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Manager in the Greenhouse for lettuce 300 grams from 900ml water
Hydroponics does not forgive mistakes, and theory alone cannot guarantee the optimal operation of a state-of-the-art greenhouse. The magical garden of Boeotia in the person of Andreas Lypa found the grower the unit needed for the 9 million lettuces of the annual production.
The human factor is always the soul of even the most sterile, robotic, quasi-space project. In 2019, the engineers of IGC and the Magic Garden wanted to make the perfect lettuce and for this purpose they mobilized the latest technology in a project that does not exist like it even today in Greece. After three years of operation it appeared that what was missing was a key person who could work the unit to its maximum potential. Andreas Lypas, assuming the duties of Production Manager, brought to Greece the accumulated knowledge of Northern Europe, opening new paths for greenhouse cultivation in cutting-edge technology units.
Was the first choice to return to Greece or to be actively involved with the IGC?
I am connected with IGC 20 months before I return. I functioned as a consultant and tried to convey from afar the knowledge that the Dutch and the English gave me. In other words, I got involved because we had friendly relations with the administration, with climate management or the way of managing hybrids, because these things were very new for Greece’s data. So the call to come to work was the next step, the next challenge, because from the first day I entered the unit I hurt her and I wanted her to succeed. And so it will be…
What were the elements that improved to get closer to the break even point?
This came after several variations. First of all, in the nutrition part. After the approach to the irrigation part, i.e. frequency of irrigation, microdosing irrigation, irrigation in small doses as it is called. Also in climate management with the help of measurements from the sensory instruments I have in my personal collection. All this made us to be more accurate and precise in the high standard regulation of the greenhouse. Think of it like tuning a guitar better with a better tuner. Now we have escaped from simply cultivating and are trying to boost productivity through a lot of data that we get from the sensors but also from the way the plants respond to the changes we give.
Suppose we had a 20-25% increase in productivity in the first place?
Right now we are about 30% up this year compared to last year. Although holistically I believe that within the next two months we will exceed 7.5 million pieces, which means an increase of 50%. And at the same time, they will be of better quality compared to last year, which is very important. That is, their burdens are even greater compared to last year.
What makes the IGC unit unique for Greek data?
It is innovative because technologically it has nothing to envy from units in England or the Netherlands. It has everything. Artificial lighting, climate control excellent. It has all the irrigation systems required and has a workforce that has the drive and drive and passion to achieve increased productivity. So I don’t think she’s missing anything. It may have lacked a leader to set an example of how day-to-day issues are resolved on the production side and show how models from abroad can be accurately applied here. However, an established cultivator with a career would hardly make the decision to return to Greece.
So we assume that the biggest difficulty in these three years was to make the production part as good as possible. On the market side, although not your thing, how are things? Is this product supported?
From what I see as a consumer, in addition to a grower and a production manager, is that the product itself speaks for itself, for itself it shows its potential. When we have a shelf life of 15-16 days in a refrigerator, but we also see that compared to outdoor, nothing is thrown away, nothing is lost, and its taste is not comparable to its outdoor counterpart, I think that alone that is a strong advantage.
So is there a response and reception from the retail chains?
They are asking for more, based on what we are offering now, and that is why it is in the management’s plan to expand.
So the next bet in this field?
Let’s take it step by step. The first goal is to catch 7.5 million harvested lettuces this year. This year the goal is to have 9 million lettuces with much smaller losses and at the same time to run the expansion part.
Will this extension be on the existing unit?
Another production department will be created but the most important is the creation of the experimental greenhouse outside, where all the biological formulations, the cultivation strategies, will be measured there, in real time, without affecting the production inside. Because some climate strategies that I have adopted and come from abroad, the indicators of irrigation and biological preparations, if something goes wrong, it appears immediately in the production. A mistake on my part there can ruin the day’s production. Hydroponics does not forgive mistakes, because we grow in water. There is no substrate to be able to, if the pH rises for example, to influence it and save it. Any change we make to the plants is immediately visible. Either something good, we see it after 2-3 days, or something bad, we see it within a day. That is, we can destroy the production and I am talking about 270,000 plants from one mistake.
What production does this refer to?
About 9 days. With 30,000 plants per day, there is no one else to compete with.
Would it be better if there were more greenhouses of this type in Greece? For the market balance and their penetration.
Greenhouses and models of this kind solve the food crisis in Greece and also provide a trigger for exports. We here do not stop cutting 30,000 lettuces every day, so there is a flow. It’s not cash flow, it’s fresh product flow. The same should be done in other units, whether it is called tomato, cucumber, pepper or strawberry. They are models that work abroad. The Netherlands has used hydroponics commercially since 1975. Why do we here refuse to do it? Are you afraid of production costs or do we not have the know-how? I am sure that only such models can advance. Completely eliminating seasonality and having a curve per forecast year so that the supermarket can make a plan but correspondingly the investor can do his balance sheet in advance to get his costs.
If the technology is similar to that applied in the Netherlands or Great Britain, does Greece not have advantages?
The difficulty for someone to cultivate in Great Britain and in general in Northern Europe is great, because there you have the following problem: There we face the big mycological problems. Due to increased relative humidity, either outside or inside, they facilitate the development of botrytis, powdery mildew or downy mildew. In Greece we are fortunate to have a drier climate, so less fungal risks, but we have the problem of insects because it is easier for them to pupate and have an outbreak, as is the case with the tomato tuta absoluta. However, Greece’s great advantage is energy, the great radiation of the sun. Outside we use LED lamps almost all year round to have sufficient photoperiod and photosynthesis.
Of course, we also benefit in the RES sector, more sunshine, therefore more energy at a lower cost.
Of course, production costs increase, because during the summer months we have to cool the greenhouse. In other words, we have to think about what method we will follow in order to have sufficiency in the electricity part, in this case the wet parias work and there is a homogenization of the climate inside the greenhouse. These two are the great technical difficulties that a grower, a production manager has to deal with on a daily basis. And this is where cutting edge technology comes in with the use of multiple instrument sensors and the immediate and daily recording and use of sensors to identify problems or errors and have a problem prevention rather than treatment approach. Here I have developed a model, unique in Greece, where I create a friendly environment for beneficial microorganisms and insects, such as the pots of the chain where the predatory insect lives and multiplies and where it finds a thrips in the crop it goes and exterminates it. I am so confident that I will not need to use medication for thrips which is very rare. For us, integrated management is not a simple conversation, it is the cornerstone for our production.
Can this production be described as organic? Is this something you are asking for?
In England, a targeted approach is being taken so that corresponding units here can get the bio certification to have the extra added value. In the USA in 2021 a corresponding bill was passed. A unit like this, using FDA-approved fertilizers, could and did get organic certification and repricing and ended up selling a Butterhead for around $6 apiece. It’s nothing. Cultivating outside the soil does not make you non-organic, as long as you meet all the conditions, such as not using plant protection, impermissible fertilizers and others.
Does your nutrition contain no chemical fertilizers?
Contains metallic salts, such as potassium nitrate, calcium nitrate, monoammonium. Yes, these are chemical compounds. But provided we have the institutional framework to do organic production, we can get Dutch fertilizers, which are circulating and have pure organic fertilizers.
That is, if the framework existed, then you would adapt to it without any objection or harm?
But they are metallic salts, they are chemical compounds that exist in nature. They are not chemicals as people think of as something harmful. We ask for this because we can adapt. In the Netherlands some fertilizer companies have released products claiming organic approval. It’s something that’s coming. Be careful: Cultivating in the soil every year the same. You have root diseases and various other, much more harmful ones that lead you down other paths where the context is blurred and you can be biological in dealing with them.
Let’s talk about whether it would ultimately be necessary for the State to look with a different eye at the creation of such units that are now excluded from the PAA?
The benefit is twofold. People will come who will staff such units, people with great know-how who will return home. The problem of the food crisis will also be solved and we will stop these imports from Third countries that we now have tomatoes from Turkey or tomatoes from Poland and strawberries out of season from the Netherlands. We will have an overabundance of vegetables and export them that will be so superior because of the radiation, that not only will we not export, but we will become an export superpower.
The new product, the trio?
It was an idea we saw in the Netherlands, it’s the latest in hydroponic leafy greens and it involves three seeds of different vegetables. That is, it contains a red lola, the oakleaf, which for some reason the world in Greece has not learned about, and a green lola. We have at the same time three different varieties of lettuce in a pot, which when the consumer takes it, the pot is removed and a rich salad is ready.
Is it three times the weight of the final package in the piece?
No it’s three seeds, so it divides, we have 100 grams of product times three. The bet is how you will have homogeneity, to face the competition to share the nourishment. That’s where my role comes in.