Sustainable Growing

“Nine out of ten businesses have no clear goal”

April 6, 2020

Reinier Donkersloot is the founder of vertical farming consultancy Consult2Grow and co-owner of a vertical farm in Dubai. Vertical farming is playing an increasingly important role in food production worldwide. On a vertical farm, fruit and vegetables grow above one another in several layers, in a confined space. This cultivation method shows great promise for being the most efficient way to grow local, healthy food in over-populated urban areas.Reinier gives a glimpse behind the scenes in the creation of a vertical farm in a special city like Dubai.

Our latest blogs

20250724 RW-GREA PHO 1684
Water Management
Sustainable Growing

Why seeds on stone wool are the recipe for higher-value strawberry production

Against the backdrop of the accelerating market transformation from low-tech to high-tech strawberry production, initial results from an innovative trial demonstrate the excellent compatibility between F1 hybrid strawberry seeds and Grodan stone wool solutions.

20181024 RW-GR PHO 36
Sustainable Growing

Zero Pesticide Residue – The New Standard in Greenhouse Production

In the era of advanced technology and increasing consumer awareness, the modern greenhouse is not just a place of production but a true laboratory of innovation and an ecological bastion of food safety. Growers, who just decades ago focused mainly on efficiency and fighting plant diseases and pests, now face a completely new challenge: how to produce fruits and vegetables without chemical crop protection residues, while meeting the market’s ever-growing expectations?

20240214 RW-GR PHO 1301
By Andrew Lee
Water Management
Sustainable Growing

Drain is not the goal in precision irrigation

Besides helping growers to achieve their sustainability goals, efficient water management plays a crucial role in maintaining plant health. Realising or steering towards a certain drain volume or drain percentage per day should not be your goal. Instead, the goal should be optimising your irrigation strategy to provide your crop with precisely the amount of water and nutrients it needs. This will ensure the development of a strong and healthy root system, leading to consistently good plant growth, fruit quality and a higher total production. Grodan’s Andrew Lee explains how.

20181022 RW-GR PHO 7
Sustainable Growing

Rooted in Science: Grodan's research into pepper wilting

Since 2022, a limited number of high-tech greenhouse pepper growers worldwide have faced a rapid and severe form of wilting that posed a threat to crop production. This has left growers searching for answers. In response, Grodan funded rigorous, independent research, collaborating with a wide range of industry partners to analyse all potential contributing factors. Findings to date currently point to a specific isolate of the pathogenic fungus Fusarium as the cause. Today in the Netherlands and Belgium the isolate it is referred to as Fusarium oxysporum radicis capsici (FORC). In Canada it is referred to as Fusarium Oxysporum Species Complex (FOSC). It is highly pathogenic and specific to peppers. Initial scientific reports also show that wilting caused by the Fusarium isolate can occur in both stone wool and organic substrates.