CO2 GRO Inc (TSX-V:GROW, OTCQB:BLONF), which provides proprietary carbon dioxide (CO2) delivery solutions technology, has announced that a CO2 Delivery Solutions system has been installed for a technology trial in The Cucumber Man's 522,000 square foot Alberta greenhouse.
The company said the trial, which was delayed due to issues related to coronavirus (COVID-19), is being conducted on long English cucumbers and will expand to grape tomatoes shortly.
"We are excited to be underway with our first greenhouse trial in the province of Alberta,” CO2 GRO’s vice president for sales and strategic alliances Aaron Archibald said in a statement. “This is an important trial as we will be running two trials more or less at the same time, applying CO2 to cucumbers first then shortly afterwards to grape tomatoes.”
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CO2 GRO noted that the Cucumber Man had previously deployed atmospheric CO2 enrichment using purchased liquid CO2 but did not see the benefits, especially during the warmer months from spring through fall where heat venting caused most of the CO2 to escape leaving ambient 400 ppm levels.
It said CO2 Delivery Solutions offers The Cucumber Man the opportunity to provide additional CO2 for their plants regardless of the season.
The trial's goals are to increase fruit yield, reduce the spread of pathogens such as powdery mildew, which is often problematic for cucumber growers, and reduce the overall cost per unit of production thereby increasing overall margins, the company added.
“Alberta is home to a robust vegetable greenhouse industry,” Archibald continued. “We expect that success with The Cucumber Man will lead to additional opportunities in Alberta.”
Toronto-based CO2 GRO’s advanced CO2 delivery solutions are aimed at increasing the growth of all indoor and outdoor value plants. The firm's solutions increase clients' plant yields in a safe, sustainable, and economic way.
The company’s technology creates a dissolved CO2 solution that when misted onto plants provides growers that cannot gas with CO2 the opportunity to increase plant yields by up to 30% and profits by up to 100%. Applying dissolved CO2 also suppresses the development of pathogens such as E.coli and powdery mildew, helping to reduce crop losses.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com