Grant: Applied Research Tools and Instruments Grants

Niagara College has the only Greenhouse program in Eastern Canada, the Horticulture program is the largest Horticulture program in Eastern Canada, and the Niagara-on-the-Lake campus is strategically and geographically suited in an ideal location to support the significant greenhouse areas of Niagara and Leamington. Consequently, the Greenhouse Technician and Horticultural Technician programs serve as pipelines to train high quality professionals to eventually be employed by greenhouses in these areas. In 2012, there were over 2,500 greenhouses in Ontario, which employed more than 35,000 people, and had vegetable and ornamental sales greater than $2.4 Billion. Niagara College currently has a greenhouse that occupies 16,000 square feet. There is excellent research done in this facility, however, seasonal environmental conditions such as light levels, limit the replication of experiments as environmental conditions change with the seasons. A controlled environment growth chamber ensures that all growth parameters are controlled with exacting precision allowing replication for scientific purposes. A more compact system solely focused on food and herb production is a kitchen growth chamber (KGC), which is a self-contained sustainable food growth system that could be employed by a commercial kitchen. All hydroponic growth systems require nutrients to be supplied to the plants, usually in the form of inorganic fertilizers. However, an emerging partially-closed growing system involves raising fish (aquaculture) in a contained indoor system, while using their organic waste to feed a hydroponic plant growth system, which combined, are referred to as aquaponics. This has the additional benefit of raising local fish, which reduces the footprint associated with travel, the environmental toxins that affect and are taken up by the fish, and the benefit of growing hydroponic vegetables. Overall, improving our ability to research with on demand parameters on food plants and floriculture, as well as working with hydroponic vegetables and aquaponics create a perfect synergy to research four-season sustainable food with our industry partners, while demonstrating modern technologies to students.