Andrew Britten

When I start thinking of technology in the greenhouse, I immediately think of all the wonderful robots we have. Automation exists in the form of environmental controls, booms, plug fixers, transplanters, etc. Although all of these help in production, the technology that helps us the most is our custom-written Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. There are several ERP systems available on the market, but a custom written system gives you exactly what you need instead of what you can adapt to. Anyone working with ERP systems, especially those originally written for other industries, knows the wish list of changes can stretch for many pages. We found it much more beneficial to build a highly educated IT department inclusive of programmers and system administrators. ERP software integrates all aspects of an operation, including development, manufacturing, sales and marketing. It allows you to track your product from initial ordering through production, to […]

To understand how to grow a quality plug, you must first define what a quality plug is. Some will argue a quality plug is simply one that is able to be transplanted and, with some work, will grow into a quality finished product. To me, this couldn’t be further from the goal. A quality plug in my opinion is one that is able to be transplanted and finished with minimal additional inputs. The more you need to “fix” a liner in the finished stage, the more you lose off your bottom line. In order to achieve this goal, the plug must be produced so it is well toned, well branched and ready to take off running as soon as it is transplanted. This could include having bud initiation, depending on the crop. Poor quality inputs will generally result in poor quality results. Pre-Germination Our production methods have been developed to […]