This site provides you with a group of useful apps, websites, and calculators that will help greenhouse growers make informed decisions about the main activities of the production systems: irrigation, fertilization, and pest and disease management. Those tools have been developed mainly by the extension programs of some universities around the country and the horticulture industry. Keep in mind that the purpose of the tools is to provide support and guidance for the decision-making process instead of recommending any specific technologies, commercial products, dosage rates, or management strategies.
Water Management and Water Quality |
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WaterQual |
Interprets water quality tests for sources used in irrigation in greenhouses and nurseries.
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| The Reservoir Calculator | This tool can help you determine how much water is in your reservoir for current needs or future planning.
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The Irrigation Volume Tool |
This tool is useful to determine how much water you are applying at each irrigation cycle for part or all of your operation.
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The Pond Refill/Runoff Volume Tool |
This tool will help you determine how much irrigation or rainfall is returning to your reservoir.
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The Interception Efficiency Tool |
This tool can help you determine how much of the water you are applying makes it into the top of your container versus falling between containers when using overhead irrigation.
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The Coefficient of Uniformity Tool |
This tool can help you determine if your irrigation is being applied uniformly in a given block.
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The Leaching Fraction Tool |
This tool is useful to determine how long you need to run your irrigation system to leach out accumulated salts.
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The Chlorine Contact Time Calculators |
This tool can help you determine if you have adequate contact time for your chlorine-based disinfectants for proper disinfection of your irrigation water.
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The Chloride Dilution Calculator
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Use this tool to ensure that you are correctly diluting your chlorine for a stock tank and other applications.
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The Slow Sand Filter Sizing Tool
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This tool can help you determine how large of a system you will need to treat a given volume of water.
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ALKCALC |
This calculator provides recommendations for the amount of acid to add to irrigation water to modify the pH and alkalinity levels.
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Nutrient Solutions / Fertilizer |
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Parts per million to recipe Calculator |
How much fertilizer or chemical product do you need to get a certain concentration (ppm)?
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Parts per million to recipe Calculator |
What is the concentration of your solution?
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FERTCALC |
Online spreadsheet capable of calculating fertilizer formulations for water-soluble fertilizer.
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Convert between NPK and N-P2O5-K2O |
Convert fertilizer label between units of nitrogen (N), phosphate (P2O5), and potash (K2O) and their elemental forms: NPK.
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Greenhouse Fertilizer Calculators |
A tool from the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension to simplify the math required for mixing fertilizer, monitoring electrical conductivity, and adjusting injectors.
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Control of Plant Pathogens and Algae |
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Waterborne solutions tool |
Online searchable database that summarizes water treatment efficacy data.
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The Critical Control Points for Disease Management |
This tool can help you determine the likely sources of disease and methods of spreading them at your operation.
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Crop Management |
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e-GRO |
A website with information on common problems and management options. It includes blogs, alerts, videos, and books.
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PGRCALC |
A web calculator for plant growth regulator mixing rates and amounts for spray, drench, and dips applications
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Substrate cost and volume calculator |
This tool calculates the volume and cost of soil required to fill greenhouse and nursery containers
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Crop budget allocating overheads by area weeks |
This app allows calculating the cost and profitability of an individual crop
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| COMET-Farm™ tool | COMET-Farm is a whole farm carbon and greenhouse gas accounting system applicable to all agricultural lands in the lower 48 states. The tool guides you through describing your farm management practices including alternative future management scenarios.
The tool will help producers estimate the value of carbon credits they could earn from various conservation practices.
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Additional Resources |
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| Conversion Tables, Formulas, and Suggested Guidelines for Horticultural Use.
https://www.maine.gov/dacf/php/pesticides/documents2/conversion_tables_formulas_etc.pdf |
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| Production information for greenhouse production and resources to help train the employees. | |||||||
| New England Greenhouse Floriculture Guide: A Management Guide for Insects, Diseases, Weeds, and Growth Regulators is a reference manual for commercial greenhouse growers. It presents information on pests, diseases, algae management, and other production management techniques for floricultural crops grown in greenhouses.
The Guide is a joint effort of faculty and professional staff of the New England land grant universities and support from New England Floriculture, Inc. |
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The main universities associated with the development of the tools mentioned above are Clemson University, University of Maryland, University of Florida - Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, USDA, Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, University of California, University of Kentucky, University of Connecticut, Texas A&M University, Michigan State University, and the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension.