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Alstroemeria of the Future: a successful cultivation concept today
Take a look inside the greenhouse compartment of WUR Greenhouse Horticulture where a fossil-free cultivation concept is being tested. Elements of the cultivation concept are: a diffuse glass cover with AR coating, high-intensity LED (Signify), double screens for maximum thermal insulation (Svensson), a dehumidification installation for latent heat recovery, reuse of the heat from the soil cooling, heating with an electrically driven heat pump and clean paths to reduce pest pressure.
Energy and crop health
The cultivation concept, as initially calculated, meets the expectations in terms of energy: due to the good insulation with screens, the heat from the lighting and the heat from the soil cooling, the greenhouse can meet its heat demand with sustainably collected heat.
With regard to crop health, the objective of “free from emission of pesticides” has also been achieved so far: the pest pressure has remained manageable throughout the crop with biological control agents, no chemical correction products have yet been used.
Production
In terms of production, the concept exceeds all expectations: it was calculated with 30% more production than in the reference cultivation system because of the higher light level of the lamps and the positive effect of diffuse glass. But the production increase so far is considerably higher than calculated. At the end of the second summer, the yield of the variety Noize (Hilverda Florist) was 43% and of Virginia (Royal Van Zanten) 52% higher than in the reference cultivation.
The research is funded by Greenhouse as Source of Energy, the innovation and action program of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and Glastuinbouw Nederland. Co-founders are the Alstroemeria Crop Cooperation, and the mentioned suppliers.
This film is an extract from an interview commissioned by Royal van Zanten in july 2019, 8 months after the start of the experiment:
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