Urban Ag Issue 4, Dec 2013 | Page 8

When Tyler Baras became manager at The GrowHaus, he implemented changes that increased lettuce production from 35 cases to over 70 cases per week. Expanding product mix Swiss chard, a variety of lettuces, sorrel, nasturtium and pansies. He is experimenting with micro-greens and is trialing additional crops. “Growing hydroponically takes a lot of attention,” he said. “You constantly have to be looking over lettuce. A disease can pop up quickly. If you don’t handle it right away it can quickly get out of control resulting in unsalable product.” “In Florida it’s very difficult to really cool the greenhouses because of the high humidity,” he said. “Evaporative cooling in Florida is pretty much ineffective. That makes it very difficult to grow lettuce in the summer. In Colorado because of the low humidity, using evaporative cooling I am able to drop the temperature by 20ºF.” Prior to Baras’ arrival at The GrowHaus, the 5,000-square-foot greenhouse facility was producing abou B3R66W2