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A greenhouse requires careful monitoring. Frequent testing allows you to make necessary adjustments to media and growing solutions, so you can ensure plant health. We test nutrient levels and identify deficiencies and pathogens. This provides you with the information you need to make the right management decisions, so you can optimize growth and increase productivity.

Why choose greenhouse services from SGS?

We test nutrient levels in growing media, raw water and nutrient solutions, identify deficiencies and check for pathogens, so you can take the correct actions to ensure that crops remain healthy. Our services include media analysis, water and nutrient solution analysis, plant tissue analysis and DNA multiscans.

Greenhouse crops can be in production for up to 10 months, and our tests measure nutrient levels throughout this period, so you can adjust formulations to ensure that crop nutrition remains balanced.

Media analysis enables you to ensure the quality of soilless growing mixes. As these mixes can be highly variable, despite quality control measures, performing a media analysis is an essential first step in creating an effective fertility program for the crop the media will support. Testing media allows you to ensure that concentrations of detrimentals, such as chlorine and sodium, are not too high, so they can be leached from the solution. Media analysis also allows you to ensure that there is no buildup of pathogens.

We use the saturated paste extraction method – soaking the mix in water and then testing nutrient levels in the water–to analyze growing media. This differs from soil testing, where different acid extractants are added for each nutrient, and the amount of each nutrient available to the plant is measured.

As nutrients are supplied by irrigation water, testing background water allows you to determine the amount of nutrient to add. Water analysis allows you to develop the correct A/B tank mix, while nutrient solution analysis provides confirmation of the mix. We test drain water as well as raw water, so you can safely minimize waste by remixing the drain water into the feed water. Testing recirculated water helps to ensure that levels of detrimentals remain low.

Plant tissue analysis supplements media and water testing, and allows you to identify deficiencies before plants show visual symptoms, so you can confirm that you are using the correct formulation and make any corrections proactively.

DNA multiscan, which uses PCR technology, identifies pathogens in water, media, root and plant tissues. It can be used to ensure cleanliness and minimize infection pre-production, or to confirm the presence of a disease and determine the best treatment for it as quickly as possible.