeking to determine the impact of using light abatement curtains on the greenhouse interior and crop health.

Quade Digweed

Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada
Harrow, ON

ON DEMAND RECORDING

Blackout curtains, Energy Capture & Microclimate

Greenhouse blackout curtains primary function is to prevent stray light from exiting the greenhouse. However, these curtains also restrict heat and moisture from escaping the greenhouse. While energy saving is generally a good thing, what are the options to control excess heat and humidity buildup when blackout curtains are required? Blackout curtain work at the Harrow Research and Development Center is focused on developing new curtain management, energy capture, and dehumidification options for growers, with an emphasis on microclimate-based control. This presentation will share bench-scale and preliminary greenhouse trials of various energy management systems to help reduce crop stress resulting from blackout curtain use, while also saving energy. 

Scott Inman,

Mycorrhizal Applications, Grants Pass, Oregon, USA

Harness the Power of Mycorrhizae in Greenhouse & Nursery Production

Mycorrhizal fungi are the superstars in your soil or growing media ecosystem. These beneficial symbiotic soil organisms partner with your plants to create root-and-mycelial structures known as mycorrhizae, which play a large and complex role in boosting the development and adaptation of approximately 95% of plant species on the planet. Learn why mycorrhizae are important for plant vitality, and how these symbiotic organisms can improve plant nutrient uptake and utilization, increase nutrient availability, maximize water utilization, build soil structure and health, and much more. You will also learn how green industry professionals can utilize this natural, organic, sustainable technology in their own professional operations, review frequently asked questions regarding this technology, and discuss how plant producers can adjust their growing protocols to take full advantage of the mycorrhizal benefits and maximize return on investment

Quade Digweed,

Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Harrow, ON

Blackout Curtains, Energy Capture & Microclimate

Greenhouse blackout curtains primary function is to prevent stray light from exiting the greenhouse. However, these curtains also restrict heat and moisture from escaping the greenhouse. While energy saving is generally a good thing, what are the options to control excess heat and humidity buildup when blackout curtains are required? Blackout curtain work at the Harrow Research and Development Center is focused on developing new curtain management, energy capture, and dehumidification options for growers, with an emphasis on microclimate-based control. This presentation will share bench-scale and preliminary greenhouse trials of various energy management systems to help reduce crop stress resulting from blackout curtain use, while also saving energy.

Ana M. Pastrana,

Vineland Research & Innovation Centre, ON

Use of Biostimulants to Control Greenhouse Diseases

Plants are exposed to different biotic and abiotic stresses, which often result in a decline in crop production. Plant diseases are one of the most common problems in agriculture worldwide. The use of chemical-based products and resistant cultivars have been widely reported to control many plant diseases. However, there is a need for alternative solutions to control them because there may be no resistant cultivars for certain pathogens and because regulatory and environmental concerns make the future use of chemicals uncertain.

Biostimulants have become very popular in Canada in the last decades. A plant biostimulant is defined as any substance or microorganism applied to plants with the aim to enhance nutrition efficiency, abiotic stress tolerance and/or crop quality traits, regardless of its nutrient content (Du Jardin, 2015).  Many of these biostimulants also boost the plant immune system, and therefore can be exploited to fight against plant diseases. At Vineland, we are evaluating the use of biostimulants to protect greenhouse tomatoes against bacterial canker and powdery mildew and will present some of our preliminary results.