Boon Greenhouse Consulting

Access to healthy, fresh, and wholesome produce is a global necessity. As growers strive to meet this demand, greenhouses can help provide year-round fresh produce, and do so sustainably. Establishing, operating, and maintaining greenhouses require the latest technology and support from industry experts. Each grower needs to know the ideal growing practices for their specific crops to enhance yield quality and quantity.

Boon Greenhouse Consulting, a veteran and trailblazer in agricultural consulting, adds value to each grower’s venture with its superior client-centric approach. It brings an in-depth understanding of the varied requirements of clients, which helps in devising the ideal solutions for their produce cultivation and greenhouse management endeavors.

The company leverages over 25 years of experience in the horticulture industry and cutting-edge agricultural biotechnology. It offers comprehensive guidance in growing fresh and healthy plants, with a focus on consistency and maintaining greenhouses in optimal conditions. They serve both large agricultural biotechnology, commercial food production and privately owned greenhouse operations for restaurants and resorts.

Custom-made, easily assembled, and operated self-sufficient greenhouses make Boon Greenhouse the much-needed guide for families seeking to grow vegetables and fruits in their backyards. It helps them develop time, cost, and energy-efficient procedures to cultivate and harvest high-quality produce and meet their food needs on a local, self-sustained basis.

“We share our vast knowledge and extensive experience across the greenhouse industry to enable clients to efficiently run their operations,” says Serge Boon, owner and founder of Boon Greenhouse Consulting.

Optimizing Greenhouse Endeavors with Expertise

Boon’s experience with greenhouses while growing up in the Netherlands—known for its vast horticultural industry—inspired the company’s genesis. His educational background in horticulture, hands-on experience as a grower, and then greenhouse operational manager led to his expertise in diverse growing systems, multiple crops, and high-tech and low-tech greenhouse setups. Further experience at the agricultural chemical and seed company, Corteva Agriscience, played a crucial role in shaping his interest in agricultural biotechnology.

Boon Greenhouse offers valuable insights and solutions across greenhouse operations. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, it adopts an interactive process involving on-site assessments and creative idea exchanges with clients. Clients’ preferred crop varieties and studies are assessed to determine their optimal growing conditions.

To enhance the produce quality and quantity, plant-cultivating solutions encompass effective growing practices, integrated pest management, and multi-crop-based approaches. Also offered are hybrid cultivation systems, hydroponics, and substrates for high-density production. The key focus remains on minimizing the use of water, fertilizer, gas, and electricity.

A robust operational management strategy makes Boon Greenhouse stay one step ahead in improving greenhouse operations. This involves scrutinizing processes and input management to streamline greenhouse workflows and achieve a more consistent production output.

Leveraging technology to promote consistent production and efficient greenhouse management is a hallmark of its approach. It implements processes that enhance data-harnessing capabilities, enabling clients to analyze and improve their produce cultivation and greenhouse maintenance capabilities.

For their backyard greenhouse program, an add-on portfolio includes specialized heaters, cooling systems, commercial GE grow lights, controllers, and automated irrigation systems. Further automation technology and robotics are used for plant movement, seeding, processing, and harvesting knowledge can reduce labor costs in greenhouse operations, making technology implementation cost-effective on a larger scale.

The effectiveness of the combination of quality, consistency and cost-optimization is best demonstrated in a solution Boon Greenhouse developed in collaboration for a number of client projects. The requirement was for a cost-effective controller called “the birdhouse” to dim LED lights in greenhouses to a specific photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) threshold.

In partnership with AI Grow LLC, an integrated automation solutions provider for controlled growing environments, it developed, tested, and delivered an easily installed and monitored controller within three months. The controller is currently operational across multiple client greenhouses. Apart from aiding plant growth, it offers additional benefits in the form of greater energy savings. Lighting is dimmed or turned off when the PAR reaches sufficient levels.

Such solution-driven partnerships enable Boon Greenhouse to deliver greater value to clients. Prioritizing customer success over vendor affiliations ensures solutions focused on the client’s best interests.

Tailored Support for Growers

Boon Greenhouse’s capabilities are underpinned by a well-defined process of delivering end-to-end agricultural consulting services in a planned yet flexible manner that can accommodate specific client needs.

The company engages with clients at every step of their journey—from design and construction to commencing the operational phase. Its team first assesses the design and feasibility of the greenhouse by maintaining ideal climates, location-specific requirements for temperature regulation, and other success factors suited to the planned crops.

To help clients visualize potential problems and plausible solutions, visual aids are used, such as slides with images, to ensure clear and easily understandable instructions. The team then outlines operational best practices and continually follows up to assess the impact,helping the client attain produce cultivation goals.

A dedication to guaranteeing client success shines through Boon Greenhouse’s value-added services, including active support throughout the greenhouse commissioning phase. Its team provides on-site assistance while setting up climate and irrigation systems, develops standard operating procedures and processes, and validates and suggests adjustments to settings for optimal system functionality post-construction.

Once the greenhouse is operational, a six-month maintenance service contract offers responsive client support through remote or on-site assistance. The contract can be renewed every six months, guaranteeing constant support.

To promote self-sufficiency, Boon Greenhouse offers bespoke training services to inexperienced growers of newly installed greenhouse setups. The team will work intensively along side the grower, providing comprehensive training until the new growers gain sufficient expertise to independently manage their greenhouses.

Paving the Path to Locally- Grown Produce

Boon Greenhouse’s future focus is on two primary areas. It seeks to delve further into the agricultural biotech industry, participating in groundbreaking projects in collaboration with startups.

It is also addressing the issues faced by local food desert areas in the U.S. that lack access to fresh produce due to challenging terrain or arid soil conditions. This leaves them with the sole option of relying on supermarkets and delis that offer imported produce and processed food laced with preservatives to extend shelf life.

Empowering clients to meet their food needs locally, Boon Greenhouse’s projects include building a self-sustaining greenhouse in a remote region in Wyoming. The local community struggled with supply deliveries during the winters due to sporadic road closures. In response, Boon Greenhouse collaborated with its vendors and the client to design a greenhouse resilient enough to withstand extreme weather.

The project was a success, with the greenhouse enduring the harsh climate while maintaining profitability. The project's second phase is currently underway, with the goal to provide more local food in the region.

“We’re a strong believer in growing food where it is consumed not only for quality but also for overall sustainability and environmental impact,” says Boon.

Steadfast in its goal to ensure fresh produce availability and promote self-sufficiency in food sourcing, Boon Greenhouse Consulting provides everything that a family or a food business needs for healthy and delicious meals through its backyard greenhouse program.

Supported by the company’s astute guidance in establishing state-of-the-art greenhouses and implementing innovative growing processes, clients are assured of excelling at every step in their journey to grow high-quality vegetables and fruits conveniently and efficiently.