Are You Attending the ‘Get Growing!’ Hydroponic Seminar?
In case you need an excuse to travel to California in February, you might want to attend American Hydroponic’s Intro to Hydroponic Crop Production seminar: Get Growing!
This two-day interactive course will provide attendees the opportunity to learn the basics of running a hydroponic farm and business. With this knowledge, growers will be better equipped to grow and sell produce to their local communities. Best of all, attendees will get hands-on experience in a greenhouse.
Topics covered include:
- Where hydroponics have come from and where it is going in North America
- What is controlled environment agriculture
- Basics of hydroponic farming
- Pest and disease control
- How to market your produce
The seminar will take place Feb. 20-21, 2017, in Arcata, California. The fee is $995. This is an intimate, hands-on course with space limited to 20 participants! Register here to reserve your spot.
To learn more, go to www.amhydro.com or call 888.978.0963.
Alaska Hydro Business Wins Farm Bureau Award
Vertical Harvest Hydroponics of Alaska is the American Farm Bureau Federation’s (AFBF) Farm Bureau Entrepreneur of the Year. AFBF announced the winner at its 2017 Annual Convention and Trade Show in Phoenix. Team leads Linda Janes and Dan Perpich beat three other teams from across the nation and took home a total of $30,000 in prize money, including $15,000 from sponsor Farm Bureau Bank to produce hydroponic vegetables housed in 40-foot insulated shipping containers. The final four teams competed for the award by pitching their business ideas to a panel of judges before a live audience.
AgTonik Launch Helps Hydroponic Farmers Improve Yields
Two entrepreneurs, Andrew Bruex and Ralf Ostertag, from Kalamazoo, Michigan, have launched AgTonik LLC to manufacture and market products containing an organic compound called fulvic acid, which can be used in greenhouses and hydroponic farms to increase yields and promote plant growth. The company has an 11,000-square-foot production facility in Kalamazoo and a 2,000-square-foot R&D location in Portage. In addition to Bruex and Ostertag, the company has assembled a staff of four people who have implemented quality assurance procedures, an enterprise resource planning system and a website.
Hort Americas Conducting Substrate Trials
Hort Americas has retrofitted a 12,000-square-foot greenhouse in Dallas, Texas, for the purpose of studying edible crop production in a variety of hydroponic production systems. The greenhouse is also being used to demonstrate products offered in the company’s online catalog. Tyler Baras, special projects manager, is overseeing the trial. A primary objective of the substrate trials is to determine the best irrigation strategies for both organic and conventional substrates.
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