The new greenhouse will be an open roof greenhouse. "We made this decision because it is very hot in the summers and very cold in the winters here in Loudon (NH)" says Cole. The greenhouse will be built by VB Group, who also built the other greenhouses of D.S. Cole. "However, this greenhouse is different than the ones we have," says Cole. The existing greenhouses are Venlo and Cabriolet greenhouses. "The Cabriolet greenhouse is also an open roof greenhouse but the roof slides open in a different manner than the open roof greenhouse that we are installing now," says Cole. The new open roof designed by Boal will open along all of the peaks, from gable to gable.
They are putting heated tubing in the floor. "We want to have cool return water from the floor heat that will go to our new natural gas boiler that VB-Group installed last fall. We have a condenser on the rear of the boiler. To make that efficient, we need cool return water which will come from the floor heat," says Cole.
PB Water will supply all water systems and, like all the other greenhouses of D.S. Cole, this greenhouse will be equipped with double upper screens. "Two upper screens are put in because of the cold temperatures. One will be clear and one will be shade. We want to create the best climate for our young plants to finish."
Afterwards, when the greenhouse is installed, the tables will be put in. "This will be done by the company Logiqs Agro, who supplied all our benches and internal transport system for the entire facility. All benches are marked with a Universal Product Code (UPC) barcode. Therefore, we know where every single tray is when they move through the greenhouse, from the rooting area to the finished plants area. So, if we have to ship young plants to our customers, we can easily find them in the greenhouse," says Cole.
Doug Cole.
As said earlier, this new greenhouse will be mainly used for the production of young plants. Young plants are their major crop and over the last years the demand for the young plants increased, which resulted in a need for this expansion. "We just need more room," says Cole. "Around 7 million young plants were being cultivated from January to April. And as we have to keep the place moving, we finish the plants from April through the rest of the year." In the greenhouse around 1000 varieties of vegetative annuals and potted plants are being cultivated. "Regarding potted and bedding plants, we produce Gerberas from the company Florist, Alstroemeria from Könst and Begonias from Dümmen Orange. When it comes to spring plants, we cultivate the plants of a lot of different breeders like Selecta, Danziger, Sakata, Suntory, and Beekenkamp."
The new greenhouse is planned to be finished in December. "Then we can directly start filling it with young plants," says Cole.
For more
informationD.S. Cole
Doug Cole
Email: doug@dscolegrowers.com
www.dscolegrowers.com