It all begin when looking for equipment for the unexampled nursery they were build in 2017 . Hugh bumped into this tearing result and the same year , they trialed it and then installed it in their total novel sphere . In the years that followed , they remain installing the organisation list ' OASIS by Control Dekk ' on their existing lines with the next plan to have it set up on all line . This is the floor of annual plant life cultivator Hugh Kurtz of Kurtz Farms in Cheshire ( CT ) , USA . " The system is saving me a lot of time , exploit and as a resolution money . "
From manual to automated - but still labor intensiveKurtz is presently one of the third generation owners of the greenhouse that his granddaddy set forth in the forties . They grow everything from hanging basketball hoop to can plants and mostly append to the New England area . water the plant life is an significant task and used to ask a lot of time and noesis . Over the years it interchange , and watering became more and more automated . " Back in the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , we watered the basket by script , then we started using a tubing arrangement , and at long last a cable conveyor system . " However , still , even with all the improvement in the watering systems , the process required a fortune of labor to hold back then water the baskets . " We needed to verify if it did its workplace well , as each handbasket received the same amount of water , regardless of the individual plant ’s needs . When they are in a hot stain in the greenhouse , for case , they need more water . For this reason , we still had to matter the pots manually every day to confirm whether they have enough or too much pee . "
OASIS Control Dekk at Pacific Growers
weight unit as set forth pointWith haven by Control Dekk , script advisement is not necessary anymore as the organization practice exercising weight as a start point . " First we had to decide how much pee to put in the mint , now we program the idealistic weight of a plant life - which we used to guess every time by weighing it by hand . " concord to Kurtz , it save him a good deal of Labour Party . " Now , we only need to make certain that the organization does its occupation - just like a mood scheme . "
" On top of that , usually , when the baskets require to be embark , we often water them a petty supernumerary so that they will have enough to sustain them until retail . This we can also program in the organisation . So , in the morning of the exit , the picking crew has absolutely watered basket . " Moreover , for each and every craw , the exercising weight can be entered . " For calibrachoa and petunia , for example , unlike colors require dissimilar lacrimation - the red more than the blue - and OASIS compensates for this . This , combine with the automatic rotation of the flora in the greenhouse , will make the optimum climatic portion to grow every single variety . "
Water savingsBesides labour savings , which is according to Kurtz a hot issue as these are rising year on year in the US , OASIS also save urine . " The baskets are water perfectly according to the plant life ’s pre - set needs . " In the past , water system poured out of the basketball hoop when they could not uptake the amount of water system that we programmed . Now , no water is being spilled and that is not only beneficial financially mouth , also environmentally speaking . It makes us feel we do the right matter . "
Upgrading whole tone by stepThe first haven was tried on an existing Boomerang crinkle in 2018 and by the ending of the twelvemonth - after the trial catamenia - Kurtz make up one’s mind to also upgrade the 33 new Boomerang lines that would be install in the newly build area . step by step , he has continue promote its existing lines ; last twelvemonth , he install it on 28 existing Boomerang lines and by the end of the class on 12 existing Echo lines . So , presently , 73 lines have the OASIS system installed and Kurtz is eager to go on until the entire greenhouse is covered . " All haven lines , I now control from touchscreen , office staff PC or tablet and I am look onwards to doing this with all the flora I grow . "
exchange in demandKurtz grows all form of annuals and over the long time , he has see the demand changing from grease one’s palms bedding plants to buying tummy flora . " It seems like the current generation does not want to get their paw dirty anymore . "
Control Dekk - grow every yearIn 2016 , Control Dekk get going to offer the first haven system of rules that could be installed on Echo or Boomerang hoop line . Since the introduction of this system , they have develop promptly . " Over the last 4 years , they have grown at least 2 or 3 times every yr , " say Len Logsdon , who together with Michigan agriculturalist and brothers Jared and Jordan Dekker of Dekker Bros create the system . Last yr , OASIS systems watered over 400,000 hanging basket and this year , they will be watering over 1,000,000 baskets . And not only in the US . Last class , they also traverse the molding and have the first installation in Canada , on nine Boomerang lines . Over the years , they kept on improving and adjusting the organisation to the agriculturalist ’s pauperization . One of their latest developments is that the system can also be used on a FormFlex chain conveyer belt . " We are very excited about that " .
Control DekkEmail:[email protected]www.controldekk.com
© FloralDaily.com/Elita Vellekoop
