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Veggie Days tour dispels greenhouse myths

Next farm event takes place in June 2018
greenhouse
Greenhouse vegetable operations can produce about five times as much per acre as compared to the same crop in a field.

So, you have passed by your neighbourhood vegetable greenhouse many times and wondered what is going on behind the screened or whitewashed walls. You missed your chance to experience and learn during the B.C. Greenhouse Veggie Days farm tour in June of 2017 hosted by Ray and Ron VanMarrewyk at Westcoast Vegetables, right in your own back yard. But ... mark your calendars to watch the local news media for your opportunity to visit Westcoast Vegetables when they host another farm tour in June of 2018.

You might think you are seeing another factory, an industrial farm but that is just not the case. Greenhouse vegetable systems make efficient use of what is available naturally, sun and water. Growers add nutrients, elaborate production methods and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to produce the near perfect greenhouse vegetables you find in your local grocery stores. High tech computers control conditions of light, heat, irrigation and even the level of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air, all factors that help the grower create a "spa" for their vegetables, building on what nature already provides. Those screens help keep heat in the greenhouse during the winter and the whitewash protects the vegetables from sunburn during the summer.

Boilers heat water that circulates in the greenhouse providing heat when needed, the exhaust is food grade CO2 that is fed to the plants. Rainwater collection systems provide water that is added to the nutrients recirculated from the plants along with municipal water to be used for irrigation, the timing and nutrient mix carefully monitored and controlled by computer. There is no need for chemical weed control as greenhouse vegetables are not grown in soil but instead in coco fibre which can be recycled at the end of the season.

Greenhouse tomatoes, the only greenhouse vegetable crop that needs assistance with pollination rely on bumble bees for this very important function. IPM systems employ beneficial insects to control pests such as aphids, white fly and thrips rather than pesticides which are used only as a last resort.

Greenhouse vegetable operations can produce about five times as much per acre as compared to the same crop in a field. Production is normally 10 months per year but with lights the growing season becomes year round.

June 2018 will be here before you know it, watch the local news media for the opportunity to celebrate BC Greenhouse Veggie Days by joining the VanMarrewyks when they host the 2018 local farm tour. You will see for yourself the production systems, heat, CO2 and irrigation.

You will see samples of pests and beneficial insects and best of all you will sample the bounty of the vegetables produced in greenhouses. On hand will be a chef from the Agriculture in the Classroom program demonstrating how easy it is prepare these local greenhouse vegetables. And you will be able to answer the question of what goes on behind those screened and whitewashed walls.

Delta's warm climate and cooling ocean breezes make it an ideal location for greenhouse vegetable growing. Over half of the 800 acres of the province's greenhouse vegetable production is located in Delta. BC vegetable greenhouses produce more than 100,000 tonnes of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, lettuce and eggplants each year with a farm gate value of more than $265 million. Approximately 40 per cent of that produce is destined for the local market with the balance being exported mainly to the United States but also various more exotic venues such as Hong Kong and Japan.

-Submitted by BC Greenhouse Growers' Association