Food security under control

Helping growers detect and monitor microbes for crop health and food safety

Services

What We Do

We determine the health of hydroponic systems by monitoring microorganisms in controlled-environment agriculture, such as greenhouses and indoor farms.

We identify baseline microorganisms, plant pathogens, and food-borne pathogens and their relative abundance using DNA sequencing.

Our OMAFRA– and NRC– funded projects aim to explore the microbiome of greenhouse vegetable and commercial cannabis production, and how it can be harnessed for production benefits, including product yield, quality and control of disease-causing microbes.

We are looking for Ontario greenhouse, indoor farm and commercial cannabis operators who would be interested in participating. This would entail our research staff coming on site to collect samples from nutrient solution and roots for microbiome analysis. Alternatively, we send out sampling kits allowing growers to sample themselves. Data will be shared and reviewed with the growers. If you are interested, or still have questions, please let us know here.