CropKing introduces new Five Day Intensive Workshop

Having found success offering two-day, monthly workshops through its Grower’s School, Lodi, Ohio-based CropKing expanded the program with a Five Day Intensive Workshop.

The workshop costs $2,500 and delves deeper into the types of production that CropKing offers, says Matthew Kispert, horticulturist at CropKing. Kispert is designing the course and serves as the main instructor alongside colleagues Jim Brown and Jeff Balduff.

“It’s one thing to attend a two-day course and think, ‘Ok, this is something that I think I could do,’” he says. “It’s another thing to actually work out in the greenhouse for a week and see what the day-to-day is, what the working environment is like, and get a better understanding of the different disciplines that are involved in running an operation like that.”

Preparation for the course

CropKing’s new course is available to growers of all skill levels, as well as people who haven’t grown before who are considering or planning to start a growing operation, Kispert says. However, he plans to gear it primarily toward prospective growers and growers with one to three years of experience.

Course attendees will fill out a questionnaire prior to their arrival to Lodi, to impart their experience level and interests to CropKing’s instructors.

CropKing will send a couple books to prospective growers to give them a baseline knowledge of hydroponic growing. “I would like them to have a base knowledge,” Kispert says. “I think their time will be better utilized if they do have some kind of background — even if it is rudimentary. That way, more time can be spent working through the different tasks, as opposed to explaining the basics of it. However, we’re happy to focus on the basics too if that is what the customer is looking for.”

Matthew Kispert, horticulturist at CropKing

Course focus

Attendees will receive hands-on instruction from Kispert, who ran a hydroponic research greenhouse for three years before joining CropKing; Brown, who has more than 35 years of experience in the industry; and Balduff, who has worked with CropKing for more than 20 years, offering expertise in engineering, mechanical and electrical devices.

Course lessons will include tasks related to hydroponic lettuce production in nutrient film technique (NFT) systems and tomato production in bato bucket systems. CropKing’s systems also accommodate production of various other produce, including peppers and cucumbers. The instructors will individualize lessons about different crops to growers and prospective growers who convey an interest in one crop over another.

“I plan on covering all the bases — growing, cleaning, greenhouse maintenance, nutrient formulation, disease and pest diagnostics,” Kispert says. “I would like to touch base on some of the food safety-related issues. Ideally, the focus will hinge heavily on the questionnaire that we send participants and would also help to group people, if we do decide to take on more than two people at a time.”

CropKing’s greenhouse is a scaled down version of a commercial production house, producing lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. They follow a weekly schedule, often harvesting and cleaning the lettuce house on Mondays and focusing on tomato production on Tuesdays. CropKing will involve course attendees in these and other weekly tasks, in addition to supplementing hands-on work with some classroom education.

Through its Five Day Intensive Workshop, CropKing is ensuring growers know what they are getting into, Kispert says. “It is more than just growing plants, and it is more than just sitting back,” he says. “I think that there’s a lot of people that might have the wrong idea that a hydroponic system is plug and play. We want to make sure that people who are serious about getting into this have a chance to realize what all is involved, and then hopefully walk away feeling more confident and better equipped to tackle the challenges of controlled environment agriculture and hydroponics.”

Photos courtesy of CropKing