Great Lakes Growers wants to change the way people buy and think about salad. The hydroponic greens and herbs operation is capitalizing on changing consumer tastes and sending its products straight to customers’ doorsteps with a new initiative called Great Lakes Growers Express.

Located in Burton, Ohio — a village with a total population of less than 1,500 — the operation was founded in 2011. But through relationships with restaurants and regional grocery store chains such as Buehler’s, Giant Eagle and Heinen’s, the business can reach a customer base in Ohio and neighboring states that would make up several dozen Burtons. And if its home delivery service goes according to plan, the company’s reach will extend even further.

“There’s about 80 million people we can reach,” says John Bonner, owner and founder.

“There are home delivery services out there for food, but we’ve always heard the complaints about, well it’s the produce that is really bad,” says Tim Ward, who does marketing for Great Lakes Growers and helped develop the Great Lakes Growers Express concept. “The other food is fine; the produce doesn’t hold up because they’re really packaging it and shipping it in traditional methods, the way you might find in a traditional grocery store. They’re getting it from out West. Everything’s being shipped directly from the source here.”

Through Great Lakes Growers Express, which officially launched in March, consumers can order combinations of living lettuce, fresh-cut herbs and other leafy greens from the grower online, and have them shipped directly to their home via UPS. Currently, there are four different combinations to pick from and each is available for delivery weekly or every other week for $29.99 per delivery.

According to Bonner, the logic behind the delivery service is two-fold. First, it opens new markets in urban and rural communities that don’t have grocery stores nearby — like inner-city Cleveland or a small town in Pennsylvania.

Second, Bonner believes that by shipping fresh greens directly to the consumer, he can tap into a younger customer base that seeks out instant gratification and is already ordering other goods like pet food, razors and toothbrushes online with pre-determined shipping (and payment) dates. It’s also a customer base, Bonner says, that wants fresh produce and worries about the quality of food they are consuming.

“Even if you’re getting it from a local guy like me, it’s still three or four days old at the store, which there’s probably not much difference in freshness,” Bonner says. “So it had to be fresh, had to be good, and the cost had to be no more money than they’re going to pay when they go the grocery store.”

Bonner’s beginnings

Bonner grew up in Burton, where his entire family is connected to the horticulture industry. On his father’s side, the main family profession has been traditional field farming. On his mother’s side, his grandfather founded BFG Supply, a greenhouse supply company based in Burton. Additionally, his father founded Dillen Products (later renamed HC Companies), a manufacturer of injected molded pots whose clients included many members of the Van Wingerden family, several of whom own large-scale ornamental operations.

“That’s how I got into farming,” Bonner says.

Additionally, his sister owns Eagle Creek Nursery, a wholesale ornamental producer. Originally, though, horticulture was not the path Bonner pursued. After graduating high school, Bonner attended Capital University in Columbus and earned a bachelor’s degree in finance. From there, he took a job at Merrill Lynch. But according to Bonner, it wasn’t work that fit him.

Bonner worked at Eagle Creek Nursery for a time after leaving Merrill Lynch, gaining notoriety in the industry for implementing sustainable business practices. In 2011, he left the family business and founded Great Lakes Growers.

The business started out small. He tested out his concept with 300 square feet of poly greenhouses and a basic hydroponic system constructed from supplies at Home Depot — but expansion came quick. From there, he was able to get his greens into local restaurants and eventually local grocery chains.

Today, Great Lakes Growers has 80,000 square feet of production space and is currently in the middle of an expansion that will double its size. Down the line, Bonner sees a need to hire growers. (Currently, he’s hands-on with the plants seven days a week.) But he can’t envision a future where he doesn’t spend at least some time in the greenhouse working directly with the crops.

“I cannot see myself not coming in here at least one day a week and watering everything and taking care of everything,” he says. “I can call everybody up in an hour and find out, ‘Hey, where do we want to do this, do that?’ But it’s just got to have more structure as we get bigger. And that’s what we’re doing. We’re expanding as an organization; we’re broadening out. So it’s fun. It’s challenging.”

Fresh deliveries

Bonner and Ward, another Burton native and someone Bonner has known for years, started working on the delivery service about a year ago. According to Bonner, Great Lakes Growers Express and has been rolled out slowly on purpose in order to solve any potential logistical issues. The idea appealed to Bonner as a way to diversify outside of traditional retail methods.

“We told our retail partners we were doing it and they said, ‘Spot on man.’ Because they’re seeing it, too,” he says. “We’re doing meal kits and things for them, but their product development, this whole convenience thing, is what I was seeing when I started. This whole feeling of instant gratification — well it’s getting on steroids now. And I think we see it in all these subscription services and things like that. It’s not going to stop.”

To start, the company sent out greens and herbs via UPS and FedEx to friends and family. When the packages arrived, those friends and family sent back pictures of the greens to see how they held up. Bonner says that they sent out packages in a variety of weather conditions from extreme heat to extreme cold to make sure the greens would remain fresher than what they could buy at the store.

“We were testing so many things and looking at the variables,” Ward says. “I think we got it down to where anything within basically 24 hours is doable. So in any place that UPS can ship within a day is perfect.”

A key to the service is that Great Lakes Growers offers living lettuce with the roots still attached — allowing the lettuce to last longer once its in the customer’s fridge. Each order is also checked by hand in Burton to ensure that the greens are fresh and the order is correct. According to Ward, word-of-mouth and rave reviews from customers on social media are the driving factor as the business continues to grow organically and expand into new areas.

“We want to make sure that we can check every single box and we’ve had zero complaints so far of anything that we’ve shipped out to consumers,” Ward says. “And frankly I expect that to continue.”

Offering fresher products than the local grocery store is the main selling point for Great Lakes Growers Express. Say a customer orders greens on a Sunday. On Tuesday of that week, the greens are harvested, packaged and shipped out. The next day, the greens arrive at the customer’s doorstep via UPS. That’s even faster than the same greens, harvested the same day, would arrive at the local grocery store.

“It’s more units than you might find on a trip on a Monday to a grocery store, but it’s also got a shelf life that’s two weeks plus,” Bonner says. “So that whole process of training people that say, ‘Hey wow, got five heads of lettuce or six heads of lettuce, whatever it is, I can’t eat all that.’ But then if you leave it in your fridge for a week, two weeks, and you look at it, you’re going to go, ‘Damn, that still looks better than anything I’ve put in there.’”

Growing into the future

Right next door to the greenhouses filled with greens and herbs in Burton, Great Lakes Growers is in the process of expanding. Walk through one door and instead of greens, you’ll find construction crews building glass greenhouses and setting up the space for a concrete floor to be poured. Each greenhouse will be outfitted with LED lighting, environmental control systems, boom irrigation and other technologies since Bonner believes embracing technology and its possible benefits is key to keeping the business moving forward.

“I’m a big believer that ultimately, we have to get the cost inside the greenhouse down in the space or an area where we’re competitive with the field-grown stuff,” he says.

The plan, Bonner says, is to have enough growing space that products shipped via Great Lakes Growers Express have their own production area. He adds that the additional space is already “sold out” — meaning he already knows what will be grown there. And another expansion in the near future isn’t out of the question either.

There are also plans to continue diversifying the business. In addition to the delivery service — which Bonner and Ward hope to expand to new areas in the coming months — Great Lakes Growers products are now sold at Giant Eagle under the grocery store’s Market District branding. And other retailers are selling the product with the Great Lakes Growers logo on the package.

Outside of that, Bonner says selling greens to the food service sector is the business’ largest growing market share.

The key for whatever comes next, however, is still freshness. Regardless of what is next for Great Lakes Growers, and for Bonner, he says that must remain the core principle of the business.

“I look at it as we need to have stuff there that tastes better, looks better, grows better,” he says. “We need to give our customers the best price, so they can compete with their competitors. But ultimately, we’ve got to give the consumer the best price and the best quality.”

To learn about Great Lakes Growers' Amish workforce, search 'Amish' at producegrower.com

Adelante Mujeres, based in Forest Grove, Oregon, provides various educational opportunities to low-income Latina women and their families. By partnering with the VeggieRx program, a state-wide initiative through which doctors and nurses can offer vouchers for purhcases of fresh fruits and veggies, they’re aiming to encourage good eating habits and improve the overall health of the community. The area Adelante Mujeres serves is home to many migrant farm workers, as well full-time agricultural workers.

“For a long time, we have just been thinking about our community, and the Latinx community in general in Oregon, and how we are plagued with diabetes and obesity and a lot of diet-related diseases,” says Nutrition and Farmers Market Manager Kaely Summers. “The families we are working with are Spanish speakers dealing with food insecurity and are at risk with diet-related diseases.”

Produce Grower: In trying to serve this community, how do you discuss VeggieRx and its benefits?

Kaely Summers: We come to it with a positive messaging strategy. We don’t want to tell people, “You can’t eat this.” We really talk about eating more fruits and vegetables, and really vegetables specifically. People don’t need to be convinced to eat fruit. With vegetables, we talk about it in an engaging way, like how the recipes and dishes you’re making day-to-day can have more vegetables by substituting a few things. So, if people are used to eating tomatoes and iceberg lettuce, how do we swap out the iceberg lettuce for something more nutrient-dense?

PG: How does Adelante Mujeres specifically tailor the program for the Latinx community it serves?

KS: All of our cooking classes and coaching and other services are offered in Spanish. Our staff is about 85% Latino and native Spanish speakers. I’m fluent in Spanish as well and the majority of our staff is bilingual as well. We started it in 2015 and we’ve been working on a small scale — about 25 families a year. But what we’ve been talking about with them is the challenges that it faces, how it can be scaled up and what they need. For us, that includes the Forest Grove Farmers Market, which we give families vouchers to. Historically, these markets have been catered to middle-to-upper class white families, so there is that perceived barrier for some. But what we are really trying to do is open up that market so we’ve got a cross-section of who is actually in our community and that all people feel comfortable.

PG: Out of the produce items you have worked to introduce, what has the community embraced?

KS: Folks [in our community] are fairly accustomed to eating tomatoes, cucumbers, chiles, corn and beans. Squash is another one. Herbs like cilantro are popular too. So in our cooking classes, we are trying to introduce folks to vegetables that they’ve maybe never heard of before. Wild mushrooms are one thing that are harvested here that are also harvested in places like Mexico and Guatemala, and families will say, “Oh yeah, that brings back a memory when I was a kid.” That’s how we try to introduce different things but recognizing that it’s hard to change your diet completely.

Photos: Adobe Stock

As our world faces challenges associated with population growth, climate variability and the loss of arable land and fresh water, we humans need to find new and efficient ways to grow food. Vertical farming has emerged in the past decade as one of the tools we can implement to face some of those challenges. In most cases, the vertical farm (VF) is characterized by an array of shelves stacked vertically and side-by-side, filling the volume of a warehouse-type space with lettuce greens and culinary herbs that are usually spaced tightly together. Under this configuration a farm can grow upwards of 5 to 10 times the number of plants for a given footprint as compared to field-grown crops. Theoretically, the number of plants grown is only limited by the height of the building.

This unlimited growth potential is a lucrative proposition, and has created a “sky is the limit” mentality for many prospective VF growers and developers who envision a space filled to the brim with plants. Unfortunately, this perspective has led many down an unrealistic path of ”packing them in,” considering only how much space is required between each vertical rack to fit the growing media, the lights, the full-height plant and sometimes even the arms of the automated harvesting machine. The space requirements for HVAC equipment and air circulation around the plants are often overlooked, resulting in the two most commonly identified difficulties when controlling the environment: humidity control and air movement.

Challenge No. 1:

Temperature and humidity

The first climate management challenge that vertical farmers must overcome is figuring out how much cooling, dehumidification and heating is required to manage the temperature and humidity of the grow space. In a VF, lighting contributes the greatest source of heat, followed by motors used to operate fans, pumps and automation. Because VFs are often well-insulated and designed to operate day and night throughout the year, cooling is usually required 24/7 and year-round to remove the heat generated inside the space.

Dehumidification is also constantly required to remove the moisture added to the air via evapotranspiration (Et) from the plants and irrigation system. The rate and quantity of Et depends on several variables, including light intensity, air temperature and humidity (or vapor pressure deficit), air movement and the irrigation method. Although Et is greatest when plants are mature and the lights are on, Et does not stop when the lights go out. Plants continue to respire and give off moisture when the lights are off, and for continuously recirculating irrigation systems (e.g. NFT and aquaponics), evaporation from these systems can remain constant all day. Therefore, the size and operation of the dehumidification system should take into consideration both the maximum and minimum Et rates expected inside a VF.

Heating systems in the VF are rarely required, due to all the heat generated inside the space by lights. However, if the air conditioning (AC) system is used to both cool and dehumidify the space, then the AC system will create very cold air to remove (or condense) water out of the air. Typically, we don’t want to deliver that cold air (eg. 45° F) back to the plants, so we reheat it before sending it to the room. This is the most common use of heating in a VF.

Challenge No. 2:

Air circulation

The second biggest challenge is figuring out how to deliver the conditioned air everywhere within the vertical farm to create a (hopefully) uniform growing environment. When racks are spaced tightly together — both vertically and horizontally — it is difficult to create uniform conditions everywhere. In the horizontal direction, the plants and lights obstruct the flow of air from Point A to Point B, often resulting in temperature, humidity and air speed differences from one end of the rack to the other. When the vertical height is very short (say 4 inches or less), this obstruction of air movement is magnified. On top of that, the air moving across the shelf is picking up heat (from lights) and moisture (from plants), causing it to become hotter and more humid along its path. Shorter vertical heights exacerbate this trend, as they limit the volume of air that can be squeezed between the rack levels, thereby restricting the amount of heat and moisture that can be absorbed and causing the air to heat up and humidify even more quickly as it travels from end to end. The result: large differences in temperature and humidity levels from Point A to Point B. And the longer the shelf, the longer the path of air and the greater the difference.

Several strategies can be applied to facilitate air movement in the VF. Many farmers employ the use of small circulating fans, installing them at incremental positions within the racking system and above the plants to help boost airflow from one end to the other. Air movement can also be enhanced by considering where conditioned air is introduced into the space and where it is then removed after loading up with heat and moisture. The type of air diffusers can also help distribute and push air into desired locations, as well as help mix cold air near the floor with warmer air near the ceiling to prevent the stack effect.

Challenge No. 3:

HVAC equipment location

Space considerations aren’t limited to moving conditioned air through the racking system; they also include where to put HVAC equipment. Depending on the design, HVAC equipment can include air conditioners, dehumidifiers, circulation fans, ductwork, chillers, boilers, pumps and pipes. Cooling and dehumidification equipment are best located outside the building, where heat and moisture can be rejected to the outdoor air. Some equipment (air conditioners, dehumidifiers, etc.) are ideally located on the roof of the building or on the ground outside and next to the room it is serving, helping to limit ductwork. Other equipment, such as chillers, need a designated area away from the building to accommodate the larger equipment. Inside the building and the VF itself, better air movement can be realized if adequate space is provided for ductwork, fans, and air delivery and mixing in general.

Conclusion

No matter what crop is grown, managing humidity control and air movement in a vertical farm is essential to plant productivity, harvesting schedules, quality control and, ultimately, profitability. Every developer, designer and dreamer would do well to include climate management as a foremost systems consideration — in line with lighting, racking, irrigation and automation — during the conceptual and facility planning stage. Only then can vertical farming rise to its full potential.

Nadia is the president and founder of Dr. Greenhouse, Inc., an agricultural and mechanical engineering firm that specializes in the design of HVAC systems for indoor plant environments.

In this third article of a four-part series, researchers from Michigan State University share science-based information about indoor production of leafy greens and herbs. To read part one, click here. To read part two, click here.

In recent years, researchers and growers have been mainly focused on quantifying the effects of sole-source light quality on crops grown in indoor CEA warehouses and containers. However, one commonly overlooked environmental parameter that has the potential to increase growth and yield is carbon dioxide (CO₂). Atmospheric (ambient) CO₂ concentration has been increasing over the years from below 320 µmol·mol^-1 (or parts per million, ppm) in 1960 to current values where CO₂ levels outdoors comprise 0.04% of atmospheric volume, or around 400 µmol·mol^-1. However, CO₂ concentrations in a “tightly sealed” greenhouse or indoor growing operation can quickly dip down to 200 µmol·mol^-1 as plants use CO₂ during photosynthesis. You may think that maintaining the CO₂ concentration at ambient levels is as easy as venting or introducing fresh air. It can be during certain times of the year, but this can be difficult when outdoor temperatures are very low. Increasing CO₂ to concentrations above ambient and up to 1,200 µmol·mol^-1 has been shown to increase photosynthetic rates, growth and yield. There are several commercial methods to increase CO₂ concentrations above atmospheric levels. However, these methods should be deployed during periods when ventilation is minimal to reduce the loss of the added CO₂ outside of the growing area.

For CO₂ enrichment above ambient, growers can deploy CO₂ burners that produce CO₂. This method produces some heat, moisture and CO₂ by burning natural gas or propane. Incomplete combustion or contaminated fuels can lead to the introduction of toxic gases for both plants and humans. To improve CO₂ uniformity, burners should be dispersed throughout and horizontal air flow (HAF) fans can be deployed to circulate air. Another method of CO₂ enrichment for both greenhouses and indoor farms is injecting compressed or liquid CO₂ from a tank. The compressed CO₂ is converted from a liquid to a gas and then released into the growing area. These tanks can be rented or purchased through local gas distributors. When delivered in this form, CO₂ is often dispersed through polyethylene tubes. Remember that CO₂ is heavier than the other air components, so concentrations tend to be greater closer to the floor.

Experimental protocol

The goal of our research program is to develop indoor and greenhouse environmental management protocols for different stages of culinary herb production. Given that CEA production is energy-intensive, we have focused our efforts on young plant production since inputs such as light and CO₂ can be delivered across more plants at the seedling stage when plant density is greater compared to the finished stage when plant density is lower. The objectives of our research were to determine if indoor CO₂ enrichment during the seedling stage influences: 1) sweet basil seedling growth and development; 2) morphology, growth, and yield at harvest in the greenhouse; and 3) volatile oil content and flavor (this research is in progress and we will report the results in an upcoming article).

Sweet basil ‘Nufar’ seeds were sown in Grodan rock-wool cubes and placed in walk-in growth chambers with an average daily temperature (ADT) set point of 73° F (23° C) and CO₂ set points of 500 or 1,000 µmol·mol^-1 throughout the day and night. We maintained these concentrations by injecting compressed CO₂ into the chambers, and by scrubbing CO₂ with soda lime when concentrations were too high. In each chamber we had four light intensity treatments of 100, 200, 400 and 600 µmol·m^–2·s^–1 that operated 16 h per day to create daily light integrals (DLIs) of 6, 12, 23 or 35 mol·m^–2·s^–1. This allowed us to determine whether there was an interaction between CO₂ concentration and light intensity. The seedlings were grown for two weeks, after which plants were transplanted into deep flow technique (DFT) hydroponic systems in a greenhouse with an ADT of 73° F (23° C) and a DLI of 14 mol·m^–2·s^–1. With the plants growing in a common greenhouse environment, we could evaluate if differences or higher inputs at the seedling stage would result in increased yields down the road.

In theory, by increasing CO₂ concentration, we should have seen increased growth; however, this was not the case. As can be seen in Figs. 1 and 2, light intensity had a much larger impact on seedling growth than CO₂, but we will discuss that in the next article of this series. Increasing CO₂ concentration did not influence growth and development. Why would increasing CO₂ from 500 to 1,000 µmol·mol^-1 not actually improve growth and development of basil seedlings?

There are three main limitations to photosynthesis: the supply or utilization of CO₂, of light, or of phosphate (also referred to as biochemical limitation; Fig 3.). Theoretically, if CO₂ concentration starts at 0 and increases, you will hit a CO₂ compensation point above which plants have positive net photosynthesis. As the CO₂ concentration further increases, the photosynthetic rate will increase until the CO₂ concentration reaches a species or cultivar-dependent saturation point. In our case, 500 µmol·mol^-1 CO₂ may have been near the saturation point for basil seedlings. Therefore, increasing the concentration to 1,000 µmol·mol^-1 did not significantly increase growth. In addition, if photosynthesis is light-limited, increasing CO₂ concentration will not result in large increases in photosynthesis. Conversely, if photosynthesis is CO₂-limited, increasing light intensity will not result in large increases in photosynthesis. However, increasing CO₂ can have some other positive effects, including reducing oxygenation and photorespiration. In our case, increasing the light intensity further or growing the plants past the transplant stage may have resulted in differences between CO₂ treatments.

Do our results mean we should write off CO₂ enrichment as a means of increasing photosynthesis and ultimately growth and yield? No. We are currently evaluating several other culinary herbs at lower and higher CO₂ concentrations and a range of light intensities to see if there is a species-dependent response. In addition, it is possible that elevating CO₂ concentration would have a larger impact during the finish stage. More studies are needed to parse out which horticultural crops and at what stage of production CO₂ enrichment would be the most beneficial to improving growth and yield.

Take-home message

Other environmental factors besides CO₂ concentration may have a larger impact during the seedling stage. Read the last article in this four-part series to understand the benefits of increasing indoor CEA light intensity during propagation on subsequent yield in the greenhouse.

Kellie is a PhD student and Roberto is assistant professor and controlled environment/floriculture extension specialist in the Department of Horticulture at Michigan State University. The authors gratefully acknowledge Sean Tarr and Nate DuRussel for assistance, Fluence Bioengineering for LEDs, JR Peters for fertilizer, Grodan for substrate, Hydrofarm for hydroponic production systems, Dramm for irrigation equipment and MSU AgBioResearch, MSU Graduate School and the USDA-NIFA for funding.