Kwekerij Aarts

Optimizing crop health

The essence of Plant Empowerment is to optimize crop growth and crop health, by supporting the plant balances. “It is about keeping the plant active and in balance, that is the purpose of everything. In addition, you want to realize a high production and certainly not suffer more from diseases than before.”

When the sun suddenly emerges, the greenhouse temperature can rise quickly at once. The fruits of the plant heat up less quickly, causing the fruit temperature to lag behind the greenhouse temperature. At the same time crop evaporation starts, causing the absolute humidity of the greenhouse air to rise. This combination of factors can cause condensation on the fruits. Pests and diseases can develop rapidly in the wet areas of the fruits, which is why crop condensation should be avoided.

At Kwekerij Aarts they used to have problems with fungal diseases, like mycosphaerella and botrytis. Meanwhile, by applying the principles of Plant Empowerment Gerard is able to control the moisture management in the greenhouse in such a way that the tomato cultivation is completed without a single case of botrytis. Mycosphaerella outbreaks have also become a thing of the past in cucumber cultivation.

“That is because we always keep the plant active and at the same time have good humidity control.”

Moisture balance

One of the goals of Plant Empowerment is to promote plant health. Avoiding crop condensation is one of the essential aspects to achieve this. To assess condensation risk you need to know the course of the moisture balance of the greenhouse in relation to the temperature of the plant and the fruits. The crop condensation module of the Hoogendoorn Growth Management process computer is an essential tool for Gerard to avoid condensation. This module monitors the energy and moisture balance of the greenhouse related to the fruit temperature and intervenes when the risk of crop condensation becomes too big.

“With the application of the Plant Empowerment principles, we grow with a lower moisture deficit. This means we work closer to the condensation temperature. The crop condensation module is my emergency break, which intervenes when the condensation risk becomes too big.”