Soon to trial the CO2 misting solution on its grape tomatoes, The Cucumber Man hopes CO2 GRO’s technology bot increases fruit yield and reduce the spread of pathogens, such as powdery mildew.
The Cucumber Man has previously deployed atmospheric CO2 enrichment, using purchased liquid CO2, but did not see the benefits during the warmer months from spring through fall where heat venting caused most of the CO2 to escape leaving ambient 400 ppm levels.
Changing the way it uses CO2, however, CO2 Delivery Solutions™ offers The Cucumber Man the opportunity to provide additional CO 2 for their plants, regardless of the season.
Aaron Archibald, Vice-President of Sales and Strategic Alliances at CO2 GRO, said, “We are excited to be underway with our first greenhouse trial in the province of Alberta.”
“This is an important trial as we will be running two trials more or less at the same time applying CO2 to cucumbers first then shortly afterwards to grape tomatoes.”
“Alberta is home to a robust vegetable greenhouse industry. We expect that success with The Cucumber Man will lead to additional opportunities in Alberta.”
The trail was initially announced on 8th April 2021, but start-up was delayed due to Covid-19.
CO2 GRO: Enriching protected growth with a ‘magic’ CO2 mist
Source: CO2 GRO
In the US, the food and beverage sector continues to be the greatest user of carbon dioxide (CO2), according to Maura Garvey of Intelligas Consulting. Whether used for creating a fizz in your favorite tipple, creating suitable food packaging environment or utilized for agricultural purposes, demand for the widely used gas remains high.
While these figures suggest that the food and beverages market is highly utilizing the gas across many sectors, that is not the case when it comes to protected grower applications which include greenhouses, hoop houses, shade and net houses and indoor facilities. That at least is according to Dil Vashi, Manager of Corporate Development at CO2 GRO, who shared company figures stating that only 1% of the global market currently enriches their plants with CO2 by traditional atmospheric gassing methods. gasworld’s Business Intelligence also believes this number to be less than 5%.
But that’s not to say the potential for the market segment isn’t sky-high, in-fact it is quite the opposite. According to Vashi, the global market of protected growers amounts to 600 billion square feet of vegetables, 100 billion square feet of floriculture and 100 billion square feet of other plants, including medicinal, citrus, and other tree seedlings – all of which could be enhancing production with the utilization of CO2 and its related technologies.
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