Innovations and Pedal Power

Today was the last day of industry visits as tomorrow we have some report writing commitments to attend to. So we used the time wisely and visited the Metazet Demonstration Nursery in Honslelerdijk.

The demonstration nursery is a unique showcase of various systems and machinery that are used for production, harvesting, internal transport, plant growth and lighting.  The systems and products are improved constantly, as a result of the rapid changes in the horticultural sector. This means that Growers gain an insight into current products or those to be developed, to meet the requirements for their specific crop and company layout.  

The demonstration nursery also focuses on marketing ideas and we gained a great insight in to the latest innovations in this area which included high quality packaging and presentation concepts.

Another attraction of the demonstration nursery was the growing innovations, which included a multi layer hanging gutter system for Tomato production. This was of great interest and was seen by the students as an innovation that had enormous potential as an alternative to existing production systems.

Finally, part of this trip has seen us adopting local traditions and cultures. The Netherlands is famous for bicycles, so we decided to take this on board. The demonstration nursery is 10 kms away from our hotel, so Tony came up with the bright idea of us all riding to the site. His risk assessment of the exercise detected two members of the team who might suffer potential injuries after prolonged cycling, (their names have been withheld to protect their innocence). So to counter this, James was in charge of the 'support' bike - an electric moped which ironically was called a Qyck, and could only do a top speed of 30kpm - to travel alongside us and offer 'at risk' team members a rest on the back of the "moby" on a rotational basis.

So we set off in brilliant sunshine for the trip with our intrepid leader at the front of the pack, and despite a couple of minor 'incidents' we all arrived in one piece and exactly on time. Refreshments were administered on our arrival, and the return leg was also achieved with out too much disaster!

Contestants in the 'Tour de Delft'