Lighting Book Winner From Cultivate’18 Has His Own Unique Story
August 20, 2018 
For the second consecutive year, Greenhouse Grower gave away a copy of “Light Management in Controlled Environments” during Cultivate ‘18. “Light Management in Controlled Environments” is a digital and print book that presents the underlying biology of how light influences plant growth and development of specialty crops, especially those grown in greenhouses and controlled-environment growth rooms.
This year’s big winner was Mark Smith of Kurt Weiss Greenhouses (No. 4 on Greenhouse Grower’s 2018 Top 100 Growers list), who says he will use the book with company president Kirk Weiss to help them make informed lighting decisions.
Smith, a senior section head grower, has been in the floriculture industry for 39 years, all with Kurt Weiss. This year, he attended Cultivate for the second time. The first time? It was the year he started at Kurt Weiss Greenhouses.
“I had wanted to continue attending since I first saw it in the “Florists Review” back in the late 1970s when it was known as the Ohio Short Course,” Smith says. “However, life being what it is, I fell in love, bought a home, and my children all took priority.”
That is, until this year, when Kirk Weiss asked him about going to back Cultivate.
“I told him it was a bucket list thing for me’ Smith says.
These days, Mark spends a lot of his time working with students who are on internships.
“Their enthusiasm and desire for knowledge is contagious; they encourage me, and I them, and I share the trade publications I receive with them,” Smith says. “I greatly enjoy that I can go around the world, just by saying ‘good morning’ to my co-workers, or walking around the lunch table. I find it amazing how our industry attracts young men and women from every continent.”
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