Greenhouse Farm
LTD "Innosystems" offers project of greenhouse enterprise in accordance with HACCP, ISO and Global GAP international standards.
A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse) is a structure with walls and roof made mainly of transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic conditions are grown. A more scientific definition is “a covered structure that protects the plants from extensive external climate conditions and diseases, creates optimal growth microenvironment, and offers a flexible solution for sustainable and efficient year-round cultivation.” A modern greenhouse operates as a system; therefore, it is also referred to as controlled environment agriculture (CEA), controlled environment plant production system (CEPPS), or Phytomation system.
Many commercial glass greenhouses or hothouses are high tech production facilities for vegetables or flowers. The glass greenhouses are filled with equipment including screening installations, heating, cooling, lighting, and may be controlled by a computer to optimize conditions for plant growth. Different techniques are then used to evaluate optimality-degrees and comfort ratio of greenhouse micro-climate (i.e., air temperature, relative humidity and vapor pressure deficit) in order to reduce production risk prior to cultivation of a specific crop.
The idea of growing plants in environmentally controlled areas has existed since Roman times. The Roman emperor Tiberius ate a cucumber-like vegetable daily. The Roman gardeners used artificial methods (similar to the greenhouse system) of growing to have it available for his table every day of the year. Cucumbers were planted in wheeled carts which were put in the sun daily, then taken inside to keep them warm at night. The cucumbers were stored under frames or in cucumber houses glazed with either oiled cloth known as specularia or with sheets of selenite (a.k.a. lapis specularis), according to the description by Pliny the Elder.
Greenhouses in which the temperature could be manually manipulated first appeared in 15th century Korea. The 15th century treatise, the Sanga Yorok, contains descriptions of greenhouses designed to regulate the temperature and humidity requirements of plants and crops. One of the earliest records of the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty in 1438 confirms growing mandarin orange trees in a traditional Korean greenhouse during the winter and installing an ondol system to provide heat.
The golden era of the greenhouse was in England during the Victorian era, where the largest glasshouses yet conceived were constructed, as the wealthy upper class and aspiring botanists competed to build the most elaborate buildings. A good example of this trend is the pioneering Kew Gardens. Joseph Paxton, who had experimented with glass and iron in the creation of large greenhouses as the head gardener at Chatsworth, in Derbyshire, working for the Duke of Devonshire, designed and built The Crystal Palace in London, (although the latter was constructed for both horticultural and non-horticultural exhibition).
Greenhouses allow for greater control over the growing environment of plants. Depending upon the technical specification of a greenhouse, key factors which may be controlled include temperature, levels of light and shade, irrigation, fertilizer application, and atmospheric humidity. Greenhouses may be used to overcome shortcomings in the growing qualities of a piece of land, such as a short growing season or poor light levels, and they can thereby improve food production in marginal environments.
Greenhouses are often used for growing flowers, vegetables, fruits, and transplants. Special greenhouse varieties of certain crops, such as tomatoes, are generally used for commercial production. Many vegetables and flowers can be grown in greenhouses in late winter and early spring, and then transplanted outside as the weather warms.