Happy October everyone!
It's been awhile since my last post, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to share what's been happening, and what's coming up on our events calendar!
Upcoming Events:
Tunneltalk Webinar -Technology in Vermont High Tunnel Spaces
While high tunnels may seem limited when it comes to manipulating growing environments, a lot can be accomplished through the strategic use of shading, irrigation, air exchange and circulation. The trigger for these decisions? Temperature and humidity! These variables are crucial metrics for dialing in our growing environments and supporting our crops in producing high quality, high yielding plants. Join Vern Grubinger from the University of Vermont in a discussion about the tech that he is seeing successfully integrated into high tunnel production across Vermont and the Northeast.
Andy is the Extension Agricultural Engineering Technician, with UVM since 2017. He creates multi-media educational material for farmers including blog posts, case studies, and videos focused on high tunnel production, post-harvest handling, and field equipment and tools related to protecting clean water. Andy hosts and produces The Farmers Share, a podcast that interviews Northeast farmers. The 111 episodes have garnered 55,000+ downloads. Andy and his wife operate Chamberlin’s Farm in Underhill, Vermont, producing fruits, vegetables and flowers in the field and in high tunnels for retail sale. He has an Associate's Degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Perennia is 'Popping Up' in Mabou (October 20) and Millville (October 21)!
Have a crop or animal issue you’re trying to identify? Not sure what’s affecting your plants? Want to better understand your soil or manure analysis? Drop in and connect with Perennia specialists for practical, on-the-spot support.
Bring your insects, weeds, plant samples, or disease concerns for identification and discussion. You can also bring any feed, soil, or manure sample results to review with a specialist or drop off samples for laboratory analysis, including water, soil, manure and compost.
Perennia specialists on-site will include:
- Commodity Specialists
- Soil Specialist
- Integrated Pest Management Specialist
- Plant Pathologist
Drop in any time or book a time in advance with one of our specialists for dedicated one-on-one support. Whether you have a quick question, a field issue, or want to sit down with a specialist to work through a challenge, bring it to the Perennia Pop-Up. Bring your samples. Bring your questions. Leave with practical answers.
The event will take place from 1pm - 6pm in each location. If you want to register, check out the event landing page
Another noteworthy update...
Perennia's Analytical Lab is Back to Processing Water Samples!
As of Monday, Oct 5 2026, bacteria and W1 mineral tests on drinking water are back in house at Perennia's ISO accredited lab in Harlow. What does that mean for you?
- Results are back sooner, and reported in the classic template
- New 100mL bottles to be picked up in person. ALS bottles are still accepted
- Perennia's lab is authorized by Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change to test registered public drinking water supplies for bacteria and some minerals
Before you drop off:
- Water samples must arrive by 1:00 pm, Monday to Thursday at Harlow Lab in Bible Hill
- For non-Harlow sample drops, water samples must arrive by 11:00 AM on TUESDAYS at Kentville, Antigonish, Inverness, and Digby locations
- Drinking water samples must be taken the morning of drop off on Tuesdays
Drop-Off Locations:
- Harlow Lab - 176 College Road, Bible Hill
- Perennia's Kentville office - 28 Aberdeen Street, Kentville
- Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture Antigonish Office - 190 Beech Hill Road, RR#6, Antigonish
- Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture Digby Office - 84 Warwick Street, Digby
- Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Renewables - 15039 Route 19, Inverness (Strathlorne Forest Nursery)
Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Canadian Greenhouse Conference in Niagara Falls. This event comprised of a day in Leamington exploring a few commercial greenhouses, as well as two days for presentations and making connections. I was lucky enough to be able to moderate their afternoon session focused on Aphids as well, which was really fascinating!
I will post a few high level take-homes for you here, but am more than happy to talk more in-depth about specifics for anyone who wants them! Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for new faces that will (hopefully) participate in the Tunneltalk webinar series in the not-so-distant future!
1) Sticky cards sticky cards sticky cards! These are used in heavy rotation in all of the greenhouse facilities that we visited, even in spaces where crops were not currently growing. I love to see these included as attractive visual targets in empty greenhouses to try and coax out some of our flying insect pests that are good at hiding out between cash crops.
3) Throughout the tour/conference, it was interesting to pay attention to what parts of production are mechanized across various farms, and which ones are not. In nursery production for example, one farm identified that sticking transplants was done very efficiently by hand and that investment into a robot to do that job would not make sense. At another operation, they stated that the transplant work was taking a negative toll on the hands of the people doing the work, so that is where they decided to automate, and prioritize people in areas that were less physically intensive. Automation is not one-size fits all, and really comes down to the operation as to where it makes sense to pursue/realize efficiencies.
The same can be said about certain software. The publicly available production management software options often don't do what you need them to when it comes to keeping track of day to day activities. A handful of nursery owners gave feedback that they were individually looking at developing their own internal apps that were specialized to what they do and the information they want to capture/communicate within the work flow.
4) Here is the labour breakdown for Japan's 'Plant Factory'. This company produces hydroponic lettuce in a fully controlled growing environment. This is one business that has invested in automated transplanting as a way to realize efficiencies and support ergonomics in the workplace. I really appreciate the visual showcasing that packaging takes more time than harvesting, and that cleaning takes up about 10% of their time. There is no way to avoid cleaning for a system like this, and it's important that it fits into our scheduling discussions just as much as seeding or transplanting does.
In case this image doesn't show up the way that I hope it will:
'Average ratio of labour per operation process for leafy lettuce production in plant factories in Japan'
Sewing - 6%
Transplanting - 15%
Cultivation Mnagement - 8%
Harvesting - 24%
Packaging - 28%
Cleaning -10%
Others - 8%
5)One of the stops on the tour was a plant nursery that also heavily prioritizes agri-tourism and the visitor experience. They have three greenhouses for plant rearing, each of which houses a different climate to optimize plant growth. All irrigation is done by hand, and the majority of their mistakes are due to issues with irrigation. It is the largest loss and challenge in their business. They are trialing flood benches as well as Aquamat for small groupings of plants to see if they can reduce irrigation-based losses where they can. I'm hoping to get an opportunity to touch base with them in a year or so to hear about how their trials with different irrigation technology are going.
One thing that really stuck out for me at this visit was that this farm has a yearly marketing budget to highlight other businesses and services in the community. They recognize that their success is tied to the success of their neighbours, and have found it has really worked to maintain steady business over many years.
Some of the visitor experiences they have on site include an arcade, cafe/restaurant, playground, interactive animal experiences (koi fish, birds, goats) as well as animal viewing (axolotl, lemurs, Patagonian cavy), mini golf as well as their retail space where they sell nicely packaged plants for folks to pick up. They recommended the IAAPA Expo for businesses who are looking to take it to the next level in the attractions industry.
6) Re: hydroponic lettuce production- Root exudates are naturally released compounds from roots into surrounding water. These compounds support nutrient mobilization, microbial signaling and stress response. In soil, they are diluted, buffered and consumed naturally. In recirculating systems, most commonly seen for lettuce production, these can accumulate over time. Once they hit critical mass, they can contribute to system instability. Here's how that cascade develops over time:
- carbohydrates and amino acids feed bacterial growth
- microbial populations expand
- biological oxygen demand increases
- dissolved oxygen at the root level decreases
- root tips become oxygen limited and begin to die
- mucilage and polysaccharides promote biofilm. Once biofilm establishes, it is stable and self-reinforcing.
Thankfully our IPM Specialist was able to attend the conference as well, and pick up on sessions that were happening concurrently to the ones I was attending! Here were some of the things that stood out to him:
7) FOGGERS! Foggers are pesticide application devices that produce microscopic droplet mists or “fogs” that are drifted out over the crop providing excellent coverage over all surfaces of the plant compared to conventional sprayers while also using lower spray volumes and taking less time/labour to apply. The two main types of foggers are thermal and cold. Thermal foggers use gasoline pulse-jet based systems (https://youtu.be/-dxHMnsD3IM?si=KwZT4xWaWMjJCQzt) to vaporize and propel product solutions over greenhouse crops. As the name suggests these systems use high heat, making some models inappropriate for the application of heat sensitive products such as biologicals, but there are design variants that have been adapted for this use. Cold foggers, alternatively, use high pressure electric pumps to atomize product solutions (https://youtu.be/HQ3PE-m5vlA?si=uIRL-jB2YODVaMnL). Generally, they do not produce as fine of droplets or propel product as far as thermal foggers. However, they can use lower volumes of product solution, they run on electricity not gasoline, and don’t require specific models for application of heat sensitive products. Both types of foggers come in a variety of sizes to suit different operations, including hand-held models for small areas. Using foggers does require some technical know how and fine tuning to get product to drift out properly in your space, but they provide many advantages to conventional sprayer.
8) Soap and disinfectant when Sanitizing: One of the talks I attended was done by a retired disinfectant consultant espousing the virtues of proper sanitation procedures with a bounty of photographic evidence of what happens if you don’t from a 30+ year career. To summarize, cleaning and disinfecting are two separate steps in the sanitation process that require different products, and if you going to do one cleaning is the most important and needs to be done before disinfecting. The initial cleaning process of the protected agriculture space should be performed with a purpose designed soap/detergent to eliminate debris from surfaces. Microbes can survive in debris even when disinfected so this step is critical. Specifically in irrigation lines, soaps also remove biofilms and mineral build up from fertilizer solutions or dissolved solutes in water that can significantly impact flow over time, requiring the replacement of full line systems if regular cleaning is not performed. Then only after proper cleaning should disinfection be performed. Disinfection eliminates or significantly knocks back any remaining microbes from clean surfaces, minimizing the risk of carryover into the next crop. The analogy the presenter used is that disinfecting in sanitation is what mouth wash is in brushing your teeth, if you only use mouth wash your breath may smell better temporarily but your teeth are still gross. You need to brush with toothpaste (clean with soap) to remove debris from your teeth for the mouthwash (disinfectant) to work properly.
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