Tech, innovation, and the future of horti culminate at GreenTech

Exhibitors packed into GreenTech's halls for the annual show hosted June 14-16 in Amsterdam. Attendees ranged from country delegates to investors, policymakers, growers, start-ups, and entrepreneurs, all of whom were there to reconnect and learn about the latest solutions and innovations for food and flower production.

With labor remaining a high priority for growers, it was no surprise that many of the innovations seen at the show centered on automation and offered labor-saving solutions. The six products we mention here barely dip into the breadth of currently available and future technologies featured on the show floor at GreenTech 2022, including this year's Innovation Award winners.

Berry Picking Just Got Easier

Organicfarms won the GreenTech Concept award for BERRY, a harvesting robot for strawberries. With the help of image recognition software, BERRY can detect fruit ripeness, position, and quality. It harvests the fruit and delivers it safely to a punnet container for weighing and eventual sale.

As a side note, Belgium-based BioBest won the GreenTech Innovation award for its Micromus-System. The brown lacewing (Micromus angulatus) is a generalist predator of which both adults and larvae feed on common aphid species found in protected crops.

Automation for Tissue Culture

Tissue culture may be one of the best methods for producing exact replicas of plants without seeds, but the process is labor intensive, making it an ideal candidate for automation. The newest member of the Growcoon family of products from Klasmann-Deilmann now comes in a smaller size that allows for automation of tissue culture processes and makes them more sustainable. The biodegradable netting of the smaller Growcoon binds the root ball to create a protected, ideal growing environment where vulnerable, developing roots can thrive. The material is 100% clean and suitable for autoclave sterilization. The result is a uniform crop with fewer losses and much less manual labor.

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Photo Courtesy of Greenhouse Grower

Source: Greenhouse Grower