In conversation with... Anja Dieleman

Added on 29 August 2024

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Anja Dieleman. Photo: svensson

Anja is a senior researcher in plant physiology at the Greenhouse Horticulture business unit of Wageningen University & Research. She has many years of experience in the greenhouse horticulture sector and has specialized in the physiology of greenhouse crops. “I originally came from a farm in Groningen and went to Wageningen to study agricultural plant cultivation there,” she says. “But in my first year I discovered greenhouse horticulture, a sector where much more control is possible and where you can really steer the growth of plants.

That really appealed to me, so I switched to horticulture and have remained there ever since.” Since 2000, Anja has worked at what is now the Greenhouse Horticulture business unit of Wageningen University & Research.

The first question comes from Peet van Adrichem, with whom we spoke with for a previous article: “In what ways has your research contributed to a more environmentally friendly approach in greenhouse horticulture, for example through adjustments in the greenhouse climate and cultivation methods?”

Anja: “If you look at the last few years, the application of LED lighting has been a major change in horticulture. We showed more than ten years ago that you can grow perfectly well under LED lighting. We investigated how to adjust the greenhouse climate to the lighting and which spectra work best for different crops. When the energy crisis hit, that knowledge was already available and growers were able to switch quickly. That has ensured that the electricity consumption of growers using lighting has been reduced by half and that is of course a major step towards sustainability.”