News you can use
News you can use
Editor’s note: This version corrects the spelling of High Horizon Gardens. It also corrects that the greenhouse did not use one treatment to repel ladybugs, which, as Aricka Turner says, “are good bugs,” but problem bugs.
Cody Miles said that after moving back to Havre two years ago he wanted to contribute something to the community.
“I’ve been watching Havre my whole life” he said, “… I come back home and I can do something new for the community.”
After spending hundreds of hours studying, researching and working with his mentor Bob Jordan, owner of High Plains Grower in Gillette, Wyoming, he and his wife, Aricka Turner of Havre, opened their own hydroponics greenhouse, growing produce for local markets year-round.
Miles said that High Horizon Gardens and Tomatoes is his way of giving back.
“People are going to know where their food is coming from,” Miles said.
Since they have begun operations, High Horizon supplies lettuce, tomatoes and herbs to a number of business in Havre, Fort Benton and Great Falls, he said. He added that people can know when they buy their produce at Gary & Leo’s Fresh Foods, or are at Havre Public Schools, they are eating lettuce from the High Horizon garden.
High Horizon can grow a variety of produce, he said.
“Here we can get diverse,” he said. “We can do herbs, beet tops, rugala, spinach, Swiss chard, kale, any type of leafy green.”
The road to hydroponics
Miles said that he grew up in Havre before going into the U.S. Navy. After the Navy he came back to Havre and was a student at Montana State University-Northern for welding. Later he moved with Turner to Wyoming where he worked as a welder and fabricator until 2014 when he was introduced to farming by Jordan.
After that, he said, he was hooked.
“Biggest thing that I have been taught over the past four years from my biggest mentor in Wyoming is growing looks cool, but it is a lot of work for a little reward,” he said.
Miles and Turner began growing four years ago while he was living in Gillette, he said. He started growing in the soil first, but after time made the transition to hydroponics. Miles added that the change did not make it easier to grow than with traditional farming, but it is significantly cleaner and more effective.
He said some of the regular issues for growing produce, such as bugs, weeds and weather conditions, has less of an effect in the controlled environment of the greenhouse. In the past year, they have only had to do one treatment to repel problem bugs. But growers using hydroponics face their own specific issues, such as root collapse and nutrients, he added.
Turner said that they do not use any pesticides or herbicides while growing.
Using the Nutrient Film Technique, causes other issues, he said, such as he is only able to grow leafy greens and some herbs in that system. He is not able to grow tomatoes or cucumbers in that system because of the different roots, he said, and has to use a different hydroponic system for those specific plants.
With any crop, whether it is hydroponics or traditional soil, it is inevitable that loss will occur, he said, but it all differs. With hydroponics the crops grow more effectively and have a lower chance of cross contamination, such as the e-coli outbreak in 2018 which affected Romaine lettuce nationwide.
Crops in the hydroponic system also grow faster, Miles said — the grow time for lettuce taking anywhere between 32 and 39 days.
“You can cut normally at peak crop in soil in 55 days,” he said. “With hydroponics you can get it as early, conditions depending, in 36 days.”
Hydroponics is definitely a new side of farming, he said. In Japan hydroponics is huge because they don’t have land to farm.
Miles said that hydroponics is a growing industry but growers have to know what they are doing.
Miles said one of the things that growers need to watch for when using hydroponics is crop deficiency because the health of the crop can change overnight.
“This is unique but it is technical,” he said.
He said that hydroponics is not easy, adding that just because the directions say something doesn’t mean that it is going to happen. The crops have to be monitored constantly, he said, adding that he works seven days a week 12 months out of the year.
“There is more to it than you think, it’s not just a plug and play,” he said. “If you can’t grow in the soil, most people won’t be able to grow in hydroponics.”
Operating the greenhouse
Miles said that it takes a significant amount of power for the lighting system.
“If they are not on you will see a significant difference in your crops,” he said.
The grow lights he uses are a blue phase light, but grow lights have a wide spectrum of different lights that can be used for different crops to get them to do what the grower wants.
They have also buried a 500 gallon nutrient tank, he said, to protect it from light which encourages algae growth. The tank is connected to a closed system which the water is recirculated through. The system has no leaks, he said, but they have to regularly replenish 200 gallons to replace water used by the plants and lost through evaporation.
He said that he starts his crops in substrate plugs before they are transferred to the system.
“There is a lot of maintenance involved,” he said.
Miles said that in 2017 it took him approximately three months to fabricate the structure of the greenhouse and another month to put in the system. The greenhouse is an all-season greenhouse made of two layers of clear optic film, which is inflated and condensation protected. He added that it is the same system used in Bob’s Greenhouse in Havre.
Tuner said the all-season greenhouse was hand-built by Miles.
Miles added that the temperature of the greenhouse is kept between 40 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
Turner said that during the winter they had to check the temperature of the greenhouse regularly.
Roots run deep
Miles said that the current system can grow 1,200 heads of crop at one time, but they have the equipment to expand to 2,400.
Turner said that before they expand their system they want to have more customers, but they anticipate that by the end of the year they will be able to go forward with the expansion.
Miles said that after studying and visiting different growers — both traditional and hydroponic — he is thankful for those who helped him along the way. He added that High Horizon is happy to be serving the local community and he is looking forward to the future of the company.
“We like our local market,” he said. “We try to stay away from big businesses, it’s just fair to our people around here.”
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