Hope for year-round veggies growing in Elie[Manitoba, Canada]

BY Angela Brown
From The Central Plains Herald 2005

ELIE — A plump, freshly grown tomato is a delight for many, but in the middle of a Manitoba winter, it is an especially rare treat. That may be about to change. A garden in Elie has been able to withstand even a harsh Manitoba winter and produce tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelons out of season. Three special solar-powered greenhouses are making all of that possible. “I started in February and can keep them all winter until Christmas,” said Wenkai Liu, who started his unique agricultural business at Elie about a year ago. “I seeded again in the end of June, so they’ll by ready for Christmas.”

Smiling with pride as he gazes over a bountiful crop of tomatoes in one of the greenhouses, Liu said a great deal of work went into the business from ordering the greenhouses, arranging for a technician to come from China to provide his expertise, to the day-to-day management of the operation. As well, Liu employs six workers for the greenhouses and his 5.6-hectare farm, and said he could still do with more help.
The three greenhouses produce a total of 0.4 hectares or an average of 9,000 kilograms each of crop every six months. The total cost for each greenhouse is about $14,000.Liu uses solar energy to heat his greenhouses, having modified the conventional greenhouse to harness the sun’s heat and use it more efficiently over a longer period of time.

In order to grow vegetables in Manitoba’s cold winter, Liu had his unique greenhouses shipped from China as none were available here.
What makes them so effective is their insulating properties. Each greenhouse is 207 square metres in size and its north wall is insulated with 15 centimetres each of sand and fibreglass, and covered with metal panels.

During the day, the sun strikes the metal wall and heat is absorbed into the sand insulation. The sand holds the heat and releases it into the room at night to maintain the temperature in the greenhouse. A thermal blanket is also rolled over the greenhouse to keep the building warm. “The temperature is checked every day,” Liu said. “The safe temperature is 25 degrees Celsius to 28 degrees Celsius for tomatoes.” At night, Liu attempts to maintain a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius.
“I’m trying to get that, but it’s difficult,” Liu said, pondering the situation.
Like a watchful mother, Liu looks over the proud crop of beefsteak tomatoes on their tall vines that reflect a mature produce. Near the entrance to the greenhouse, young seedlings of tomatoes and cucumbers emerge in a verdant patchwork from a separate garden.

The soil is dark and rich-looking. It has been fertilized with organic manure and covered with plastic, out of which the plants are bursting forth from the ground.
No need to irrigate, Liu remarked. The plastic seals the moisture in. “I don’t even spend time to weed,” he chuckled. “There’s no weeds.” Liu has a glimmer in his eye and for a good reason. He wants to share his secret. One of Liu’s three greenhouses at Elie is the subject of a research project involving University of Manitoba and Manitoba Hydro. Its two aims are to reduce the cost of heating a greenhouse in winter and to provide a year-round market for greenhouse-grown vegetables in this province. “In comparison with the traditional greenhouse, the solar greenhouse is about 15 degrees warmer,” said Qiang Zhang, a University of Manitoba biosystems engineer heading the project.

Agri-Food Research and Development Initiative (ARDI), a joint federal and provincial program through the Departments of Agriculture, helped fund the project which will run for another year at Elie. There are also plans to test supplemental electric heaters to keep the research greenhouse warm during the coldest days of the year in December and January when the temperatures can drops to -35? Celsius or lower. However, the project was started in February without using any additional electric heating and has been successful. “I’m very impressed with the results,” said Zhang. Liu noted he can use wood stoves to increase the warmth in his other two greenhouses when temperatures drop too low.

Ray Boris, an agricultural engineer with Manitoba Hydro, said the research is useful for rural farmers. “Our main interest is to look at ways of becoming more energy efficient,” he said. Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives Minister Rosann Wowchuk, who toured a number of greenhouse facilities in the area on Aug. 25, said there is a need for such a vegetable market in Manitoba.

“We import an awful lot of vegetables and if through a greenhouse you can extend the growing season at a reasonable cost, I believe there’s opportunities there,” she said.

Wowchuk noted the advantages of Liu’s project. “If he could extend it to year-round, that would be very good,” she said. “If you can extend the season by a few months in Manitoba, that’s also very good. I was very impressed with what he is doing and I see that as being a technology that other people can adapt to as well.”

Liu got his start growing up on a vegetable farm in China and later graduated from university as an agricultural scientist. He also has a Master’s degree in genetics from the U.S. He moved to Winnipeg in 1996 and worked in Portage la Prairie at Manitoba Crop Diversification Centre in 1997 where he was the manager of the oriental vegetable project.

He said he began working on his greenhouse project at that time. He finally decided to set up his own solar-energy greenhouses in Elie about a year ago, lured by the advantage of a good location close to major markets. “I send them to Winnipeg, to Saskatoon and to Calgary,” he said. Liu said when the rainstorms came in June and July, he had no worries. “Especially this year when we had bad weather, we had a blanket for the greenhouse and it was good weather. There was no flooding. No natural disaster,” he said. “I’m happy with that.” Liu said he hopes his idea can grow just like his hothouse flowers. “It’s easy to transfer the technology from China to Canada and let everybody use it,” he said.

Liu said Wowchuk was thrilled with the U of M research demonstration. “She’s very excited with that,” he said. “She asked me to build more greenhouses. She said it’s an amazing thing, and it’s the only one in Manitoba, maybe Canada.” Liu said it made the most sense to him to start his concept in this province, adding Manitobans shouldn’t have to rely on Vancouver, Ontario or the United States to supplement their vegetables. “Manitoba is an agricultural province,” he said. Liu added he simply got tired of spending the winter doing nothing when the farm was in a deep cold. He wanted to farm all year around. So, developing the perfect greenhouse was the way to go.

“I worked in a lab for 15 years,” he said, smiling. “I got tired of sitting.”
Liu said having a winter production of vegetables is also a lucrative idea.
“You could make $500 a week on a crop you pick every week,” he said. “There’s good money on that.”

The future outlook looks rosy. Liu plans to open his own grocery store for his greenhouse produce at Markham Professional Centre in Winnipeg on Sept. 15.
“I’m very happy,” he said, as he held up a fresh squash to examine.