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Interview with Danny Monté
Danny Monté is KUBO's greenhouse growing expert in the Blue Lab. He is responsible for cultivation in this experimental greenhouse. "The Ultra-Clima® continues to amaze. That gives me a lot of energy and I sometimes I feel like a child in a candy store."
From tomatoes to technology
Love of greenhouses
"I have been working in greenhouses since I was young. I got my first job through a friend from my soccer team. His father had a tomato greenhouse. We picked tomatoes and got paid per kilo. My love for greenhouse farming started during that time. That's why I started studying Horticulture Business Management. I learned the most during an internship where I worked on crop forecasting for 6 months."
The opportunity of a lifetime
"I wanted nothing more than to manage cultivation, but in most companies, that role falls to the owner. So I always ended up in production. Through Smart Growing colleague Richard Jonkman, I eventually came into contact with KUBO. KUBO asked me to lead cultivation in the Blue Lab. For me this was a golden opportunity. I can throw myself completely into cultivation here. That gives me a lot of energy and I sometimes feel like a kid in a candy store."
Setting the climate
"My main task in the Blue Lab is to set the climate. By optimizing this, I try to get as many kilograms of production out of the greenhouse as possible. I certainly don't run the Blue Lab alone. I have several colleagues who maintain the plants, from pruning to picking. My colleague Emiel is responsible for everything related to the operation."
"What I love about a test site is that you can really go into depth. I make trial plans, get to work with different crops, use a lot of data analysis and I work with new techniques.
Danny Monté - growing expert at KUBO"The Ultra-Clima® continues to amaze."
All facets of cultivation
"What I love about a test site is that you can really go into depth. I make trial plans, get to work with different crops, use a lot of data analysis and I work with new techniques. For example, there are sensors and cameras everywhere. It's really very interesting. All facets of cultivation are covered."
Relationships with growers
"I only go into the greenhouse about 3 times a week. Most of the work I do from behind my computer. But I also regularly visit customers to help them with their greenhouses. For example, I fly to Kazakhstan about four times a year to visit a grower. Cooperating with growers remains a challenge for me. Does the grower apply your advice? Do they believe your analyses?"
Amazing results
"The Ultra Clima system continues to amaze. When we stopped adding extra CO2, I expected a drop in yield. But nothing turned out to be less true - the yield actually increased. The same thing happened when we started testing with less energy consumption. It turned out that we could activate crops without additional heat. The idea behind all these tests is simple: How do we achieve more output with less input?"
Growing knowledge
Lessons learned
"Four years of testing in the Blue Lab has taught me a lot. We have done innovations that I didn't even think possible. With my roots as a traditional grower, it's incredible to see how we at KUBO have put the plant first. How we can grow a vital crop like the tomato in a CO2-negative way. And that this can be done almost completely autonomously. And there is much more to learn and to gain."
Plans for the future
"Our plans for the future? We plan to collaborate with scientists so that we can have our results independently verified and published. We also want to try more different crops, such as strawberries, lettuce and peppers, but also medicinal cannabis, for example. Personally, I would like to experiment with organic cultivation in the open field. Can we achieve high yields of top quality while enriching the soil? Many exciting things await us."
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