Diamond Flowers
Grower Profile:
Koen Kreling
Owner
Crop: Chrysantemum
Location: Zuilichem, the Netherlands
Greenhouse: Venlo, 12 ha
Installer - Huisman Scherming BV
Climate Challenges: Daylength control, diffuse light and shading for young plants and mature flowers
Svensson Climate Solutions: HARMONY 4215 O FR, OBSCURA 10070 FR WB + B
In spring of 2017, Diamond Flowers in Zuilichem, the largest chrysanthemum farm in the Netherlands opened. Svensson Harmony and Obscura have been installed in the double screen installations.
We had a look behind the scenes at one of the Netherlands youngest chrysanthemum growers, Koen Kreling. He enthusiastically discusses his chrysanthemum operation and his positive experiences with Svensson’s light diffusing Harmony screen.
Diamond Flower’s new 29.6 acre glass-house
Diamond Flowers’ chrysanthemums are distributed to supermarkets throughout Europe. The reason for their expansion was a result of the supermarkets increased demand and rising sales of chrysanthemums in the past few years, explains Koen. The new Venlo greenhouse has a total of 83 hoods of 1,400 m2 planted with chrysanthemums.
Screens
For the new construction, Svensson’s climate consultant Ton Habraken recommended the highly diffusive Harmony 4215 O FR shade screen. During the summer the chrysanthemums can become stressed by an overdose of sunlight. Some of the light must then be reduced, otherwise you will have a delay in production. The ideal climate for a chrysanthemum is 20°C with lots of sunlight. At times, there is too much sun, like last summer. The diffusive Harmony screen then helps to improve the climate in order to achieve more growth.
Above the Harmony screen, an Obscura 10070 FR WB+B blackout screen type is installed to control the day length. “Whitewashing results in unnecessary light loss, with a movable screen I have better control and don’t need to whitewash all summer long,” says Koen Kreling.
