Monday 23 July 2012

Our new title

At last week's Hydroponic Farmers Federation Conference, we were able to announce that the glasshouse facility has now been branded with the official title of 'The National Precision Growing Centre'.

This new title truly reflects the world class nature of our facility, and will also provide us with a great platform to further promote our online courses across both Australia and the world.

The National Precision Growing Centre has widespread industry support from key industry players such as Grodan, Rijjk Zwaan, and Priva, who have offered ongoing support for the facility. We will be having an official launch of the title, so we will keep you posted when this event will occur.




Thursday 12 July 2012

Out with the old...............

Like many other growers, we are currently taking our old crops out, and starting the annual cleaning process. This is seeing us removing all of the green waste from the glasshouse as well as the rockwool growing slabs. 

While our green waste is taken to a recycling station, our Rockwool slabs are being stacked prior to us shredding them and introducing some organic material. Hopefully this experiment will allow us to produce a composted mulch that can be used in garden areas. 

The trial is the result of the findings of one of last year's VET mobility students - Catherine Ashton - who spent some considerable time with the Grodan company looking at methods for recycling old slabs as opposed to sending them to the landfill tip. As the trial progresses we'll keep you posted.

The clean up commences!

Our new crops are part of a joint project with seed company, Rizk Zwaan. The South side of the house will be planted with single varieties of Tomato and Peppers, while the North side will include a range of varieties. This will allow growers to see first hand how each variety performs. 

As soon as we are ready to plant we will be posting details of the various varieties that can be seen.

Propagation of these plants is being kindly donated by Trandos Hydroponic Growers who have been long term supporters of the glasshouse. 

Finally, we will be at next weeks Hydroponic Framers Federation conference, so feel free to come along and say g'day. If the technology in Ballarat behaves itself, you should be able to see our glasshouse clean up live via our eGlasshouse camera!