The greenhouse industry continues to evolve.
Technology, plant health research and food safety are a just a few areas where progress is being reported almost daily.
Even the kinds of plants grown under a protected environment are multiplying.
Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers still account for the vast majority of greenhouse-grown produce, but growers are expanding their horizons and adding options.
So far, berries and leafy greens are the most popular additions to the greenhouse menu, but other commodities are in the development stages, said Matt Korpan, executive director of research and development for Leamington, Ontario-based SEF Center for Cultural Innovation.
The Innovation Center works with growers, retailers and seed developers who seek fruits and vegetables that fill gaps in their goal of year-round availability or provide a better-quality product than something that’s field grown, Korpan said.
“Greenhouse-grown produce is definitely better quality because it’s not influenced by the stress you would find in the field, like wind, sun or water stress,” he said.
The company has a team of grower specialists who focus on crop types like strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries; others who work with leafy greens, like spinach, head lettuce, romaine and baby or cut leaf lettuce types; and others on alternative niche commodities such as tropicals, Asian vegetables and flavor crops.
They’re also experimenting with some more obscure offerings, like hydroponic papaya, hydroponic stone fruit, herbs and okra.
“I can’t think of anything that can’t be grown in a greenhouse,” Korpan said.
But just because it’s doable doesn’t mean it should be done.
The Innovation Center has found that items like bananas, zucchini and melons all grow pretty well indoors, “but they are a challenge economically.”
In other words, they would not be profitable for a grower.
“The capital investment is quite high,” Korpan said.
The cost of growing those commodities in a protected environment would be prohibitive, especially for items competing with low-cost field-grown products that have to be shipped a long distance.
An exception could be the value-added category.
SEF is conducting trials on beets, radishes, onions and carrots that can be sold at a premium — yellow or white carrots, for example, or ones that are purple on the outside and orange inside.
“We sell those as a high-value or a value-added product, not just your standard bag of carrots,” Korpan said.
That can make the added expense of greenhouse growing worthwhile.
Reducing labor through automation also can reduce production costs.
“We’ve got a lot of technology that we can use to automate the planting, harvesting and packaging processes,” he said. “If we can reduce the labor input for these crops, sometimes it’s just enough to shift the balance to make them worthwhile.”
The growth of nontraditional greenhouse items is expected to continue as growers set out to diversify their crops.
In Ontario alone, the volume of greenhouse strawberries has increased as much as 400 acres in the past few years, and Korpan said that number will certainly increase in 2025.
New facility to promote greenhouse industry
The Center for Horticultural Innovation, a division of South Essex Fabricating, is a research and innovation facility founded in 2020 by Peter Quiring, owner of Nature Fresh Farms and South Essex Fabricating.
Quiring had a vision “to develop a research and development facility with the goal of advancing controlled environment agriculture to provide affordable, sustainable and fresh produce to all,” Korpan said.
The company started with six employees and quickly grew to a staff of 24 with several divisions, including horticulture, food science and technology departments, a genetics laboratory and a post-harvest unit, Korpan said.
Quiring’s next ambition is to double the staff and build a new facility to help promote the greenhouse industry.
“We want to highlight the work that’s being done in the greenhouse industry, particularly for the next generation or others in the public who may not typically get that kind of exposure to green-house operations,” Korpan said. “It also would expose industry members to new ideas and new greenhouse technology.”
The facility will provide a range of horticultural services, a dedicated greenhouse space for industry professionals to conduct their research, an education center for demo days, events and tours and a store where the public can purchase the latest greenhouse products, he said.
