Consultancy

Since Apollo Farm in Don Duong, Vietnam, started using ReduSol flower quality is better, screens are used less and working conditions have clearly improved. 

After several years of trial and error, horticultural company Young Sun, of Taiwan, has found a good solution for using ReduSol to protect its potted and bedding plants. The coating is applied to the sidewalls as well as the greenhouse roof. 

When it becomes very warm roses quickly tend to remain too short. Nice2Get! now has three seasons of experience with ReduFlex Blue. “We clearly see more stem elongation,” says owner Robert Koot.

Mardenkro maintains close contacts with consultants who advise international greenhouses. Dutch horticultural technology is very popular all over the world but only with the proper know-how it is possible to achieve the maximum results.

Sweetpoint peppers are very sensitive to blossom end rot and sunburn spots. Since John Cappalonga of Gee Vee Enterprises started using ReduFuse these problems are under control.

Amaryllis grow longer under a coating, resulting in larger bulbs and sturdier stems. Most growers (70-80%) now use coatings.

Ficus can withstand a lot of light providing the leaf temperature doesn’t rise too high. The company Kwekerij Zwethlande of Honselersdijk, the Netherlands, is therefore using ReduFuse IR for the first time this season.  

Dutch chrysanthemum grower Hein van Wordragen applies coatings to the greenhouse roof himself instead of using a contractor. This way he can determine precisely the timing and thickness of the layer. He works with several thin layers on top of each other.

The coatings within ReduSystems are becoming more and more advanced. Advisors and users know about their properties and the changes being made to the growth strategy are leading to optimal results with higher crop returns.

The sweet pepper nurseries run by the Reedijk brothers, in Strijen and Westdorpe, the Netherlands, were some of the first to use ReduHeat. It prevents quality problems in the fruits. 

The strong radiation in the area around Auckland (New-Zealand) can lead to a reduction in yield and to too much generative plant growth. Since Underglass NZ started using ReduFuse, yield has risen and the greenhouse climate can be controlled better.

If the crop can remain active for longer on warm days it can also mean extra yield. In order to achieve that chrysanthemum grower Jan Boerma has been using ReduFuse.

Alstroemerias do like light. “By using ReduFuse you remove the sharpness while minimising the light loss,” says Maurice Olsthoorn of Together2Grow.

After a trial in which half a roof was covered with ReduFuse, Kainz & Mayer Marchfeld tomatoes, has switched over to using it completely. Cluster quality and setting improved and some varieties yield more too.

Pepper grower Johann Thell, of Tadten (Burgenland), has through previous use of ReduHeat and ReduFuse decided on ReduFuse IR. This appears to be the optimum coating for achieving higher quality and production.

Van den Ende Rozen has used ReduFlex Blue for three seasons. It worked very well for the first two years: the roses were considerably longer.

Willem Valstar gives advice to tomato growers both at home and abroad. At the centre is the amount of light available – natural and artificial. A growth model indicates the best approach to take under the local conditions and with the technology available.

ReduFuse IR has allowed cymbidium grower Eric van Paasen to close the screen later in the day. He expects a positive effect on the number of stems and stem length.

Controllability is a watchword for Alan Bretherton, senior grower at Ornamental Plants, one of the UK’s largest bedding plant nurseries, at Tarleton, Lancashire.

Shade really matters to John Ellerbrook, co-owner of Blofield Nurseries near Norwich, Norfolk, in the east of England. He’s one of the country’s best-known specialists in evergreen shrubs such as azalea, camellia, euonymus, photinia, pieris and rhododendron.

Young Azaleas don’t like a lot of light. Therefore Mardenkro devised a shading system that mixes ReduSol with a black pigment to bring the young plants through the cuttings phase.

Moving newly potted nursery stock liners from the tightly controlled environment of a propagation unit and into a production glasshouse inevitably subjects the plants to stress.

Good light levels are vital to pot herb production, both for speed of throughput and crop quality, but plants need to be protected, too, from excessive summer temperatures.

Kwekerij Loos, is a front-runner when it comes to the sustainable year-round production of strawberries. The nursery has three hectares of greenhouses that are heated with waste heat. Last year, for the first time, it achieved a summer crop under glass.

Dutch tomato grower T.W. van Noord makes every effort to have an energy efficient and vigorous crop. The nursery has been working with a new growing strategy for two years and is saving at least 10 per cent on natural gas.