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Grower Day 2024 is coming up

The month of June is known as the time schools let out for the summer, and June 20, 21, or 22 (depending on the year) is the longest day of the year with the most daylight hours in the Northern Hemisphere. And for Canada’s greenhouse grower community, June is also when Greenhouse Canada’s Annual Grower Day event takes place.

Grower Day is the conference and tradeshow for growers of ornamental plants and vegetables. This one-day event features a powerhouse line-up of industry leaders sharing their expertise on cultivation, production and business management.

Following on the heels of the 2023 Grower Day – which was attended by close to 80 growers and featured a sold-out trade show floor – Greenhouse Canada’s 29^th Annual Grower Day is taking place on June 18, 2024 at the Holiday Inn & Suites St. Catharines Conference Centre in St. Catharines, Ont.

The event will be filled with enlightening presentations and discussions on all things related to greenhouse production and operations, including speaker sessions, networking breaks, and an awards presentation.

The first speaker will be Dr. Rupp Carriveau, Director of the Environmental Energy Institute and Co-Director of the Turbulence and Energy Lab at the University of Windsor, who will talk about Small Modular Reactor (SMR) systems for greenhouse applications. SMRs are energy-dense, clean sources of heat and electricity that can operate in nearly any location on earth, and Carriveau will discuss high-level design details and system solution sensitivities.

The next speaker is Judy Colley, IPM Technical Lead, Plant Products, who will discuss the basics of mixology – or “Mixology 101”, as she calls it – in a talk that will help to clarify what chemistries will work and how/when to apply them; and what chemistries will not work and for how long it will affect the beneficial insects.

Third up, Dr. Alexandra Grygorczyk, Research Scientist, Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, will provide an overview of the most popular practices currently in use by greenhouse vegetable growers and those quickly growing in popularity related to energy efficiency, water, crop inputs, and waste management.

The last speaker before the lunch break will be Dr. Jonathan Griffiths, Research Scientist, Molecular Plant Virology, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Griffiths will discuss concepts of genetic resistance to plant viruses, how ToBRFV evades existing resistance genes, and recent advances in developing resistant plants.

After the lunch break, Dr. Brian Lynch, Director of Horticulture Technology Solutions at Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, will discuss the past, present, and future of robotics for greenhouse production.

Dr. Josh Henry, Technical Services Specialist with Ball Seed, will then discuss how to grow your best poinsettia crop by optimizing water and fertilizer inputs, as well as some key methods for nutrient monitoring and diagnostics.

More speaker sessions are scheduled to follow.

All of which is to remind you to mark your calendars for Grower Day 2024 on June 18. Visit our website for more information.

Register here for GROWER DAY!  EARLY BIRD rate ends MAY 19. Seating is limited!