The Radiance team has spent the last 20 years in the outdoor horticultural grow space. Outdoor growing conditions in our area is limited to one growing cycle for most crops. Farmers plant their crops in the spring and harvest in the summer/ late summer and plow and prep the fields after harvesting is complete.
About two years ago, we started talking with greenhouse growers in Ontario. Luckily, Leamington Ontario is the tomato capital of North America. There is literally 1,000’s of acres of cucumber, tomatoes and peppers grown under glass. What is really exciting from a consumer perspective is the increasing availability of greenhouse produce in the Winter months and the fact it is locally grown. To make all this magic occur, you obviously need sunlight. From a Team Radiance perspective though, these greenhouse growers are increasing their yields with supplemental lighting. Is lighting and overall greenhouse operations a sustainable environmental practice?
The answer is a resounding “Yes”, and each year the greenhouses are getting more and more efficient. Most greenhouses recycle water and use through multiple crop cycles. This means no pollution and minimizing use of natural resources. Each large scale greenhouse produces a lot of Co2 gas, and most operators capture this case and use it again adding a fertilizer effect to the plants via the air. Finally, greenhouse use bees for pollination and natural predators for controlling bad bugs. This means a large reduction in the amount of chemicals used compared to large scale outdoor conventional farming.
Leamington is certainly the largest concentration of greenhouses in Canada, but there are a lot of other growers in BC, Quebec and Alberta. Radiance was thrilled by the annoucement in Janurary 2019 that Manitoba is getting their first large scale greenhouse tomato grower. This means consumers in nearby provinces will have available fresh produce from Vermillion Growers by next winter. Our manufacturing partner, Megaphoton Inc is supplying the lighting for this 30 acre project. The light fixture is Pro-luxx, and it is extremely energy efficient, using on average about 15% energy compared to competitive lights on market.
For more information on the Vermillion, visit there site here.