NEWS & EVENTS
Even in the world of the highly capable, there aren’t many people who can guide you off a perilous mountain, offer up their home-brewed beer and program your environmental control. Jeff Henderson, the newest addition to Wadsworth Control Systems’ software development team, is just that person. Most importantly, Jeff is a bright and capable programmer who receives a big hand for his assimilation of the workings of a greenhouse in the Wadsworth school of climate automation.
Our customer support team grew in 2016 to include two new members, Art O’Hare and Nick Earls. Art joined us in March. Many of you know him from the industry and had the opportunity to meet with him at Wadsworth’s biannual seminar or Cultivate 2016.
Looking for someone with experience in the cannabis industry? So were we. Say hello to Nick Earls, our new customer support and sales team member. Nick attended the University of Arizona where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Controlled Environment Agriculture. He managed the campus teaching greenhouse while studying commercial hydroponic greenhouse vegetable production. Nick then moved to Denver, CO where he began working in the cannabis industry. He managed a cultivation facility for Denver Relief while helping with consulting projects. Just prior to joining Wadsworth, Nick was the head grower for a cannabis greenhouse in Pueblo, Colorado.
Both Nick and Jeff will be working from Wadsworth Controls’ Colorado office. Art is located in California.
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What is your product focus?
Our products take care of three main greenhouse functions: climate control, curtain systems and ventilation automation. Our…
Curtain Checkup
With energy costs increasing and little relief in sight, everyone is looking for ways to reduce heating costs. One way of conserving energy is the use of an energy curtain in the greenhouse that, when pulled closed at night, creates an attic of air that acts as an added layer of insulation. Any future greenhouse that growers may be designing or planning should allow for at least a single-curtain system, whether they are being installed initially or at a later date. Preplanning will allow any greenhouse business to then add the first or even a second system without too much retrofitting
Greenhouse Upgrades Part I
If I were a grower, I would want to put my precious capital into something that helped me reduce costs, reduce labor and increase quality all at once. Hot water heaters can do just that.
To do a good job of heating your greenhouse space means delivering the heat evenly. The heat should be delivered in a way that allows your plants to take away the most benefit possible. We call this “distribution efficiency.” If you heat with hot air furnaces, no matter the type or efficiency, your distribution efficiency is probably around 50%. This means of all the heat you generate, only about 50% is put to good use by your plants. The rest is lost to leakage in your glazing, or rises immediately to the peak, where it does nothing beneficial for you.
Using Temperature to Control Growth
An early morning DIF or DROP, which lowers the greenhouse temperature before sunrise, can help control plant growth and save on energy costs.
Reducing temperatures at sunrise creates a morning DROP and reduces stem elongation.Much has been written about DIF, which is defined as the difference between day and night temperatures or day temperature minus night temperature. A negative DIF, the result of a night temperature that is warmer than the day temperature, prevents stem elongation in many crops. Considering today’s increasing fuel prices, efforts to use negative DIF to keep greenhouse temperatures warmer at night isn’t necessarily a good business practice. Many growers have decided it’s not worth the extra cost.
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