We like to say that our plants live in a spa 24/7…
Greenhouse Environment
When you step inside a greenhouse, you’ll feel like you’ve stepped into a perfect tropical oasis managed by science and technology. We like to say that our plants live in a health spa 24 hours a day.
Our growers have perfected the growing environment for our tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and lettuce. Yes, our crops look and taste perfect, but it’s not because we’ve done anything unnatural to them.
Our growers don’t use waxes. The B.C. greenhouse vegetables you eat are just as they were when we picked them off the plants: Perfect. If you spent 24 hours a day in a health spa, you’d look perfect, too.
Greenhouses only take up 0.01% of BC’s farmland, but produce 11% of BC’s total agriculture production.
Our skilled growers have turned science into art. They give our plants exactly what they need – the perfect climate, the right amount of light, the right amount of nutrition, exact amounts of water and carbon dioxide and the proper ventilation.
The cooling ocean breezes and many hours of sunlight make the southern coast of British Columbia the perfect region in the world for greenhouse vegetable production.
Take a step into one of our glass greenhouses and you’ll find it’s an oasis.
Why greenhouses?
A greenhouse allows our farmers to control the climate for their plants 24 hours a day, meaning our plants can grow strong, healthy and big. Greenhouses mean we can grow more months of the year and make the most use of land.
We produce our healthy food hydroponically. Our farmers grow their plants in rockwool and biodegradable material such as sawdust and coconut fiber. Growing in this material means our plants can stretch their roots, and we can feed them water and nutrients directly where they need it – on their roots – rather than on their leaves or on other parts of the soil. Growing hydroponically means we feed our plants only as much nutrients as they need for optimum growth.
Our growing methods mean we don’t use herbicides. A plastic sheet, which suppresses weeds from growing up through our crops, covers the soil in our greenhouses. At the end of each growing season, the plastic sheet is removed to allow for a proper cleaning of the greenhouse. This cleaning ensures no pests or plant diseases from the previous crop are carried into the new growing season.
To keep pests at bay we use biological controls. We’re world leaders in Integrated Pest Management to protect plants from bad bugs and diseases. Our growers introduce predatory insects – like ladybugs – and mites to eliminate harmful pests. This means our greenhouses use little to no pesticides.
Greenhouse vegetable growing is for B.C.’s future food supply. We can grow 10 to 20 times the amount of vegetables on the same area of field, feeding millions of people healthy, fresh vegetables virtually year round.