Climate

Brabant Plant connected their climate computer to the 30MHz platform early 2020. This led to valuable benefits. Cultivation researcher Marvin Verkuijlen tells us about his experiences with the integration. “Now it’s easier to compare different compartments.” Brabant Plant is a Dutch family business that…

The wild plants that grow along our roadsides and ditches—like the salt-tolerant wild sunflowers and disease-resistant wild pumpkins—may hold crucial traits that can protect our food supply. Breeding commercial food crops using their wild relatives can help those crops become more pest and disease-resistant and resilient in the face of climate change. But according to a new study, many of the “crop wild relatives” are endangered in their natural habitats and in dire need of conservation.

Colin K. Khoury, the study’s lead author, has been a long-time advocate of wild plants and food crop diversity. He has worked for seed companies and seed conservation nonprofits, including Native Seeds/SEARCH. He currently works (remotely) for the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia and is also a researcher at Saint Louis University, based at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Ft. Collins, Colorado facility.

Civil Eats spoke with Khoury about the study, the threats to these plants, and what can be done to help crop wild relatives thrive.

An optimal control for the opening and closing of the side ventilation windows of a greenhouse can be obtained from a mathematical model of the crop and the greenhouse. In the greenhouse model, control input is the ventilation, and to carry out the instrumentation in the immediate future, this term we…

LED and HPS luminaires affect leaf and air temperature differently, which can have a profound effect on your crop. Learn more on the differences between these two technologies and how it might affect the outcome of your plants at bit.ly/2Jrq58T pic.twitter.com/jOU093X5Gr

Posted by P.L. Light Systems (PLlight) on Wednesday, January 20th, 2021 1:13pm

Nivola presents a new solution for climate control under 100% closed screens in existing and new greenhouses. The need for light shielding by growers is continuously increasing. Last Monday, Hortidaily posted: ‘’Passed on December 8th, 2020 by the municipality of Leamington, the “Greenhouse Light…

In greenhouse horticulture air is often brought in from below. In utilities, this is the other way around. There, the air is always brought in from above. It ensures effective air movement and a good indoor climate for people or business processes. Growers also want an optimal climate, but for the plant.…

The floods that have ravaged Tabasco this year have strongly impacted the state's banana production. The president of the National Council of the Banana Product System, Adrian Prats Leal, stated that the floods had affected more than 4,500 hectares, 4,000 hectares of which had total losses, which led to…

As the climate crisis intensifies, a growing number of consumers have begun to see healthy soils as a potential solution. As a result, soil-building techniques like cover crops and diverse crop rotations are increasingly in the limelight. But for many dyed-in-the-wool organic farmers, they’re old hat.

“These are practices that have been part of organic certification for decades now,” said Laura Batcha, CEO of the Organic Trade Association (OTA), during a September media briefing to kick off a campaign positioning organic farming as a climate solution.

In hot climatic conditions, the temperature inside a greenhouse is much higher than the ambient temperature and requires significant cooling to maintain the temperature in the optimal range. A newly published study done by researches of the Hamad bin Khalifa University proposes a novel concept for a self-…

The ventilation and circulation of air in horticultural greenhouses are of great importance for the growth and well-being of plants. Depending on the situation in and around the greenhouse, various issues can arise in the indoor climate, which can be resolved by, among others, the correct use of fans. In…

"The high zucchini prices of the past few days were due to the sudden lack of produce. Night-time temperatures dropped to 7-8°C, halting production," reports Roberto Bortolotti, vegetable sales manager for De Luca - Campitiello at Caab Bologna. Roberto Bortolotti "In the fall, a few nights at a low…

“We started by selling our smaller standalone dehumidifiers. Now, we have our walk-in IQ series, with two units fitting on the back of a transport truck,” according to Quest president, Clifton Tomasini. Quest is a North American-based manufacturer specializing in humidity control across various…

In relatively hot climates like most of Australia, using an automated Shade or Energy Screen is an indispensable tool, but it is also a compromise – it’s really good at cooling the greenhouse, or really good at keeping it warm, but it can’t do both very well. So, Growers are increasingly opting for Double Screens – one screen…

Soil Spill

If the planet’s temperatures increase by just two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, it could trigger a catastrophic release of even more carbon currently sequestered in the soil.

New projects, published Monday in the journal Nature Communications, suggest that scenario would release 230 billion tons of carbon — more than twice as much as the U.S. has emitted into the atmosphere over the last century. Needless to say, that grim eventuality could fast-track us toward planetary disaster.

For areas that experience significantly colder weather and snow during the fall and winter seasons, it’s important to prepare your greenhouses so your crops are protected. Here are a few things to consider when preparing your commercial greenhouse operation for the fall and winter: Tidy upThings may have gotten a little messy…

The worrying increase in pests and the impact of the weather are causing the kaki production to fall at a higher rate than expected in the Region of Valencia, the fruit's main producing area in Spain. Although the prices that producers receive are higher compared to the same period last season, the…

Horticultural crops are exposed to multiple abiotic stresses because of ongoing climate change. Abiotic stresses such as drought, extreme temperatures, salinity, and nutrient deficiencies are causing increasing losses in terms of yield and product quality. The horticultural sector is therefore searching…

According to Ontario’s potato specialist Eugenia Banks, Ontario’s potato harvest was progressing well, but had to stop over the past few days as temperatures rose above optimal harvest levels. Banks told potatoesincanada.com: “To keep a healthy crop in storage, pulp tuber temperature should not be above…

Feed Me, Seymour

When we think of geoengineering the environment to counteract global climate change, we typically conjure the image of massive projects like blocking out sunlight.

But a new report suggests that a biological approach to geoengineering — gene hacking the DNA of plants and animals to curb carbon emissions — could be a far more useful approach, according to Axios. In other words, the idea is that we need to alter the entire biosphere to make up for the damage humanity has done to the planet.

Growing tomatoes in the desert using nothing but sunlight and seawater is a quantum leap forward for agtech innovation. So how can this technology be scaled and how can remote labour be found to help power Australia’s low-carbon food system? Imagine farming vegetables all year-round in Australia’s…

Record drought and frequent heatwaves could change where farmers grow their crops in the future, according to a new paper. Approximately one-third of the vegetables and two-thirds of the fruit and nuts consumed in America are grown in California, which is home to 76,000 farms. Some of these products make…

Continuous rain over the past few days has almost destroyed the monsoon crops in various regions of Gujarat. The growers there have not only lost money spent on seeds, fertilisers etc; their efforts for the past two months will literally be wasted as they will have little or no harvest. Continuous…

Why is cooling important? Well, first to control temperature and humidity, secondly to avoid plant stress, then also to prevent over-irrigation and to ensure flower set.  ​The selection of cooling systems depends on the amount of heat gained from the outside, as well as any heat generating equipment located…

The weather systems that moved through the Canadian prairies in late June/early July resulted in some significant crop damage.  According to the Canadian Crop Hail Association, agents are following up on about 1200 hail claims from storms earlier this month and more are still coming in. The storms resulted…

Some farmers in B.C.'s Interior are struggling with water-logged fields, which could affect their income for the season.