Greenhouse diffuse coatings offer transmission
Besides the different types of shading agents, there is also another way to protect your crop from the sun, namely: diffuse coatings. Unlike shading agents, diffuse coatings are designed to let as much light through as possible. Instead of reflection, diffuse coatings offer transmission. This ensures a higher light reception in the greenhouse, which in turn leads to more and better growth of crop and fruit. In floriculture, diffuse light has proven to lead to higher growth and in vegetable cultivation it has proven to increase production while improving crop quality.
Diffuse coatings
What's in it for you? Diffuse light penetrates more homogeneously and deeper into the crop. Diffuse glass on greenhouses is one way to improve the light use efficiency of greenhouse crops. In this way the diffuse light increases yield and offer ideal conditions for the cultivation of (among other things) tomatoes and peppers.
If your preference is for diffuse coatings, there are many different types of coatings to choose from. Which one you should choose, depends on the needs of your crop. The difference between the coatings is in the light diffusion and light transmission. Read in the article "Which different diffuse coatings are available?" which diffuse coatings are available.
At the end of the summer, when the temperature drops, it is important to remove the shading paint from the greenhouse roof. In this way, the crop can maximally benefit from the natural grow light. Removers are specially developed to remove Hermadix shading agents. Our specialist gives you some tips on how to remove shading paint from the greenhouse.
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There is also diffused glass. Diffused glass has become increasingly popular, especially in vegetable cultivation in recent years. The effect of both diffused glass and diffuse coating is exactly the same: they create diffuse light in the greenhouse with a low to high degree of diffusion. The differences between diffuse glass and a diffuse coating affect price, flexibility and durability. Want to know which option is right for your greenhouse? Then read the article about the differences between diffuse glass and diffuse coating.
Whitepaper | Shading agents and diffuse coatings
Warm springs and summers cause peaks in the greenhouse climate. Possible consequences are: reduced photosynthesis, delay in plant growth, loss of quality and lower production. You can prevent this with the right shading agent or diffuse coating. In this whitepaper you will find all the information you need to determine which product is most suitable for your crop and how to apply it.
Experiences from our customers
"The light penetration was better and the crop was significantly less stressed. As a result, it remains active longer and you get more production. We are very satisfied with this diffuse coating."
Jan Reijm | D-Fuse in cucumber
"It's important that we can do the whole season with one layer of shade paint. Removing it at the end of the season shouldn't cause any problems either. Q4 White meets those conditions very well."
Pietro van Genderen | Q4 White in kalanchoe cultivation
More and more greenhouses coated worldwide
Hermadix is based in the Netherlands. "The Netherlands is a unique country in terms of subcontracting," sales manager Jeffrey Pouw says. "This is unknown in other countries. For us, the knowledge and expertise of the contractors are crucial factors to succeed in the Netherlands. They work with professional equipment and know what they are doing." Pouw estimates that about 20 to 25% of the greenhouses are chalked mechanically. "The chalk and coatings are applied perfectly. You really don’t see that in other countries."
Still, it is not the Dutch market where Hermadix sees major sales growth. "We’ve made a growth spurt particularly thanks to our distributor Royal Brinkman," says Pouw. "And that's mainly international. The Dutch market is still slightly growing, but by far doesn’t show the growth that we see in other countries. The market here is already quite saturated and there is some competition. The situation in horticulture is also not ideal. The industry is under pressure. In combination with the climatic conditions, growers then sometimes choose to skip the coating."
Internationally, this is completely different. "In Australia, it is not an option for growers not to chalk or coat. The light intensity there is much higher." And Pouw also sees sales increase in countries like Japan and China. "Because we reach new customers through Royal Brinkman, but also because existing clients are expanding. We are a relatively new player and coatings are still pretty unknown. Vegetable growers traditionally aren’t used to chalking, in fact they want to keep the greenhouse as clear as possible. The coatings bring more light into your greenhouse, but in a different way. This requires adjustments to your cultivation. As a grower, you should be able to confidently work with this. A grower has 2 hectares coated in the first year, 4 hectares the next, and the whole greenhouse in the third year."
Also thanks to these developments, the company’s sales of chalk products - both coatings and chalkings - has more than doubled in the past two years. And given these market conditions, Pouw does not expect that growth to stop in the coming years. "We have been at it for ten years now and still have a lot of growth potential. If international growers favor us as much as the Dutch contractors and begin to approach chalking and coating just as professionally, the coming
years look promising."