MFT design and manufacture our own greenhouses
Greenhouse farming is a fast-emerging technology and at MFT we have designed and we manufacture our own greenhouses. The standard unit is 13 metres x 9metres and can grow 315 tomato plants. We build and install the greenhouses with a steel frame with a minimum ten-year lifespan and plastic and netting covers which last for 3-4 years.
Greenhouse farming, also known as Controlled Environment Agriculture, has may advantages:
- Crops are grown in sacks so good farmland is not required and the greenhouse can go on any flat ground.
- Water and fertiliser can be targeted to the sack, giving savings on both while providing the optimum requirements for the plants.
- Growing in sacks means there is no weeding to be done
- Water is added to the sack so the plant remains dry, reducing fungal attacks.
- The greenhouse is enclosed and with good management, insects can be kept out, reducing the cost of crop spraying.
- The plants are trellised on wires and string attached to the greenhouse frame, so no wooden stakes are needed which saves labour and trees.
- Typical yields in a greenhouse are 15kgs per tomato plant and, in a greenhouse, the plants can be grown all year, giving 30kgs.
