Healthy food for healthy living

Project shows vast opportunities for growing in a northern climate

Growing a greenhouse garden during Manitoba’s harsh winters is expensive, time-consuming, and downright frustrating.

But Lori Ann Regnier and her husband Rene decided they were up for the challenge.

They have worked closely with University of Manitoba biosystems engineering professor Dr. Qiang Zhang since 2006 on a solar energy greenhouse research project.

Teamed up with recent grad Jordan Langrell, the group has been experimenting with growing in a winter climate.

“We’re sort of pioneering this,” said Lori Ann Regnier.

The group hopes to pass its conclusions on to northern communities so they may begin growing fruit and vegetables of their own in the winter. Indeed, the Regniers got involved with the project because of their concern for the health of northern Manitobans. She said nutrition is severely lacking in northern communities, due in large part to the inaccessibility of produce.

“This is really, really important in the north,” said Regnier. “There’s so many cases of diabetes up there.”

Regnier said it makes sense for communities to grow their own produce.

“If there’s anything they’ve got up there, it’s time,” she said.

Manitoba Hydro and the Agri-Food Research and Development Initiative funded the project, and the Regniers donated their greenhouse space at Blue Lagoon Florascape in St. Francois Xavier. The biggest commitment, though, has been time.

Keeping up a winter greenhouse has kept the Regniers busy all winter long. Lori Ann said they spent the better part of almost every day working in the greenhouse.

Although the experiment is not finished, the results so far have been worthwhile. Dr. Zhang, who headed the project, says it is possible to grow in a greenhouse in a northern climate.

Zhang began work on the project about three years ago when the price of natural gas began to rise and smaller greenhouses faced tough challenges.

“The project got a lot of interest from northern communities,” he said.

When the Regniers got involved, the project’s focus had been changed from merely experimenting with solar energy to experimenting with solar energy in a winter growing climate.

Zhang said his main reason for getting involved was his desire to engineer something productive and cost-efficient.

“I wanted to see if I could design a greenhouse for a northern climate,” he said.

The results so far have been positive. The greenhouse is full of sprouting plants and there is green to be seen everywhere you look.

“It’s a lot of trial and error,” said Regnier.

She said that heating and lighting a greenhouse in northern winters is very expensive, even when using the most cost effective methods.

For example, a room heater costs about $5.36 per day. Heat pads, which sit under planters and heat the soil, are also effective, but cost about $2.56 a day.

“It’s cheaper, but it’s not cheap,” she said. “We learned it can be affordable.”

The project may continue, as there is still a lot more the group would like to try.

Last winter’s focus was on preventing heat from escaping, whereas this year’s was on comparing the cost and effectiveness of different heating and lighting methods.

“This is new technology and new information that can be useful throughout the province,” Langrell said.