hydroponic strawberries
Nov 25 2020
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Thinking About Growing Strawberries?

In the United States, 91% of all strawberries produced come from Florida and California (source: Agricultural Marketing resource center AgMRC). For someone living in Montana, this means there’s a good chance their strawberries traveled far to get to them. This is true in many places around the world. Germany, for example, imports approximately 100,000 tons…
inside the sunchamber
Sep 10 2020
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Growing Plants with Carbon Dioxide

By Hervé Maumus-Hue Carbon dioxide (CO2): The Basics  Introduction 1 - Different types of plants, different biological processes 2 - C3 plants: the importance of CO2  supplementation 3 - Supplying CO2 - Considerations 4 - Injection techniques 5 - Estimating the cost of CO2 6 - Injecting CO2 can be more cost effective than supplement…
9 CARDINALS parameters
Sep 09 2020
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Thinking About “Plant Diet”

By Hervé Maumus-Hue Managing a perfect growing environment is challenging and is the topic of much research. We know that the environment dictates the efficiency of these chemical and physical processes/reactions. As shown below, the environment can be divided into 9 main parameters called the nine cardinal parameters: CO2, temperature, humidity, light, wind, oxygen in…
Outside of Greenshaus in Ottawa
Jul 06 2020
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A Pandemic, a Canadian Greenhouse, and Training Consumers to Buy Local

All around the world, the food industry has been affected by COVID-19 in one way or another. Fortunately, there have been some positive food-related trends from the pandemic like local and urban farms becoming more popular, and more individuals and families growing their own food. It is at least heartening to see some strengthening of…
Emerald Greens owners
Mar 20 2020
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Major Shifts in Food Security in the Time of COVID-19

As supermarkets empty and restaurants close, we are forced to confront the security of our food system. This is an important time for major shifts on the supplier and consumer end to support a market that is changing daily. So what sort of changes are we seeing and how can we adapt?   Local/Small Scale…
a beautiful world
Mar 16 2020
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Greenhouses For a Better World (And Not For Fear)

Let’s be clear. We do not want to downplay the seriousness of the corona virus worldwide pandemic. This is a serious threat and should be treated as such.  The resultant turbulence has given us at Ceres great pause. This is a chance to evaluate who we are as a company, what we stand for and…
Intention to increase future production area
Dec 17 2019
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2019 Global CEA Census Findings

A survey was conducted in the Summer of 2019 to gather information on the current state of the CEA (controlled environment agriculture) industry. The survey was sponsored by Agritecture, an urban agriculture consulting company and Autogrow, an agricultural automation company. 316 participants from 54 different companies responded to the survey’s 45 questions, and the results…
farmer picking beets
Oct 23 2019
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Debunking the Myth of the “Idiot Farmer”

The importance of all aspects of higher education in creating alternative forms of sustainable agriculture for a smarter workforce and a healthier economy There is a common misconception that farmers are uneducated and that farming is a lowly career choice. How do we reconcile this misguided idea with the growing movement toward an even more…
Ceres Highyield Commercial Kit
Oct 21 2019
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Growing Microgreens in a Ceres Commercial Greenhouse

We strive to make smart and productive growing environments for agricultural businesses of all kinds. Even if they are micro.  We paid a visit to our growers at Emerald Gardens Microgreens to see how their HighYield™ Commercial Greenhouse Kit was performing for them. Even though their Ceres greenhouse is not fully complete, Emerald Gardens is…