Canada continues to rely heavily in imported fruits and vegetables, especially during its long winters but different types of controlled environment agriculture like greenhouses are expanding and changing the balance says Farm Credit Canada.
Tag Archives Greenhouse
Expanding greenhouse sector means more home-grown veggies
Plenty of room to expand in controlled environment agriculture, but investment needed says FCC
Garden seeds lead to problem weeds
Problem weeds may be lurking in that garden catalogue
Manitoba rancher Herman Bouw was casually perusing a gardening seed catalogue when a particular ornamental grass item caught his eye. The plant was listed as “squirrel tail grass,” but Bouw thought it looked awfully similar to a species with a more cursed name on the Prairies. A comparison of scientific names confirmed his suspicion. The catalogue was
The climb of vertical farming
The development and future of vertical ‘plant factories’
Broadly speaking, commercial vertical farming operations are humankind’s attempt to grow food under conditions more controllable than Mother Nature allows and with a minimum of wasted space. Many seem like sci-fi greenhouses: hydroponics, plants growing in stacks or up walls and high-tech sensor setups that seem straight out of the mind of Gene Roddenberry. And,
New ACC course to target advanced technical know-how
Two courses, mechatronics and horticulture (new to the college’s Parkland campus), have been slated for launch next year
A course set to open in Brandon’s Assiniboine Community College campus next fall will prepare workers to run, troubleshoot and fix equipment in increasingly automated agri-food processing facilities. “It’s the future. Everything’s going digital,” said Chris Budiwski, chair of the college’s agriculture and environment school. On Aug. 2, ACC announced that, as of September 2024, it will
Researcher digging up sustainable growing medium for bedding plants
Peat is extracted from sensitive ecosystems that sequester a lot of carbon, so replacing it could have a big impact
A Manitoba researcher is studying how to use local waste materials to make flower beds more environmentally friendly. How? By replacing peat — the fluffy, brown “dirt” in which petunias and marigolds are planted at the greenhouse. “It’s extracted from sensitive ecosystems that sequester considerable amounts of carbon and store excess precipitation,” said researcher Poonam Singh in
Innovation on the vine
TECHNOLOGY From floors to climate managementsystem, Vermillion Growers is building for efficiency
Vermillion Growers in Dauphin thinks it’s time for Manitoba to step up its game on commercial greenhouses, and they’re just the people to make it happen. The final vision of what will, by next year, be the province’s largest commercial vegetable greenhouse, built from the ground up for sustainability and efficiency, may still take some
Wendy’s secures Canadian greenhouse lettuce supply
Alberta grower to provide sandwich, salad lettuce nationwide
The Canadian wing of U.S. burger chain Wendy’s is going strictly indoors, in southern Alberta, to supply all the lettuce for its salad, burger and chicken sandwich offerings across the country. Whole Leaf, based outside Coaldale, about 20 km east of Lethbridge, was announced last week as the lettuce supplier for the chain’s 384 stores
New pilot program for agri-food labour welcomed
Meat processors, greenhouse and mushroom growers, livestock producers get first crack at program
Ottawa — Federal officials hope a new pilot program will help stabilize ongoing labour issues in certain sectors of the agri-food value chain, while also providing citizenship to some foreign workers. Critics, however, contend more support is needed. “This pilot will help to ensure that farmers and processors have the much-needed skills, experience and labour
Canada’s growers look to reopening garden centres to salvage dire year
Ottawa | Reuters — Hard-hit Canadian flower and nursery growers hope a surge in demand from budding gardeners in Ontario, the country’s biggest market, can help the industry avert disaster caused by the coronavirus with retailers reopening on Friday in the populous province. Most non-essential businesses in Canada were shut in mid-March as officials urged
COVID-19 threatens federal field research
Prairie cereals' commissions urge AAFC to follow example of universities, private researchers
COVID-19 threatens to sideline Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) field, greenhouse and laboratory research this year, but not if the Prairie wheat and barley commissions that help to fund it with farmer money have a say. AAFC has been sending “mixed messages” about its plans, Pam de Rocquigny, general manager of the Manitoba Wheat and
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