“We finished our last expansion in January, which were all greenhouses with Dutch technology, and now we have added another 65 hoop houses in April,” explains Dave Van Belle, owner of Van Belle Nursery, a Canadian wholesale plant nursery that ships across North America. “With the demand for plants going up as well as the land costs, we have been in need to quickly increase our capacity per square meter.” 
The new hoop houses at Van Belle Nursery in British Columbia, Canada
Increased land costs
Van Belle explains that the high cost of land is one of the reasons they aim to increase their capacity by adding these hoop houses. “Here in Canada the prices of land have been going up, as there are just not enough open spaces of land available. As a result, it is very expensive to buy the land that is available. Therefore, it is really important for us to grow as many plants as possible per square meter of the land that we own. These new greenhouses and hoop houses provide us with the means to rapidly increase our capacity.”
Next expansion already in the works
“We added 65 hoop houses that are freestanding with sides that can roll up. They are simple houses that serve what we need and give our crops just enough protection from the rain. As a result, we are also able to slightly expand on the types of crops that we are growing, as we now have more room for crops that are sensitive to rain. But mostly we just needed the hoop houses to increase our production of the perennials and fruits we were already growing, as they have been in high demand.” The hoop houses were finished in April and they are already growing their second crops in them. Van Belle Nursery is currently producing on 100 acres, and have already started their next expansion of another 4 ha.
For more information:
Van Belle Nursery
Dave Van Belle
dave@vanbelle.com
www.vanbelle.com