Throughout 2023, the Plant Empowerment consultants provided tailored advice to tomato and cucumber production company Lapietra, based in Monopoli (Bari) in the Puglia region of Italy. "Keeping the crops better in balance is good for plant health, and healthy plants mean better flavour, more uniform quality and higher yields," says Head Grower and Technical Manager Paolo Paciello, who manages the company's eight greenhouses.
Lapietra has a total of 14 ha of greenhouse space – 11.5 ha of tomato production and 2.5 ha for cucumbers – and employs over a hundred people. "Everything is grown hydroponically," says Paolo. "Our cucumber production activities are mainly focused on mini cucumbers of 11-13cm in length, for the local market. Besides that, we produce lots of different types of tomatoes, from truss tomatoes to green tomatoes and even a black cocktail tomato called 'Nero'. We have one semi-closed greenhouse fitted with LEDs, which enables us to continue growing some smaller tomato types all through the winter."
Keeping the balance
Paolo has been growing vegetables and stone fruits for a long time; he already had 8 years of experience under his belt before he joined Lapietra back in 2010. "Over the years, especially in combination with the rise of automation, I've become increasingly interested in the data science behind good crop management," he states.
After reading about the Plant Empowerment book on LinkedIn a few years ago, he bought it right away and started implementing some of the principles. "To be honest, I was surprised to see that the plants quickly adapted to the new levels of inputs, and the approach really did improve production. Clearly, keeping the crops better in balance is good for plant health, and healthy plants mean better flavour, more uniform quality and higher yields," he continues.
Exchanging knowledge
Lapietra's facility is located close to the Adriatic coast, so the climate is not too dry and the temperatures are generally moderate. "In summer, however, the night-time temperature can sometimes remain high, and the weather conditions can also be wet. This can cause some humidity challenges in our greenhouses," explains Paolo. In particular, these conditions were causing some setting difficulties with the tomatoes in the summer plantings. For expert advice, Paolo contacted Alessandro Montanarella, his crop consultant and local representative of Lapietra's substrate supplier Saint-Gobain Cultilene.
In early 2023, the Cultilene team suggested setting up some meetings with other consultants from the Plant Empowerment network for help with further fine-tuning Lapietra's approach. "We realized that this problem – as with most crop-performance issues – was not the result of one single aspect in the greenhouse, but rather multiple interrelated factors," says Remy Maat, Manager Application at Saint-Gobain Cultilene.
"Therefore, we brought in some of the other Plant Empowerment consultants to analyse Paolo's situation, use their respective expertise to explain the reasons why certain things were happening, and think up some possible improvements together with the grower. That's the beauty of being part of the multidisciplinary Plant Empowerment consultant network. We can involve the right partners who can add relevant and tangible value to each project by suggesting potential solutions, and providing implementation support if necessary," adds Remy. In this case, Cultilene brought in Hoogendoorn Growth Management, LetsGrow.com, Koppert and Ludvig Svensson.
"We thought this was a great idea, because it's part of our company culture at Lapietra to be open to exchanging knowledge, gaining new perspectives and learning about a different way of doing things," recalls Paolo.
Focus on the details
In a series of interactive online meetings throughout the year, the Plant Empowerment consultants shared their insights with Paolo and Simona, his cultivation assistant, based on the specific situation. In particular, they helped Lapietra to focus on the details when working with the crop data. For instance, Remy contributed his expertise on smart water and root zone management.
"There are lots of settings to manage. In the irrigation strategy alone, for example, you have to think about the watering volume and frequency, the type of nutrient solution, the WC and EC in the slab, as well as the temperature. It's important to keep in mind which input you're changing and then to monitor the data to verify how the plants react. That way, you can continuously modify and improve your crop strategy to achieve the best results for your own company, your customers and consumers," continues Paolo.
Better pollination for better quality
Additionally, the experts gave Paolo and his colleague some tips relating to the use of bumble bees. "They advised us to position the hives more evenly throughout our greenhouses, rather than having them all in one place. This results in better pollination and therefore better-quality tomatoes," he says.
Another important adjustment for Paolo related to the screening strategy: "The outdoor climate is changing every day. The Plant Empowerment team helped me to adapt the screening strategy to make better use of shading. This contributes to a more stable and even climate inside the greenhouse, which is better for crop performance."
Passionate about preserving the environment
A more effective screening strategy also helps to improve the use of energy. This supports Lapietra's sustainability goals. "We are passionate about the local area and we want to preserve it for future generations. Moreover, this topic is important to our customers and consumers too. We keep our transport-related carbon footprint very small by selling our products mainly to customers in the south of Italy, including around 60-70% to supermarkets in the Puglia area," explains Paolo.
"We are also proud of our other sustainability-related efforts, such as our biomass heating system, our CHP system and our pesticide-free and 100% soil-less cultivation. And the Plant Empowerment principles contribute to this goal by helping us to reduce our use of inputs such as energy, water and fertilizers," he adds.
More accurate predictions
As a next step, Paolo would like to dive even deeper into the data to streamline his planning activities. "We're not operating a production line in a factory, of course; we're working with a natural product, so there's always an element of unpredictability. But I believe that data-driven growing can help us to predict our production levels more accurately. This will enable us to plan our harvesting and delivery activities in even closer alignment with customer expectations. This will keep our clients happier and also help to further reduce waste."
Due to rising customer demand for the company's tomatoes, especially in the winter, Lapietra plans to add another 3.5 ha greenhouse in the near future. "The Plant Empowerment consultants gave us plenty of other suggestions, including changing the type and positioning of the screens we use. We are looking forward to applying those ideas in the new greenhouse to further increase the quality and quantity of our crops, while decreasing our costs and inputs," Paolo concludes.
For more information:
Cultilene
cultilene.com