The Future of Farming: Hydroponic Tomatoes | SoCal Connected | KCET

Rows of healthy hydroponic tomatoes are nurtured and grown in a high-tech greenhouse facility in Camarillo, California.
Houweling's Tomatoes is a family-owned operation dedicated to reducing its environmental footprint, one nutrient-rich tomato at a time.
The tomatoes at this facility are fed nitrogen, potassium, and other elements like iron and zinc to give it that extra kick. Plants sink their roots in coconut fibers, aiding in the growth of vines that can reach approximately a foot a week.
Since the facility is completely enclosed, there are no weeds, no fungus, or need for any pesticides or fungicides. Advanced computer technology controls the humidity and carbon dioxide levels, and solar panels provide the facility with total energy independence.
Reporter Val Zavala chats with tomato growers for a rare look inside the one-of-a-kind greenhouse facility in Southern California.
Want to learn more? Watch more SoCal Connected at bit.ly/3RDN0hN
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[@AverageAtBestHDTB]

I think this presenter/news outlet needs to visit Holland before making claims about such an operation being the most advanced in the world.

[@daikiryoku]

Spicy Meat Americans are pretty small minded like that

[@AverageAtBestHDTB]

Absolutely! An impressive nursery nonetheless though

[@BN-fy8jy]

Spicy Meat Oh yeah! Being Dutch I totally agree!

[@FarmerBenny]

True. Holland peppers are really good. Oh, and the weed!

[@sacroarte6462]

FarmerBenny ...And tasteless by the way...

[@KingLeonidas-xl2ue]

Dutch are no.1 in north europe! I live in germany and I eat sunstream tomatoes everyday! thanks Ollandia!!

[@kjtilka]

We need more hydroponic farms in California

[@danieltalis7711]

The question is, what do the tomatoes taste like. They may look perfect but are consumers being duped. Heritage tomatoes on the other hand are delicious.

[@AverageAtBestHDTB]

There's no 'duping' when it comes to a commercially grown produce. Anyone who can successfully grow their own are likely to have better tasting produce. It's the price you pay for buying fruit and veg at a supermarket.

[@carsonvogt3297]

Disagree, I have also grown in both methods. Hydroponic, if done poorly, can result in poor tasting tomatoes. Done adequately, will likely taste as good as soil based tomatoes, and done well they'll taste better. I think you need to do some research on sustainability, perhaps more importantly scalability, and how they're related to changes in overall population.

[@carsonvogt3297]

So you agree it's sustainable and scalable, but disagree on taste due to having done it yourself?

[@mevofr]

The taste has also a LOT to do with the VARIETIES grown. That part is probably far more important than HOW it is grown. There, commercial growers have several parameters that they care about, and taste may (sadly) not be the most important one for them. Yield is very important, resistance of the plant, how long tomatoes last once picked, and so on...

[@michaelvangundy226]

The heirloom tomatoes such as Black Krim, or Cherokee Purple taste fantastic. But if you are trying to raise them for market the problems compound with the volume. They do not store and ship well. Second is they have no resistance to disease. A small patch of a thousand plants can easily become overwhelmed by a simple fungus, this requires constant spraying with the mild organic certified spray. This season had a cold wet spring and we never did get ahead of it. We didn't market any ripe heirloom at all. Growing is never as easy as the comment section says it is.

[@bradley244ify]

I just started to do some basement hydroponics. I have a beefsteak and a couple of brandywines set up Kratky style. I will see if I can get them all the way. My hope is to get a whole produce system going down there and grow some field crops to flesh things out.

[@rayharmon7254]

I've been operating a 40 bucket, dutch bucket setup for 6 years, it out produces my in ground garden all day long, I don't use chemical fertilizer, mine comes from ground/pulverised fish. My cantelope, cucumbers and tomatoes love the stuff,, still battle with the bugs though,, last year I planted spearmint, and mint around the cant's/cuc's to keep squash bugs down, and it did really well. Scaling it back to 16 buckets this year, due to a back injury.. Nowhere this advanced,, lol I'm lucky to have the timer on my water system. Glad I have a well because it sucks the water when the heat gets up outside.

[@MicahJohns]

This farm is insane.

[@4077Disc]

I’ve worked in a greenhouse like this. It’s absolutely laughable to here “no bugs, no fungus, no pesticides”. These are all MAJOR issues in a monoculture greenhouse.

[@gokuvegeta2754]

Dutch are the best growers!!!

[@leifcatt]

+Goku Vegeta I agree, the Dutch have a 20 year edge on U.S. growers. Their yields are a minimum of 20% over our best test facilities let alone our greenhouse farms. Once again they have been doing this a lot longer and now have been doing this organically since 2005(?). They HAVE to grow organically because of government regulations. Their brix levels are super high and in some cases, off the charts. They had to make brix testers that could actually read the high levels that the conventional brix testers could not read. So hats off to the Netherlands. If only they were a little more open source, food production for the global population would be greatly increased. Unfortunately they have learned from the U.S. that greed is good and the bottom line is to keep secrets to improve profits.

[@LindseyReti]

+Goku Vegeta Califronia grows much better ganja

[@pauldevette]

Ganja seeds created by the dutch. You can't beat dutch farmers, just trie to use the methods they perfected.

[@randy6178]

leifcatt They are very open sourced about their technology but don't have much space.. they are looking for a way to plant crops in the dessert early 2019! They are also selling their technology, Eventough im German this still makes me satisfied! Hope countries like Russia and the U.S will use this method since it decreases 90% of the water needed and is way more efficient economic wise.

[@paulwallace5590]

U NEED TO VISIT HOLLAND MATE THEY ARE THE KING OF GREENHOUSES

[@jakeknelsen2318]

paul wallace Or Leamington, Ontario👍

[@ilias900]

I knew Hank Schrader wasn't dead

[@mohammedjawkhab3587]

Lmao

[@cocopunch]

Lol

[@Intelinside-vo7wn]

undercover tomato meth lab

[@petrhorak931]

"A: So would it be fair to say that this is probably most high-tech greenhouse in the country? B: In the WORLD!" Some mexicano passes with hand-pulled wagon. :D

[@randy6178]

This is nothing compared to the Dutch agriculture..

[@MrPennywise1540]

It is said mexican. Educate yourself, you supposedly live in a first world country, supposedly the best of the world.

[@remka2000]

I think he means hand (cheap?) labor is the opposite of sophistication.

[@michaeldavidson9939]

For starters, this isn't farming. This is an industrial manufacturing facility for a food like substance.

[@edlazaro7044]

It is farming, no matter how you look at it, just not the conventional that you're used to see.

[@jordyleffers9244]

Wow. Look at the weird glass structures. Unprecedented. Westland.

[@fostermarquardt8335]

Why do they make this seem so out of reach?

[@cassiebianco2896]

LOVE THE JAMS 🎉

[@ee3894]

Insect at 3:44, while discussing insect prevention.

[@manumaestri]

hahahaha

[@zaappp1588]

I saw that too. At least it was just a bee.

[@HariiBTV]

beneficial insects ;)

[@lolanakahale1665]

good eye

[@vojtator]

Pollinating insect, not harmfull one.

[@buenafamiliafarms9668]

I grow alot of "Tomatoes" too !

[@uvcreations3663]

Will supply you seeds.ph.no:9704451129

[@sifo510]

“In the world” lol 😂 did he ever visit the Netherlands

[@utahted7330]

Utah!!!!!!! This is how you grow tomatoes

[@georgelouis6515]

I want one of those! Build one onto my house!

[@LavaHead64]

lol it would probaly not fit

[@attilavicen1579]

Its not a hydroponics, its irrigation system. Big difference. Hydroponics mean growing without medium. And the other thing i cant understand why they need that much elecrticity? For the waterpumps only? Or they have extra light source?

[@joaodecarvalho7012]

They must develop the technology to grow the crops that really feed people, like wheat.

[@markknoop6283]

wheat and corn is mostly used for lifestock food bud eggplants zucchini are grown in a greenhouse by the metric tons

[@gwaney]

These people need to check on the internet. There are other more advanced farming greenhouses outside of their tiny area, even in 2011.

[@HeliosWorksAV]

Nice set up, even though I'm a stickler for all organic I can still appreciate what they're trying. I wonder what an organic permaculture setup would do in an enclosed environment like that with some automation involved.

[@chesschamp276]

what do you know about organic permaculture ?? rookie

[@navarra-qf2ds]

Not organic. I wonder what you feed your plants other than synthetic fertilizers. Nope, you are in business to make money and not worry about your clients health

[@eshindi]

Hydroponics is needed over all else in the world to grow food globally. Hydroponics lowers the need for GMO by eliminating the negative conditions that have pushed for GMO to be created. The number one Organic fertilizer is sh!t, literally, that is what manure is. I rather eat food made from the bare elements than grown in organic sh!t. I eat both organic and hydro, but i have my preference. The world as a whole needs to be at 99% efficiency to sustain a healthy population. Hydroponics delivers that without GMO and relying rapid weather changes. As for all the tastes difference of hydro vs organic, it is possible with the correct mixtures of nutrients to grow the same tasting produce indoors, not easy but with an operation like this guys i bet he either knows how or is working on it. Hydronponic is going to be more favorable over organic because of Di-hydrogen Monoxide. The lack of this material will make hydroponics more favorable around the world as resources are harder to come by. I am a hydroponic grower, i work at a farm to table restaurant that grows and operates its own gardens, hydroponic systems and chickens. We need the best possible option to grow food, if we don't do that then humanity is at serious risk, it's that simple.

[@eitkoml]

Are hydroponics anywhere close to being more profitable? Hydroponics won't be the future of farming until it is. It also has to be able to reach more budget minded consumers. If hydroponics is only accessible to the type of people who buy their groceries from places like Whole Foods and people who can go to the restaurants that talk about how green they are and charge more, hydroponics won't be the future of farming.

Superb

[@sarahkerrigan6026]

bravo. down with volatile organic pesticides.

[@jakkob819]

This is amazing and hard to wrap your head around. But it works. So they say this is the future of farming? What about crops of rice, soybeans, and other grains? Just wondering.

[@theehealthnuts]

organic, pesticide free, non-gmo, grown with pharmaceutical grade minerals, all stuff I would like seeing on the label.

[@DudeRevolution]

Id like to know how he keeps all the bugs out just by putting it in doors. Even the immaculate Walter White couldn't overcome that doosey.. speaking of which, the dude is a dead ringer of Hang Schraeder!!!

[@MonteChristoCapitalLLC]

pretty cool, Id love to have something like this

[@PlantSugar]

Scary, how do they taste, and do they have all the nutrients as in bio dynamic or permaculture tomatoes?

[@wayradbrad139]

+Plant Sugar Washed out, no taste. Factory farming. People don't even know what a good tomato tastes like anymore. Sad.

[@PlantSugar]

+Bradley Romero No wonder people don't like water anymore.

[@eitkoml]

I wonder how they would taste to people who don't know that they were grown in a hydroponic greenhouse. Especially with a blind taste test alongside ones that were grown organically and in soil.

[@PlantSugar]

It is easy to taste the difference between tomatoes. There are so many factors that will affect the tomato.

[@PlantSugar]

Hmm, I would guess so. :-)

[@patrickbrand1319]

Funny how most people talk but know nothing about fruit grown by hydroponics

[@clysen8234]

Please, educate me

[@q8ee59]

"chemicals!!!" dumbasses don't realise the "chemical fertilizer" is just base elements fed to the plant, like Potassium, Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Sulfur.

[@michaelvangundy226]

Hydroponic, "growing without soil". The solution of three major and four minor along with six trace elements is mixed when needed to be supplied to the plants. Since it is not grown in soil there is no reserve of nutrients for the plant to draw from. The other elements available in the soil provides "taste" that the nutrient solution doesn't supply. The sterile solution and media is very helpful in producing a product that stores and ships well. Which is very necessary if you are growing for market. There is a huge difference between growing a few dozen plants for home use and growing for a market supplying a few thousand families or a few thousand stores. The problems compound with the volume.

[@MursidMB51]

Indanya berbagi pengalaman tentang tanaman

[@pedrozaragoza2253]

Wow. This is amazing. Great job!

[@hamidrezanaseri4066]

great. thank you for your effort

[@ithren1]

You can't conquer the dutch glasshouses, even your hydrophilic fibres are from netherlands

[@AverageAtBestHDTB]

I'm glad someone else has made this point. 'Most advanced in the world' she said. I don't think so haha!

[@munirmohamed1561]

Nope. The hydrophilic fibres (coconut coir) is from Sri Lanka.

[@Zoza15]

@@munirmohamed1561 *Patents*

[@AverageAtBestHDTB]

@@Zoza15 Coir from Sri Lanka, treated in Holland.

[@eternitynaut]

If it had two levels, it would be 40x more productive. With 4 levels it would double again. Why not expand vertically then? Then there is containment, it's clear that it's not isolated enough from how many insects kept flying in front of the camera. They need better solutions to keep insects out, I bet most of them get in when the employees enter or exit the greenhouse. All they have to do is copy the semi conductor industry, they got plenty of methods to prevent containment.

[@kalpeshparmar4515]

good farming. nice.

[@MrPennywise1540]

This have no sense. If you consider that they are producing 24 times the production of a similar acre, so the option of not buy so much land to reach the same production already save you of the half of cost of this hydroponic farm. But, being so small your area of work, you need less people. And being all your assets inside an artificial domme, give you more management control . It´s a win/win.

[@VjUlvfox]

2:44 behind his head :D

[@raybon7939]

Notice that despite any advance. Pests, somehow find a way. So it is possible his??...production gains. Where wipped out, or shortened by the pest.

[@JohnzeeMr]

King Salman: Very nice this is why you need corporate agriculture when you pull minds together even with the Solonae family the first really scientific feasible growing of tomatoes. But I got a job for you boys this one from personal experience this is a problem even our we struggle with and on a scale that every farmer will use and find useful but with your resources and technical expertise you can easily built the structure from the system specs I will give you.

[@imaninjajk]

I support GMOs because I know what they actually are!

[@clysen8234]

Finally, someone :)

[@leerman22]

GMO's and vertical farming would be the only way to colonize space.

[@natel9019]

heffe moneyno GMO is fine,Transgenetic Mutation is horrible.

[@rockie6890]

You support GMOs because your a TROLL and are getting paid by these f-k-s who are poisoning the public. Have a cup of roundup and Bon Appetite.

[@leerman22]

You are very funny.

[@shortsofyashupandit8730]

In which country this polyhouse is situated.?please answer me!

[@tubestick00]

i love the way they talk about this like its new technology. people have done this for decades. the only thing interesting about this operation is the scale of it. even the guy was like how much water, how mich carbon dioxide, oh... oh just a huge amount of things to consider. no its not. how.can anybody think its cutting edge or complicated. it is very simple.

[@kayleeshen5514]

Love the music lol

[@grantmyers7593]

I want that in my back yard.

[@buenafamiliafarms9668]

They do lie though, nats are always present in hydroponics, full hydro, coco style, etc

[@dertythegrower]

fact.. he said no fungus.. i planted 100s of those slabs of coconut today and the rockwool cubes get fungus in 3 days.. you can see the fungus in this video many times.. its not bad to health but its there, green fungus

[@Nawaf-]

derty MI QWERTY Do you mean algae? That’s not fungus. Green is algae and it feeds on light. Harmless

[@kappachiexports2030]

Nice video !!! Do you use Coco peat or grow bags for the soil ?

[@AlexTrusk91]

5 years after upload, 8 years after filming. any updates?

[@AverageAtBestHDTB]

Updates on what?

[@patriciahammett4197]

Are the crops pollinated? That would take these some kind of little bugs.

[@crisbycris4012]

You need to visit the Netherlands.

[@subnantingfort]

Something very simple and natural made complex and difficult

[@vickyshankar1917]

Really Nice......but how did you control the pests

[@MINAKSELEBAH]

Can you tell me what kind fertilizer for tomato vegetatif ?

[@janacivka7499]

samá voda a chemikálie, žiadne prirodzené podmienky, to je lepšia rajčina z balkona, ktorú si dopestujem vo velkom črepníku alebo si pojdem kupit na trh od záhradkára, len propagujú vraj organic, ale je to samá chémia.

[@jazzydango9]

The experience , I got is that those farmers(the Canadian ones either in BC or in Leamington-Ontario) are far behind using the new technologies such as plant speaking approaches.The Houwleing 's Farm is one of them even if they are located in the USA.I advise you to learn from the Japanese , the Dutch or even from the Moroccan.True, you have money to build such facilities, but you don't have the brain to be creative.

[@jazzydango9]

How much do they pay this corrupt journalist.?!!!!

[@randy6178]

Thats literally the definition of an American: you have the money to build such facilities but you dont have the brains to be creative" best statement 2018.

[@walterbyrd8380]

Is the energy required to grow tomatoes hydroponically, substantially less than the energy used to grow tomatoes conventionally? Could this be done in cold climates?

[@roman.venica]

When I visited USA I tasted a cherry tomato and it tasted like nothing, almost like eating water :( Is it everywhere like that?

[@currycurry9575]

so basically it's about mass production rather then organic and healthy. . don't get me wrong I'm really interested in hydroponics. But the guy said it him self they're not organic .. more research is needed for myself in this..

[@devarajanatthiyappan7392]

How do you pollinate tomatoes?

[@doc2280]

I AM INTERESTED & WANT DETAILS IN NEUTIENT SOLIUTION

[@andseraf8544]

So trace minerals ? Strong plants survive

[@Zelmann1]

We need systems like these in sub-saharan Africa.

[@TheSubpremeState]

What use is it if the tomatoes are more expensive?

[@professionalbiologist7108]

As a biologist, Trust me. This is nothing close to what we can do with farming.

[@yuhuagreenhousediffuserefl7997]

Modern agricultural technology hydroponics will be more widely used

[@kevinfranck6520]

Wow, something about that guy and his voice reminds me of Jesse Ventura

[@nicholasthien6169]

This system should be adapted in mission MAR colonization plan

[@ChasMtz420]

The problem with hydroponics is that the vast majority of the nutrients are derived from mining and petroleum waste.

[@CanidaeCanislupus]

"What a space shutle is to aviation, this is". So its out of use soon, too?

[@dirtymikentheboys5817]

Holy christ, literally.

[@pecivilwaterandenvior8318]

You are not right, Nature fresh

[@AmitRawatuk]

Ric flair theme

[@grdiman]

Let’s ask our self where all the waste water (that plants don’t drink up) full of synthetic nutrients and unhealthy additives goes? (salts - that makes soil unfriendly to microbes) Back to groundwater? To the ocean? To the soil nearby? And all the pollution that is made just to make those nutrients… If that’s the future - we are all going down … :/. All that growing can be made with natural growing - system that makes living soil not destroying it. Teaming with microbes is the future we all should be looking for!

[@alixstewart4889]

This is not good , he actually said what their doing is better than organic can you believe that ?

[@blackknightfilm1386]

Natural soil has so many micronutrients that effect the taste and nutrient content. Looks good, numbers are good but taste and health quality will be poor.

[@carsonvogt3297]

Sure sure, like what?

[@ExtemporeMuzzzz]

Taste comes from nutrients and what kind of light tomatoes get. So If you modify thous factors you get different kind of taste. I looking forward to future to see how greenhouse technology will continue moving forward.

[@carsonvogt3297]

Yeah, but specifics. You can throw the word nutrients and micronutrients around, but without support the comments are meaningless.

[@lesliechow4719]

This is no big deal. The real challenge is to figure out how to harvest this without cheap labor.

[@russellarmer602]

they should have know about white flies

[@BradStolba]

It's Hank from Breaking Bad!

[@md.mostafaaminbulbul1082]

nice

[@perumalperiyannan3458]

How to purchase seed....

[@josephercastor8026]

we're basically eating chemical fertilizer, petroleums

[@lazaromedero4431]

giggity juju u

[@ashokpatilkanodje6603]

This technology need Maharashtra India

[@PunkSolar22x]

It's Amazing but they should make it vertical and add more automated technology.

[@kalpeshparmar4515]

good farming. nice thought. very good.

[@limongarcia2758]

Coconut fibre is quite expensive.

[@susanspencer9538]

All a person has to do is start out small you own 50% of the Company, this is what were going to do, & find investors to buy Stock into this idea, & you then get rich to add more of th his.

[@liamduncan732]

Krakey no need for power just water

[@edlazaro7044]

Yes you Need power for pumps & lighting... Also for heating & cooling...

[@markknoop6283]

In the world 😃😀 how much energie is used how much water are you. there are for sure funges growing in the greenhouse. we are growing ower food for more than 30 years like this. bud we have moved on and improved our systems.

[@AhmedMedo-jj7rw]

انا من مصر اريد ان أعمل في مثل هذه المزارع

[@1994FARID]

Hello I am looking for simple green house owners to communicate i am from azerbaijan and starting my green house

[@fantataful]

Here i am: [e-mail]

[@cwag7264]

please give me a job. austin lycans,maroa farms coldwater michigan 18 months dedicated service. fired due to HR/management discrepancies WAS compensated for such, BUT miss my job! clipping/de-suckering 25,000 plants per/40 hr week

[@toddsecor288]

Uncle Hank!

[@dwainesterling14]

sorry... but there is no "better than organic"... Organic is the only way to go.

[@patrickgithinji2953]

can I get a job there? Kindly

[@angelruiz2814]

Yo trabaje con este patrón en Canadá alguien ke me ayude para poder trabaje en ese invernadero o en estados unidos

[@Mrsnamor]

Yeah, but they lack full flavor. I grow mine in healthy soil and they taste great! I love a tomato sandwich on toast with Hellman's mayonnaise.

[@croakingembryo]

Flavor of tomatoes depends almost exclusively on the variety. Most supermarket tomatoes are grown by commercial farmers who sadly care more about yield than taste.

[@mrma7714]

But how do they taste?

[@TsarOfRuss]

same like Soil harvested tomatoes... its the same nutrients the soil supplies the roots (Pottasium, Nitrogen, in some other cases Urea )

[@BaNuj]

No, they taste like dish soap. They need something around 2-3 weeks after harvesting to glimpse and make "common" taste.

[@maryfisher1582]

They don't taste. We grow tomatoes in our garden, we eat them. When there are none left we don't eat tomatoes, you don't need them all year round.