As the range of available crop protection chemicals continues to decrease, growers are facing more challenges in maintaining the health and vigor of their plants. Paul Lloveras, from Lloveras Plants in Barcelona, is well-acquainted with these challenges through his daily interactions with plant producers. As a supplier of young plants to nurseries across Southern Europe, his experience spans a variety of plants, including aromatic and vegetable plants, flowers, as well as both biological and conventional varieties.
Paul has been exploring solutions across Europe to address these challenges. A few years ago, he came across UV Crop Protection technology developed by CleanLight. Interested in understanding its effectiveness, Paul visited growers in the Netherlands to learn about their experiences, particularly regarding its impact on disease management and plant quality. Following these discussions, he decided to implement CleanLight's technology on the watering booms in one of his greenhouses.
This system enables him to apply the UV treatment following a precise protocol, without mixing chemicals, leaving residue on his crop, introducing unwanted moisture into his greenhouse, restricting worker access, or interfering with the shipping or harvesting of plants.
Speaking about the results, Paul Lloveras says: "We worked with CleanLight for one year, and it solved our problems with fungi very well. Same thing in the next year. We had no more dead plants."
As the treatment continued, Paul observed something else: "When we started with CleanLight, we thought that it was only to help us with the fungi. But without UV in the greenhouse, our plants are sometimes a little bit stretchy. That means this treatment achieves two things at the same time, controlling the fungi and obtaining a beneficial growth regulator effect that we can otherwise only achieve by placing plants outside".
This project worked thanks to close cooperation between CleanLight in Holland, Bures Innova Spain, and the team at the nursery in Barcelona. Paul summarizes: "The service between Bures Innova and CleanLight was very easy, very friendly, and very like family".
For more information:
CleanLight
+31 6 40 39 57 90
www.cleanlightglastuinbouw.nl
Paul Lloveras
[email protected]
Bures Innova
buresinnova.com