Urban Greenhouse Cooperative Opens in Cleveland

Designing and Building the Greenhouse:

Rough Brothers, Inc., a Cincinnati-based company, designed and built the greenhouse facility at Green City Growers Cooperative. This wasn't new territory for Rough Brothers; they've been engineering, designing, manufacturing and installing greenhouses and related systems for over 75 years. The company is also well-versed in commercial hydroponic greenhouses.

The structure itself is a standard 20 ft. poly arch greenhouse. John Hoogeboom, a long-time greenhouse designer and hydroponic expert for Rough Brothers, led the design of the elevated pond and floating raft hydroponic system.

I spoke with Tom Vezdos, commercial manager for Rough Brothers, about the unique challenges faced when designing and building a greenhouse structure in an urban core like Cleveland’s Central neighborhood. Tom explained that the planning and permitting phase is much lengthier in a city because of all the red tape you have to work through, but once the construction crew is on-site, it’s smooth sailing as usual.

Rough Brothers spent about five months constructing the greenhouse in 2012 and another six to eight weeks installing the internal growing systems. The biggest bump in the road came from Hurricane Sandy, whose wind and rain slowed their progress in late fall.

Now up and running, Green City Growers Cooperative is making it their mission to employ local workers and sustainably grow and market high quality, year-round fresh produce for the Cleveland community.

For more details: http://www.ballpublishing.com/insidegrower/CurrentNewsletter.aspx

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Greenhouse Company Golden Pacific Structures Consolidated by Rough Brothers Inc.

Rough Brother Inc. is absorbing the Golden Pacific product line. Rough Brothers Inc. and Golden Pacific structures of Redlands, CA, have agreed to merge their products under the Rough Brothers Greenhouse line. The two companies, each with strong reputations for quality commercial greenhouses, have been partnered and competed for years in the greenhouse business.

In the past six months, Rough Brothers has rolled Golden Pacific and XS Smith products into their Commercial Greenhouse Division. Combining the XS Smith & GPS products with the Rough Brothers products allows the widest offering of light & heavy structures in the market. Rough Brothers Greenhouses, the largest greenhouse manufacturing company in North America, acquired the XS Smith, Inc. in late 2012. The XS Smith Sunlite, Stormlite, Econobuster & Criteria gutter connect will be accompanied with the GPS 5000 & 6000 series of hoop and gutter connect products.

Gary Baze has been named Sales Manager of Rough Brothers and will manage the national sales force for Rough Brothers Commercial division. The consolidation of these products will better position Rough Greenhouses in all markets. Together, the companies will offer nurseries and growers a unique breadth and depth of technology and service to meet their hydroponic greenhouse design and technology needs.

“Rough and GPS together will create the most innovative and comprehensive greenhouse designs to meet the needs of commercial growers and enable us to better serve our customers,” said Tom Vezdos, head of the commercial division at Rough Brothers Inc. “This merger will take our designs, products and services to the next level. Together, we will be a more attractive and exciting company for our employees, and a more resourceful partner for our customers.”

About Rough Brothers Greenhouses:

Rough Brothers Inc. has designed, engineered, manufactured and installed Commercial greenhouse and commercial growers systems since 1932. For over 75 years, the company has provided the highest quality, best-crafted and most reliable greenhouse structures to the most successful growers in the industry. Known for greenhouse structures and integrated greenhouse systems including material handling systems, heating, cooling, ventilation, irrigation systems and environmental controls, the company is the leading structures and systems company in North American.

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RBI-Rough Brothers Inc. at Big Grower Executive Summit 2013

Rough Brothers Inc., has sponsored the 6th Big Grower Executive Summit taking place in Orlando, FL from February 17-19, 2013. Tom Vezdos and James Parris will be attending the industry’s only conference dedicated to big grower business strategy. RBI representatives will be happy to discuss your greenhouse needs during and after the conference. Your investment is critical and selecting the right partner is important, because it is this relationship that will generate a solution to help you meet your goals. RBI offers different type of greenhouses including hydroponic greenhouse, retractable roof greenhouse, gutter connect greenhouse, Venlo glass greenhouse, flat roof shade house and double poly greenhouse structures to cater your growing need.

Rough understand how growing schedules and market pressures can affect your business that is why Rough has been offering the highest quality products to meet commercial grower’s specific needs.

About Rough Brothers Inc:

Rough Brothers Inc. design, manufacture and build the country’s most diverse greenhouse structures. The company provides the highest quality, best crafted and most reliable greenhouse structures to the most successful growers. Let the Rough team help you select, construct, manage and maintain the optimal greenhouse structures for your specific situation.

About Big grower Executive Summit

To be successful today, you need to worry about more than just delivering plants, you need to improve the bottom line. That’s why attendance at this summit is exclusive -- it's designed specifically for strategic decision makers’ at large growers. That's why the content is business critical -- it will provide strategies for Strategic decision makers at large growers -- Presidents, CEOs, COOs and other senior management from the largest commercial growers supplying the mass merchants. Attendance is limited and only growers with 250,000 square feet of growing space or more are eligible to attend.

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Design criteria for a modern commercial greenhouse facility-3

Heating Greenhouses:

The selection of the appropriate greenhouse heating system should be determined by factors such as crops to be grown, etc. The initial cost of the greenhouse heating system is usually still the most important consideration. This may, however, not always be the best way the choose a greenhouse heating system, as factors such as the ability to control the greenhouse environment properly and efficiently, the running cost of the system, the cost of maintaining the system, etc. should also be taking into consideration.

Piped hot water heating systems, while more expensive to install, are ultimately a better choice than unit heaters in most cases. These systems do provide for more accurate control of the greenhouse temperature as well as the ability to ensure much improved distribution of the heat. The pipe/rail heating system in vegetable greenhouses are also used to facilitate crop maintenance work and harvesting.

Natural gas, LP gas and heating oil are most commonly used to heat greenhouses. Fuels such as coal, wood chips, sawdust, may in some cases be an alternative. The development of affordable combined heat and power (CHP) units may in the future provide another alternative. This may become especially important when grow lights are being used.

Energy retention and Greenhouse shade curtain systems:

It is essential that the Commercial greenhouse structure is prepared for the inclusion of energy retention/shade or black-out curtains at a later stage if these systems are not included in the initial construction. Care must be taken that heating and irrigation pipes, electrical wiring, VAF fans, etc. do not obstruct the installation of the curtains. Alterations to these installations tend to be very expensive and time consuming.

An extensive selection of curtains is now available, including several flame retardant types.

Greenhouse Irrigation systems:

There are several types of greenhouse irrigation systems available. When selecting a system, or a combination of systems, it is important to consider the type of crops to be grown and the source and quality of the irrigation water. The overall layout of the system(s) should be carefully designed. Pipe sizes should be determined with possible future expansion in mind. A good quality filtration system should be included in the greenhouse irrigation design.

Fertilizer injection systems are an integral part of the irrigation system and it is important to select a system that is the correct one for the crops that will be grown in facility. The selection should be based on various factors, but the most important one is the ability of the user to operate, maintain and calibrate the equipment properly. Many systems do not meet expectations because the operator does not know how to work with the equipment or the equipment is unsuitable for the greenhouse irrigation system it serves.

With the availability of quality irrigation water and the increase in the cost of fertilizers becoming major factors in the future, recirculation of the irrigation water is becoming more prevalent. In that case appropriate sterilization equipment must be included in the design of the irrigation system.

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