Taking control of your greenhouse

Photos courtesy of Argus Control Systems

You can’t have controlled environment agriculture without control. A greenhouse grower must have as much control over their environment as possible. From climate to water to lighting, growers have no shortage of things to worry about and control. That’s where Argus Control Systems comes in.

Argus has been serving greenhouses with control systems technology for nearly 40 years. Geoff Crocker, Argus’ chief technology officer, explains how, after starting in the flowering market and then “really flexing its muscle in vegetable production,” the company has expanded to all sectors of horticulture. As an end-to-end service, Argus works with their clients throughout the entire controls process, from design to training to installation to maintenance.

When a grower buys from Argus, they become, as Crocker puts it, “a customer for life.” “We have a 24/7 service policy for crop emergencies.” Whether it’s a regular issue that can be solved during business hours or something urgent that needs to make use of the company’s emergency line, Argus makes sure “customers can always get ahold of us if they have something that's not working out and make sure that they don't impact their operation.” In addition, Argus offers options such as GroGuardian where users can set a block of hours in advance for their needs.

Crocker says the main tenants that Argus puts into their product designs are scalability and customizability. With the ability to scale from a single greenhouse up to many acres, Argus can give growers what they need. 

This scalability and customizability, along with their dedication to their customers, is what Crocker says makes Argus different. These features are what make new customers come and what keep old customers coming back.

“We’ve understood what the industry needs and have built the company and the solutions to do that,” Crocker says. “And thus, that also becomes our differentiator and the real driver for success for us, and really what customers come to us for when they’re looking at the available products.

"When I arrived on the scene, I noticed a gap from what I've seen in other industries as far as technology adoption and use of advancing and emerging technologies,” Crocker says. Going forward, Crocker explains that Argus plans to lead the horticultural industry into the future. “We’re building a road map of how to get to what I would say is a ‘greenhouse of the future’ concept.” Such a greenhouse will feature improved automation, robotics, sustainability, sensor technology and data solutions. “There's all of these things that might need to change, and so we want to help create a vision for that and guide the technologies and the people along that path.”