Promising results with new AntiCondens coating for glasshouses

Throughout the year, half of the time the windows are wet as a result of condensation. This can minimize the amount of light significantly. Researchers at Wageningen University & Research saw in tests in 2010 that condensation has a significant influence: with droplets on the glass, the transmission is lower and with a water film it can even increase slightly. On average, the light incidence in their experiments with ordinary garden glass was reduced by 5% due to condensation. Especially in the months with poor light the windows are constantly fogged. That is costing production. An anti-drop coating can ensure almost no loss of light, the Wageningen researchers wrote in their report.

Such a coating is now available. Mardenkro has over the last few years re-developed the existing coating AntiCondens for plastic greenhouses into a product that is suitable for glass.

TOV tomato grower Paul van Paassen in Bleiswijk was the first to use the coating. As a test he had six windows coated with AntiCondens in May 2016. "That was convincing, you immediately saw that there were no drops left on the treated windows," he says. On the recommendation of his crop consultant, he applied AntiCondens at the end of the season during the crop rotation in December 2016. The application of AntiCondens must be done on clean and dry glass. 

AntiCondens can last one season. When the windows are cleaned with a detergent at the end of the growing season, the coating will largely disappear.

The grower is satisfied with the result: "It now looks very different in the greenhouse. There is condensation, but you don’t see it. That makes it clearly lighter."

He finds it hard to estimate the consequences for production and quality, because one year can never be compared with any other. "But I think it’s been beneficial," he says. Van Paassen intends to use AntiCondens again next year.

Mardenkro has measured the light intensity under the coating and under a window, part of which was not coated. On three consecutive days in May 2017, the light under the coating was 6 to 7% better than under the uncoated glass. For tomatoes, an increase of 1% light leads to 0.7 to 1.0% more production (data Wageningen UR).