This full year program is divided in different themes. Let's give you an introduction:
Kick-off 8th of March: Do you want to be in the forefront of our year program? We’ll host an introduction to the year program with break-out sessions with the Plant Empowerment experts of our partners and members. This day we’ll come together to discover all your brain spins about the program. Your ideas shape the contours of the program.
Light and irrigation: What is the optimum irrigation and light input strategy at different seasons? What can we do if there is too much light and what is the influence of the crop stage on irrigation and optimal light levels? And finally, how are the properties of substrates influencing the irrigation strategy? In this theme you’ll get the answers. We are going to follow multiple high wire crops, especially tomato, pepper and cucumber.
Plant Health: Delve into the intricate world of growth factors impacting plant health. And let’s be honest, almost all growth factors are having an effect on plant health. While focusing on potting plants, our tips and tricks are universally applicable across various crops. This means we will talk about substrate properties, microbial inoculants, biostimulants, impact of (an)organic fertilizers and plant activity.
Data-driven growing: Can we grow a crop without data? And how do you make a good crop plan and transfer the plan into numbers? Explore the important role of data in crop cycles. Let lettuce guide you through the lessons applicable to numerous crops. During the year we will constantly compare actual data with the plan. Finally we will discuss multiple sensors that can be used to collect good and reliable numbers. Since the crop cycle of lettuce is short, a lot of lessons are already learned here and this makes lettuce the perfect example crop.
Climate & plant activity: Climate and plant activity are always connected. But recent studies have taught us that optimal climate, supporting optimal photosynthesis, doesn’t always mean maximum activity. What is the optimum climate for a plant? What is the optimum amount of activity to support maximum production. And how to realize this optimum plant activity? A lot of questions are discussed throughout the year with strawberries as an example crop. And since strawberries are the example crop here, we will also make the link between active climate above the ground and water management in an organic substrate below the ground.
Pollination: With our buzzing friends in the main role you’ll understand the critical role of pollination across crops. Delve into the impact of greenhouse conditions on bumblebee performance. We'll explore humidity, light levels and spectra and temperature to optimize their work environment. And as you would probably expect, tomato and strawberry are our focus crops in this theme. Let’s get this buzzy year started.
Let's dive into the program material
