Zamecnick and his family worked closely with Meteor Systems to develop their suspended greenhouse cultivation system. It is reinforced to ac- count for sudden increases in transplant weight, and both roof and sides are retractable.
Hitting the market at planting times and keeping plants more stable is critical.” Zamecnik adds he was the only one in his fam- ily to have an opportunity to see European sys- tems in action, meaning they largely had to build the entire structure and growing systems based on photos.
Major market demand While still significant producers of field-grown transplants, Zamecnik says the main reason they decided to enter greenhouse production was to fill a major market demand by “creating our own window for production”. Other rea- sons include a desire to reduce costs associat- ed with field fumigation, the time and expense involved with laying plastic, and the very high costs of purchasing land to expand acreage. “We are dirt farmers, not greenhouse guys, but somehow we are making it work,” he says. “That one-acre greenhouse has replaced about 3 to 4 acres of field production.” One of the most significant technological take- aways from European transplant growers,
Investing in drones
Zamecnik says a valuable next-step in his family’s production of both field-grown strawberry transplants and highbush blue- berries is drone technology – something he was first introduced to by a neighbouring watermelon farmer. Pests can be a major is- sue in all of Zamecnik’s crops, and he plans on incorporating drones to identify hot spots within the field for more targeted pest man- agement. This, he hopes, could also help re- duce the need for fumigation. As a side ben- efit, he adds drones could also be set on regular patrols to scare birds away, which would be particularly valuable for their blue- berry production. Zamecnik also wants to employ drones in zone mapping. Doing so would allow for bet- ter nutrient management, and, since they grow many different strawberry varieties si- multaneously, help them understand differ- ences in growth between each variety. One
Dusty Zamecnick inside his family’s straw- berry transplant propagation greenhouse.
variety, that is, might look like it is struggling when it is not, show stress symptoms differ- ently than another variety, and so on. Map- ping with drones could help track these dif- ferences. “Our acreage size is not big […] but the mentality that I have to be a big farm to justify a drone just is not right,” he says. “Sav- ing an acre or two worth of management could save thousands in a year, which would pay for that drone pretty quick.”
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