"Retailers don't have a lot of faith in Spanish pepper growers right now"
Source: VFD.com
"Over the last two years, the quality of Spain's peppers has really taken a hit." "That's mainly because some greenhouses were damaged, plus there's been some winter storms, so the retailers don't have a lot of faith in Spanish pepper growers right now. That means that for Dutch growers, there's an opportunity." © Wesley Francis | VerticalFarmDaily.com A crop that resists simple answers The challenge, Perry explains, is that peppers don't respond to artificial lighting the way tomatoes or cucumbers do.
With those crops, the grower controls energy load directly by pruning flowers and fruit to set the plant's workload and predict its output. "Lighting can cost 10, 20, even 30 euros per square metre per year," Perry says.
"So you have to increase your production by quite a margin to make it valuable." Managing what can be managed With lighting economics uncertain and flower set unpredictable, the trial at HortiTech is focusing on what pepper growers can influence: humidity. The goal is to determine whether controlling humidity can deliver a 5% production increase compared to a practical grower not managing it.
Why this matters: For operators, this is a water-management story. The useful signal is that direct substrate measurements can help cut drain loss materially without giving up yield or fruit quality, which is exactly the kind of controllable efficiency gain a facility can build on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does substrate sensing matter in free-drain strawberry systems?
Because drain percentage tells a grower what already happened, while substrate moisture and EC data show root-zone conditions directly. That makes it easier to cut water loss without guessing.
What is the operator takeaway from this trial?
If the thresholds are understood well enough, growers can reduce drain water materially while protecting yield and fruit quality, which makes sensing an operational tool instead of a reporting tool.
