More focus on Plant Empowerment at Van Lipzig Tuinderijen

Over the past 20 years, LetsGrow.com has welcomed a large number of loyal clients. This includes Van Lipzig Tuinderijen. They are a family business that specializes in growing high-quality cucumbers. By maintaining planting balances, this data-driven and innovative organization have learned how to grow strong and resilient cucumber crops.

With years of experience growing roses, Peter van Ninhuys joined Van Lipzig Tuinderijen as Cultivation Manager in 2017. “At that time, Van Lipzig Tuinderijen was looking for a Cultivation Manager with a fresh perspective to implement the principles of Plant Empowerment,” Peter indicates. Within a three-year timeframe, Peter learned how to grow a stronger, more resilient cucumber crop with a more healthy root zone. The organization used a step-by-step approach, constantly looking for the limiting factor of their growing process. By doing so, the organization prevented diseases and optimized crop photosynthesis.

Eye-openers for optimum returns from light use

“Last year we put the Plant Empowerment principle into practice even more. We adjusted our ventilation strategy by ventilating the leeward and windward sides of the greenhouse at exactly the same time. This results in a more even growing climate, better humidity, and a reduction in indoor temperature.” The company attaches great importance to real-time insight into the growth factors of the crop, in order to optimize and standardize all these different growth factors. Peter emphasizes, “climate management is the core of my daily routine, analyzing and improving all growth factors by using the process computer of Hoogendoorn Growth Management and the platform MyLetsGrow from LetsGrow.com”.
Various products from LetsGrow.com are in use at Van Lipzig Tuinderijen to gain even more insights. One of these is the Thermoview 48™. This can map the warmest, coldest, and average temperatures. It also shows and captures a picture in both a thermal image and a plain visual image. All of this data is easily viewed through MyLetsGrow.

With the Thermoview 48™ it is easy to monitor whether the head of the plant is not cooling down too much. This overview shows that the screens close at 3 pm because of an approaching rainstorm. As a result, the cucumber remains warmer than the temperature of the environment and the plant itself for up to three hours. For Peter, the Thermoview 48™ has become an indispensable link within the horticultural organization.

They also work with the Trutina system. Thanks to the Trutina system, Peter is able to analyze crop behavior, resulting in the generation of insights that allow him to better understand the needs of his crop and adjust the cultivation strategy to achieve the highest possible yield.

Empowering cucumbers through digitalization

 “Growing cucumbers brings challenges on a daily basis. After all, the growing climate needs to be monitored 24/7. By digitalizing our processes with LetsGrow.com, we are able to empower our crop. By using the climate monitor of LetsGrow.com, fact-based decision-making is possible. Peter: “If at any time I am not satisfied with the appearance of a crop, I always analyze the facts and figures.
LetsGrow.com makes it possible to read in, visualize and analyze all crop data. All this is easily displayed on MyLetsGrow. Every greenhouse grower can connect to LetsGrow.com to gain insight into what is happening in the greenhouse. By making smart use of your own data, we provide analyses and advice that lead to higher returns; including quality improvements in production and accurate harvest forecasts.