largest organic glasshouse in Germany will be opened after a year and a half. The glasshouse is as big as two football fields.
Bumblebees are buzzing around the 8,000 tomato plants. Four bumblebee swarms take care of pollinating the plants in the glasshouse of 2,250 m². The useful insects come from the firm 'Katz Biotech' in Baruth. The glasshouse has eight compartments. Organic tomatoes and cucumbers will be grown there.
Grower Sascha Philipp has put this project together over the last few years. In the autumn of 2010 building started and cost about 4.5 million euro. The glasshouse was opened by secretary of state Rainer Bretschneider and Stephan Loge.
Grower Sascha Philipp has put this project together over the last few years. In the autumn of 2010 building started and cost about 4.5 million euro. The glasshouse was opened by secretary of state Rainer Bretschneider and Stephan Loge.
"When designing the project a lot of attention was paid to the use of energy," according to the 40-year old grower. The most striking is the technology. As soon as the temperature in the tomato glasshouse is in excess of 18 degrees part of the roof is automatically closed and in this way direct contact with sunlight is avoided. In order to prevent too much snow on the glasshouse during the winter months special heating spirals have been installed. The glasshouse is 80 percent heated by wood, the remaining twenty percent of the heat is supplied by gas heaters.
Sascha showing some tomatoes
The vegetables will be sold from his own farm shop and on the market in Berlin. "Five years ago I asked the traders in Berlin to write down their wishes. Very often I heard the remark, that it was a pity that there were no regional organic tomatoes. Therefore I decided to start with this."
Source: Lausitzer Rundschau