PHOTOS: MATT MCINTOSH


GREENHOUSE TECHNOLOGY ▶▶▶


Adopting moderate climate greenhouse to Canadian climate


I BY MATT MCINTOSH


n many areas, particularly Southwestern Ontario, severe summer heat and humidity are ever-recurring climatic features. Just like early spring and autumn frosts, they pose major production challenges – especially for those growing horticultural crops. It also means technologies and growing techniques adopted from more temperate parts of the world need to be altered to work effectively. Dusty Zamecnik, production manager for EZ Grow farms Norfolk County, Ontario, knows this reality well. He and his family grow straw- berry transplants for growers in the Southern United States, The Caribbean, and strawberry greenhouse producers elsewhere in Ontario. They do so in part with technology adapted from European greenhouse growing systems – but with some regional adaptations.


EZ Grow farm background Zamecnik, along with his parents and uncle, farm 33 acres of highbush blueberries, and produce 19.5 million strawberry transplants for propagation every year; 1.5 million of which are destined for greenhouse producers in Leamington, Ontario, which boasts North America’s largest concentration of greenhouse crop production. Greenhouse production of


Canada might have a much-deserved reputation as a land of winter, but intense cold is only a climactic feature for part of the year. Strawberry transplant grower Zamecnik tweaks European technology to account for more climactic extremes.


been experimenting with other crops […] The understanding of need came first.”


Outdoor strawberry transplant production at EZ Grow Farms. Young plants are sold inter- nationally.


strawberries is a relatively new thing for Ontar- io, beginning in part because of pressure from food retailers to provide domestically-grown fruit year-round. According to Zamecnik, grow- ers were trying to respond to that demand, but struggled to find reliable transplant sources. “What is unique about propagation is we are supporting 1,000 acres of strawberry produc- tion with 100 acres of transplants”, Zamecnik says. “Our farm used to be in tobacco, but we saw the writing on the wall and had already


The dirt floor within Zamecnick’s greenhouse can be raked to help reduce fungal pressures. 24


▶ FUTURE FARMING | 27 August 2019


Based on European greenhouse Zamecnik says he and his family constructed their one-acre greenhouse in 2017, the struc- ture and growing systems within being based on designs he observed while visiting trans- plant farms in Belgium and The Netherlands. The entire architecture was designed in con- junction with Meteor Systems – a global in- door cultivation systems company, and one Zamecnik says he particularly valued for their practical application expertise. Unlike many European counterparts, though, Zamecnik’s greenhouse features a fully retract- able roof and sides. The floor is also dirt – rath- er than plastic or concrete – which can be raked to keep fungal pressures at bay, and the hanging growing platforms are reinforced for greater weight-bearing capacity. These changes were not originally planned for, says Zamecnik. Some of them were also cau- tioned against by their consultants. “We never intended on building the fully retractable greenhouse. That was one major change and it comes at a higher cost,” he says. “We were told we shouldn’t be doing that because people wouldn’t want to pay for that price of plant. But the climate demanded it. The more extreme temperatures of Southwestern Ontario – com- pared to countries bordering Europe’s North Sea – forced them to add additional tempera- ture regulation methods. The reinforced grow- ing platforms were necessary because trans- plants growing in such conditions can add weight very quickly (his transplants can quad- ruple their weight in one month). “The biggest thing is just how different our Septembers are,” he says. “We are trying to compensate for that.


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