Eurosa Farms
For over 40 years, the family at Eurosa Farms in Brentwood Bay, British Columbia, have been growing cut roses filling a growing market for year-round Canadian grown standard, garden and spray roses.
Application
Greenhouse
For over 40 years, the family at Eurosa Farms in Brentwood Bay, British Columbia, have been growing cut roses filling a growing market for year-round Canadian grown standard, garden and spray roses.
Location: Brentwood Bay, B.C.
Crop: Cut Flowers
Luminaire: HortiLED Top 2.0 (RWMB)
Luminaire: NXT2 (Alpha Reflector)
Roses are the quintessential cut flower, however, finding North American grown greenhouse roses can be difficult, as often the costs are too high to be sustainable and it can be hard to complete with cheaper overseas flowers from places such as South America. However, with the rise in popularity of local cut specialty flowers, one greenhouse on Vancouver Island has survived and thrived―growing a wide range of cut roses for the North American market. For over 40 years, the family at Eurosa Farms in Brentwood Bay, British Columbia, has been growing roses and other cut flowers such as alstroemeria, filling a high demand market for year-round Canadian grown standard, garden and spray roses. In fact, they are Canada’s only commercial rose grower!
Roses can be a difficult crop to grow in a greenhouse for a variety of reasons, but giving them consistent environmental conditions is an important way to manage growth and disease. Roses need a high amount of light in order to develop long stems, with strong flower heads, that have a long post-harvest vase life. Achieving a long vase life can be attributed to a build of carbohydrates (sugars) in the plant and is why you will see flower food or “sugar” used as a flower preservative. Having a substantial buildup of carbohydrates from the photosynthesis process, will help increase the longevity of the flowers. This is achieved through giving your plants the right amount of light, CO2 and correct temperature.
Eurosa Farms has been utilizing supplemental lighting for their roses since the 1980s. Being located on Vancouver Island means they can have cloudy weather and cold winters, with low levels of light. Low ambient light levels in the winter months and on cloudy days, makes supplemental lighting essential for producing high quality, uniform cut flowers year-round.
To grow great roses, you need a reliable lighting system, and after experiencing problems with their old 750W HPS luminaires, Eurosa Farms initially decided to retrofit their greenhouses with P.L. Light Systems’ NXT2 luminaires with Alpha reflectors and HPS lamps. The growers were very impressed with the reliability of new luminaires compared to the old ones, which had a 20% failure rate. In addition, because of the high efficiency design of the NXT2, they are achieving greater energy efficiency. Most noticeable was the improvement in light levels in the greenhouse―achieving an increase of 30%, with fewer luminaires compared to the old lights. In order to reduce their electrical consumption even further, Eurosa subsequently decided to replace some of their HPS luminaires in their rose houses with HortiLED Top 2.0 luminaires to create a “hybrid” installation. They were thrilled when this new hybrid system enhanced production in the crop even further.
The growers have seen great results in the roses as well, with an increase of 30% in productivity, including reduced crop cycles and overall improvement in plant growth and development. Using HPS luminaires, in combination with LED luminaires, means they also benefit from the radiant heat the HPS lamps deliver. Roses tend to benefit from that extra radiant heat at night, helping to improve their overall health and performance. In addition, since they grow flowers in a Northern climate, using HPS lamps means they rely less on heating since the lamps help provide a lot of the additional heat required in the winter months. In the fall / spring, when temperatures are more moderate, they can use only their LED luminaires to extend the hours of light in the greenhouse, without the additional radiant heat. The growers tend to light their crops for 18-19hours on average from Fall through to around Mother’s Day.
Discover more about Eurosa Farms by checking out their website, or follow them on their Facebook or Instagram pages to keep up with all the beautiful flowers they are growing!
