As owner and head of operations of Twin Creeks Greenhouse Inc. in Ontario, Canada, Mike Cornelissen is always looking for ways to further improve the performance of his crop of bell peppers. "With support from the Plant Empowerment Implementation Partners, we've created a more uniform climate. This has enabled us to improve yield, fruit size, and quality this year, and we're looking forward to doubling down on these positive results next year."
Mike Cornelissen comes from a family of farmers; his grandfather set up a cash crop farm after arriving in Canada from the Netherlands in the 1950s. The farm was then passed down to his parents, who subsequently also moved into chicken farming. "But I was always interested in owning greenhouses because they enable you to better control the environment and therefore make continuous improvements to your crop performance," says Mike. After leaving agricultural college and gaining some open-field experience, he was able to turn his dream into reality by founding Twin Creeks Greenhouse Inc in Ontario in 2016, which today has around 65 employees. Since then, Mike has been producing bell peppers hydroponically – initially on 4 hectares, and currently on 16 hectares following the most recent expansion in 2020. "We produce peppers from March to November but have crops all year round, from December through to November. For reasons of efficiency and scalability, we grow just three main varieties: one red, one orange, and one yellow pepper, each in their separate greenhouse compartment," he explains.
Intelligent algorithms
"In addition to our production activities, we're always running lots of trials – I have around 20 underway this year. I enjoy looking at how new methods and technologies can help us to further improve our growing practices," continues Mike.
In this context, he regularly participates in online and in-person courses to further his knowledge. "During some of those courses, I heard about the Plant Empowerment philosophy and also became intrigued by the possibilities offered by intelligent algorithms. I'd already upgraded to Hoogendoorn's IIVO system in late 2022 after working with the iSii climate computer for many years. So I was very pleased to be able to take advantage of the IIVO's Intelligent Algorithms software when it was launched," he says.
The Intelligent Algorithms software is designed with the Plant Empowerment principles in mind, allowing growers to use their own customized strategy in an intelligent manner. Based on key parameters, growers create – using only a few settings – the most optimal climate strategy to keep the plants in balance by meeting the requirements of their greenhouse, their crop, and their climate. The algorithms then take these settings as a starting point to proactively control the climate on a micro-level, while taking into consideration the forecasted weather conditions.
"Peppers are a 'flushy' crop with significant variations from week to week. It is also fairly slow-moving, so if you make a change, it takes longer to see the effects. And if you do see an issue, it happened long ago, which can make it challenging to steer. That's why we were keen to develop a data-driven crop plan to help us anticipate any potentially negative results and take corrective action before they materialize," explains Mike.
RTR for peppers
"Hoogendoorn suggested using intelligent climate control algorithms based on the Radiation-to-Temperature Ratio (RTR). To a certain degree, steering on RTR was not a lot different from what we were already doing, but it allowed us to convert our existing approach into a number that works with the Plant Empowerment principles."
Since implementing Plant Empowerment, Mike has also started monitoring the vapor pressure difference (VPD) in a dashboard and installed various sensors. These include plant temperature sensors and a PAR light sensor to gain more accurate readings of the indoor light rather than just the outdoor light.
Uniformity is key
Ideally, the greenhouse climate should be uniform – not only to make your crop easier to manage but also so you can apply your data learnings," states Mike. Therefore, he reinforced the existing single screens by adding second energy screens from Svensson throughout the whole farm.
Additionally, to support the RTR strategy, Svensson's vertical fans have been installed in all greenhouses. "When we installed the double screens, they created a kind of 'heat blanket' just beneath the roof, so we needed to push that heat back down. Now, the focus is on a high airflow rather than a high minimum pipe temperature. This solution has helped to reduce our annual heating costs. And more importantly, it helps us to maintain a higher humidity level in the greenhouse – and therefore achieve better plant growth – in the first half of the year when the outdoor conditions here can be extremely dry," he explains.
Support from the experts
Twin Creeks Greenhouse has received lots of help from the multidisciplinary team of Plant Empowerment Implementation Partners, says Mike: "Not only from Hoogendoorn and Svensson, but also from Cultilene, who helped us to fine-tune the setpoints after we installed Hoogendoorn's Aquabalance system to automate our irrigation. Additionally, we now have at least one meeting a week with the LetsGrow.com consultant, who dives into what we want and brings in the other partners as necessary."
He has been working with the LetsGrow.com data visualization platform for around a year. "We initially used it in our high-pressure fogging trial. As soon as I saw what the platform was capable of, I rolled it out across the entire farm," states Mike. Before the season started, LetsGrow.com analyzed the historical data such as light levels and outdoor temperatures. "It was a real eye-opener to see their roadmap for where we could take the crop. I love the way we can now bring together the computer data, crop registration data, and manual irrigation checks in a single platform so that we can see whether they match. If not, we can immediately pick up on the underlying errors such as sensor issues," Mike says enthusiastically.
Pushing the boundaries
By following the Plant Empowerment principles, Mike has gained a new perspective on his approach. "For example, misting is mostly used to cool the greenhouse. But in the second year of our high-pressure fogging trial, LetsGrow.com and MJ Tech advised us to switch our focus to maintaining a higher RTR. So we're now compensating for the cooler daytime temperature with a higher nighttime temperature, which actually results in a higher 24-hour temperature overall – the opposite of what you would normally expect to do," he comments.
He also sees data-driven growing as a way to push the boundaries. "While the first part of the year is often fairly dry here, our summers can be very humid. To minimize the risk of powdery mildew, we've always been cautious with our humidity levels – perhaps too cautious, with too much of a buffer. Plant Empowerment helps us to slowly reduce the buffer while staying on the safe side of the boundaries," he explains.
Small changes make a big difference
"The data insights are enabling us to make small changes every day, such as leaving the screens closed for an extra 15 minutes, or opening them earlier or at a different time of day. All these small changes can make a big difference. As we continue to fine-tune this next year, I'm sure we will be able to achieve even more savings on our heating costs without compromising on crop performance. Plus managing our humidity better should give us more control over pressure from pests such as spider mites," adds the head of operations.
The first year of being guided by the Plant Empowerment principles has been a big learning experience, according to Mike. "It has been great to record so much more data. Now that we can overlay it over the historical data, we're building a good baseline for next season. This enables us to see at a glance whether we're doing better or worse than last year," he states.
"We've already seen positive results in terms of yield, fruit size and quality, and we've got plenty more ideas for further fine-tuning. So we're looking forward to applying all our new learnings and doubling down on the improvements next year," Mike concludes.
Source: Plant Empowerment