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The Quest for the Perfect Rose-Growing Climate

Porta Nova's holy grail is to achieve environmentally friendly and cost-effective rose cultivation.

By: THURSD. | 02-08-2023 | 5 min read
Roses Sustainability
Porta Nova Climate for Roses header on Thursd

The concept of a perfect climate is rather impressionistic and can vary significantly based on individual preferences, activities, and factors. Different elements such as temperature, humidity, precipitation, and other conditional characteristics form the basis of an ideal climate.

But when it comes to flower cultivation, all these qualities come into play ensuring that the most conducive conditions for growing flowers are met. This is what Porta Nova, renowned for their top-quality Rose Red Naomi! and Rose White Naomi!, strives to achieve by creating the perfect climate for its flowers, with the latest array of innovative technologies.

Porta Nova Goes the Extra Mile for an Optimal Climate

The nursery is the place where roses should feel right at home. And this is why this rose grower makes all the efforts to ensure that it creates the best possible conditions in its nurseries. After all, the current consumer trends are aligning more and more with sustainable plant cultivation.

Porta Nova:

"Creating the perfect climate is like hunting for our holy grail!  We want a climate in which we grow perfect quality roses in high volume in the most environmentally friendly and cost-efficient way."

In this regard, Porta Nova strives to create the best possible conditions for growing roses in its nurseries and greenhouses to ensure that the roses it produces are of high quality and come in high volumes. The flower nursery does this by deploying different innovations in its rose-growing mechanisms and gear.

 

Porta Nova Climate

 

Porta Nova greenhouse

 

An Ingenious Forward-Looking Greenhouse

A greenhouse, by and large, is the basis of practically all flower-growing establishments. And at Porta Nova, this notion is well adhered to.

For starters, the greenhouse at the rose firm is made of steel and glass and rises seven meters high. It has glass windows on the top, each of which can be opened or closed using the firm’s climate computer to let out excess heat or humidity.

 

Porta Nova

 

And that’s not all, just below the windows it has a special double screening from Ludwig Svenson, a pioneer in climate control and energy efficiency textile-based solutions. This screen keeps the heat inside during winter and both heat and light outside in summer. This creates a stable environment in which the roses can grow within the favorable conditions created inside the greenhouse.

The Most Ideal Lighting 

For optimal rose growth, perfect lighting is a key prerequisite. Thence the lighting used inside Porta Nova’s greenhouses is a combination of traditional ‘Sonte light’ and ultramodern LED light. This allows the plants to get all the light they need to grow perfectly.

Traditional light helps to heat efficiently in winter while the LED light is perfectly tailored to the needs of the rose plants and gives a reduction of 25% in energy costs.

And most important to mention is that Porta Nova buys green energy to source its lighting, which not only plays a consequential role in creating the perfect climate but also enhances the carbon neutrality causes which are essential in flower cultivation.

 

Porta Nova greenhouse
Traditional Sonte light (left) next to ultramodern LED light (right)

 

Climate Sensors Based on Cutting-Edge Technology

One of the rose cultivator’s most significant innovations is the small boxes that act as climate sensors. They are developed in collaboration with Technolution and deployed to record average conditions of key elements such as temperature, humidity, and other climatic conditions.

 

Porta Nova Climate
One of 120 climate sensors in the greenhouse

 

At Porta Nova, each greenhouse has 120 of them! They are based on the Internet of Things (IoT) concept running via a LoRa network - a radio communication technology - to constantly measure changes in temperature and humidity throughout the nursery and give a three-dimensional scan of the climate everywhere in the greenhouse.

Climate sensors are important in any flower farming as they help in monitoring and optimizing the flower plants to keep up with changing environmental factors. They, for instance, can be used to help manage the amount of moisture, optimize nutrient levels, and manage oxygen values so that plants are provided with exceptional growth conditions.

Additionally, temperature sensors are especially important in flower farming since the right temperature is essential to healthy flower growth and yield, especially if the greenhouse has to manage growth in a variable climate.

 

Porta Nova Red Naomi
Rose Red Naomi!

 

Climators for Gasless Growing

To heat the greenhouse, this innovative rose farm has an equally innovative concept for heating its greenhouses. In summer, it harvests the heat and stores it 100 meters underground. Doing this helps in cooling in summer and heating in winter in a super environmental way, making Porta Nova the first rose grower able to grow without using gas. This helps in the shift towards net zero emissions in the flower-growing industry.

Such heat storage systems can essentially contribute to climate-friendly heating - and even cooling when required - of flower greenhouses.

 

Porta Nova Climate
Monitoring the temperature in the greenhouse

 

All Efforts Aim to Achieve the Perfect Climate for Rose Cultivation

At Porta Nova, the climate computer steers most technology on an individual or section basis. Fed by information from the LoRa network, the rose cultivator can predict any climate challenges in different sections of the greenhouse and address them in advance.  

This is achieved by turning the climators up or down and opening or closing particular windows to heat the inside of a specific spot in the nursery or cool it down. 

 

Porta Nova Red Naomi Supra

 

And thanks to this system the flower farm has a year-round stable climate that enables it to grow perfectly fine roses in the nursery practically every day of the year.  

Porta Nova concludes:

“All of this technology combined with the knowledge of our ‘growers’ helps us on our never-ending quest for the perfect climate.” 

Porta Nova & The Quest for the Perfect Climate - The Movie

Learn more about Porta Nova's exploration of the ultimate climate conditions in this 3-minute video where their very own 'Indiana Jones' takes you on an adventurous journey through the jungle of sustainability.

 

 

Photos and video courtesy of Porta Nova.

 

Porta Nova Red Naomi

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