Online tools

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

WaterQual

Interprets water quality tests for sources used in irrigation in greenhouses and nurseries.

https://www.cleanwater3.org/wqi.asp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkSiSmDwIqw
English / Spanish
The Reservoir Calculator This tool can help you determine how much water is in your reservoir for current needs or future planning.

https://occviz.com/CW3/pondCalculator/pond.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYkygDxbj1Q
English / Spanish

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.

https://occviz.com/CW3/IV/IV.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVX2h5_VSjo
English / Spanish

The Pond Refill/Runoff Volume Tool

This tool will help you determine how much irrigation or rainfall is returning to your reservoir.

https://occviz.com/CW3/PR/PR.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZAYV0KPQpo
English / Spanish

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.

https://occviz.com/CW3/IE/IE.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3tg4KgtFCQ
English / Spanish

The Coefficient of Uniformity Tool

This tool can help you determine if your irrigation is being applied uniformly in a given block.

https://occviz.com/CW3/CU/CU.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWcAn9jMYrg
English / Spanish

The Leaching Fraction Tool

This tool is useful to determine how long you need to run your irrigation system to leach out accumulated salts.

https://occviz.com/CW3/LF/lf.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp9aoat3te8
English / Spanish

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.

https://occviz.com/CW3/CT/CT.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaywP9nphjo
English / Spanish

The Chloride Dilution Calculator

 

Use this tool to ensure that you are correctly diluting your chlorine for a stock tank and other applications.

https://occviz.com/CW3/Cl/cl.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlzmbwwsqnk
English / Spanish

The Slow Sand Filter Sizing Tool

 

This tool can help you determine how large of a system you will need to treat a given volume of water.

https://occviz.com/CW3/SSF/ssf.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boPi1q44Ql0
English / Spanish

ALKCALC

This calculator provides recommendations for the amount of acid to add to irrigation water to modify the pH and alkalinity levels.

https://extension.unh.edu/agric/AGGHFL/alk_calc.cfm
English

Nutrient Solutions / Fertilizer

Parts per million to recipe Calculator

How much fertilizer or chemical product do you need to get a certain concentration (ppm)?

https://www.backpocketgrower.org/ppmtorecipe.asp
English / Spanish

Parts per million to recipe Calculator

What is the concentration of your solution?

https://www.backpocketgrower.org/recipetoppm.asp
English / Spanish

FERTCALC

Online spreadsheet capable of calculating fertilizer formulations for water-soluble fertilizer.

https://extension.unh.edu/agric/AGGHFL/fert_calc.cfm
English

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.

https://www.backpocketgrower.org/npk_flexi.asp
English / Spanish

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.

https://cecf1.unh.edu/agric/greenhouseCalc/index.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhltmy1DSig
English

Control of Plant Pathogens and Algae

Waterborne solutions tool

Online searchable database that summarizes water treatment efficacy data.

https://www.cleanwater3.org/gsearch.asp
English

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.

https://occviz.com/CW3/pathogen/pathogen.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc5stWw_pIM
English

Crop Management

e-GRO

A website with information on common problems and management options. It includes blogs, alerts, videos, and books.

https://e-gro.org/
English

PGRCALC

A web calculator for plant growth regulator mixing rates and amounts for spray, drench, and dips applications

https://extension.unh.edu/agric/AGGHFL/pg_calc.cfm
English

Substrate cost and volume calculator

This tool calculates the volume and cost of soil required to fill greenhouse and nursery containers

https://www.backpocketgrower.org/soilvolume.asp
English / Spanish

Crop budget allocating overheads by area weeks

This app allows calculating the cost and profitability of an individual crop

https://www.backpocketgrower.org/budget.asp
English / Spanish
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.

https://www.comet-farm.com/
English

Additional Resources

Conversion Tables, Formulas, and Suggested Guidelines for Horticultural Use.

https://www.maine.gov/dacf/php/pesticides/documents2/conversion_tables_formulas_etc.pdf

Production information for greenhouse production and resources to help train the employees.

https://www.backpocketgrower.org/training.asp  

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.

https://greenhouseguide.cahnr.uconn.edu/

 

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.