Croptiq Blog

UV-C, biological control, and the question too few growers ask before deployment Most UV-C treatments in commercial greenhouses happen at night, and for good reason. UV-C damages pathogen DNA, and darkness limits photoreactivation, the light-driven repair process that can allow fungi to recover. For diseases such as powdery mildew and Botrytis, a night-time dose can therefore work harder than the same dose applied under light. But pathogens are not the only living organisms i

Why UV-C performance should be proven in the crop, not assumed after installation Most technology projects in horticulture have a clear commercial ending. The system is sold, the robot is delivered, the installation is completed, and the handover is signed. But with UV-C crop protection, that is not the end of the story. It is the beginning of the real test. A UV-C robot can be installed correctly, drive through the greenhouse, switch on at the right time, and still leave the

Why UV-C dose distribution through a real crop decides whether the technology performs When a UV-C lamp passes over a crop, it is tempting to think of the canopy as one illuminated surface. A dose is specified, the robot delivers it, and the crop receives it. On a flat calibration plate, that logic can work. In a real crop, it quickly becomes too simple. A cucumber canopy is not flat, and it is not only tall. It is a three-dimensional crop structure with height, depth, densit

Recently, I visited a strawberry grower in Sweden and saw serious damage caused by vine weevil, Otiorhynchus sulcatus. The adult beetles were visible, but they were not the biggest problem. The real damage had already happened underground, where the larvae had attacked the roots and crowns. By the time the plants started collapsing, a large part of the grower’s investment was already lost. The honest part is that I did not know enough about this specific problem when I saw it

There is a conversation happening in your greenhouse right now. It is silent, invisible, and has been going on since long before the first fungicide was ever sprayed. Your plants are not passive. When they come under pressure from a pathogen, pest, or physical damage, they can release airborne chemical signals into the surrounding atmosphere. These signals do not replace scouting, sensors, climate data, or a proper crop protection strategy, but they remind us of something imp

1. Introduction: A Persistent Threat in the Greenhouse In protected cucumber cultivation, disease pressure is never far away. Foliar pathogens such as powdery mildew and Mycosphaerella can spread quickly when climate, crop density, humidity, and hygiene conditions allow them to take hold. In severe unmanaged situations, the result can be major yield loss, reduced fruit quality, more labour pressure, and a heavier dependence on chemical fungicides. For decades, the standard re

Berry and vegetable growers often think about UV-C in terms of the lamp, the dose, and the machine delivering it. Those things matter, of course, but there is another variable that can quietly change the result: the light environment after treatment. This is where photoreactivation becomes important. Photoreactivation is the biological repair process that allows some fungi and bacteria to repair part of the damage caused by UV-C when they are exposed to blue, UV-A, or visible

How controlled UV-C stress can prime crop defence when dose, timing, and safety are right There is a strange idea hiding inside crop science, and once you see it, it is hard to unsee: a small, carefully measured dose of something that would damage a plant at higher levels can instead make it stronger, not in a vague or inspirational sense, but measurably. The plant can become more disease-resistant, more stress-ready, and better prepared to respond when biological pressure ar

When growers invest in LED lighting, the conversation is almost always about two things: better yields and lower energy bills. Both matter, but there is a third dimension that is rarely discussed with the same seriousness: crop protection. Light does not only feed plants. It also tells them what to do. Plants have evolved to read their light environment continuously. They respond not only to how much light they receive, but also to the spectrum, timing, duration, and balance