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THECOMMERCIAL GREENHOUSEGROWER • MARCH 2017
• BPOACONFERENCE
BPOA
CONFERENCE
Roboticswas amajor theme at the annual spring conference
of theBritish ProtectedOrnamentals Association. Coupled
with this verymodern topic, five speakers dealt with aspects of
pest and disease control, an issue that goes back to the dawn
of agriculture.
Twelve speakers altogether took part in the one-day
programme. Threewere from the research scene at
universities, whileArt VanWingerden from one of theworld’s
largest horticultural businesses, MetrolinaGreenhouses in
theUSA, provided anAmerican grower’s perspective on
marketing and automation. FromPentlandPlants, Jamie
Satterthwaite, the first winner of the recently launchedBPOA
Peter Seabrook Bursary, gave aBritish perspective on his
experiences during a study tour in theUSA.
‘A grower-programmable robot’ was the lecture title of Dr
MatthewHoward of King’sCollege, London. He presented a
report on his AHDB-fundedwork (project No. HNS/PO 194).
Professor Simon Pearson of theUniversity of Lincoln posed
the question to growers ‘What can a robot do for you?’
In an afternoon programmemostly concernedwith pest and
disease control, speakerswere JudeBennison of ADAS
andDr MartinMcPherson of
Stockbridge TechnologyCentre,
consultant LyndonMason, Dr
DaveChandler ofWarwick
University, Dr JoshBurnstone
of Fargro andEdwardBurchall
of theAnimal &Plant Health
Agency.
The continuation of funding for
theAHDBBedding andPot Plant
Centre, announcedduring the
autumn, enabledDr Jill England
andChloeWhiteside, fromADAS, to speak to the title ‘What is
coming up at theCentre?’
The conferencewas held inmid-January atWhittleburyHall
near Towcester, Northants. Over seventy growers and other
industry personnel attended. TheBPOA, a specialist group of
theNFU, is now in its eleventh year.
GregHill of Hill Bros., Chichester continues as chairman of the
Association. KerstenCatella of theNeweyGroupwas elected
vice-chairman at the annual general meeting.
Speaker Prof Simon
Pearsonof the
Universityof Lincoln.
SATURN
BIOPONICS
3D hydroponics promise step change in the economics of
high-value crop production
Investing in 3D hydroponic growing can offer payback in as
little as 6months, says Alex Fisher, founder andCEO of Saturn
Bioponics.
This is because growers can achieve yield increases of 300
per cent from growing plants in vertical moduleswhichmake
more efficient use of space, plus the benefits of extended
growing seasons. There are cost reductions too; thanks to the
controlled system, they can see lower nutrient bills, in addition
to benefitting from time-saving practiceswhich help keep
labour and operating costs down.
Work to date has focused on leafy salads, lettuce andpak
choi andbasil, with further trials looking at an even broader
range of crops grown in glasshouses and polytunnels,
including strawberries.
Part of the secret is that costs per plant are not high; with
lettuce and leafy salads costing as little as £0.05/plant,
revealsMr Fisher. This includes planting and harvesting labour,
fertiliser, water, substrate and root zone fungal control but
excludes seedling costs.
Mr Fisher says: “In our designwe have kept inmind not only
the agronomic conditions the plant needs, but also how to
keep labour costs down bymaking planting and harvesting
easy and quick for theworkforce.”
The novel system operates hydroponically using nutrient
enrichedwater, and seedlings are plantedby inserting ‘plug
plants’, with themature plant being removed at harvest.
Placing the plugs in the apparatus takes 1.5 seconds/plug,
with harvesting taking three seconds as it consists of just
pulling out the plant and then placing it in a harvesting cart,
while trimming the plant will add up to three seconds). This
simplemethod also results in less damage to plants at harvest,
which can impact on saleable yield.
The system has already enabled one grower to reduce piece
rates by 33 per cent.
In lettuce, tightly controlled growing conditions lead to growers
participating in the trials achieving between 90-100% saleable
crop, he reveals. Moreover, turn-around is fast too. As soon
as one crop is harvested replanting can take place almost
immediately as the root zone is internally sterilized (with no
chemical residue).
“We have also been fine-tuning efficiency throughout the
