King of the world

When you’re growing produce indoors, the walls of your greenhouse are all that protect your crops from the uncontrollable outside world. When your plants are on the line, it’s important to have a company that can build reliable greenhouses.

Angus Martin, the operations director at Better Day Farms, has used CropKing for his greenhouses since day one after doing extensive research into the operation’s needs. Launched in March of last year in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Better Day Farms has close to 12,000 square feet of greenhouse space. CropKing was the right partner, Martin says, because CropKing is a controlled environmental agriculture expert that manufactures greenhouses for produce growers.

According to Martin, CropKing’s offerings allowed Better Day Farms to maximize production. Those offerings include two-stage and three-stage growing systems. Better Day Farms employed the three-stage system, which, compared to the two-stage system, “fits about 30% more plants in the same space, same volume of greenhouse,” says Martin. “And by doing that, we actually increased production by 30% for a very trivial amount of money. I think we got our ROI on that, so that was a tangible thing that they did.”

CropKing also provided Better Day with all the support necessary. “They also helped figure out what fans we needed, helped us with water testing and helped us perfect our fertilizer recipe,” says Martin. Better Day Farms’ lead biologist also used CropKing’s expertise, according to Martin.

Additionally, CropKing and Better Day had daily phone calls and regular video calls during the build. “They would FaceTime us and we’d walk through the field, and they’re on there actually answering questions and making sure posts were set right,” Martin says. “They were always there and always available.”

At a certain point in the construction, a member of the CropKing team flew to Oklahoma to check out the progress and oversee the crews. “They not only answered questions but were literally there onsite with us during the construction process,” Martin says.

If a grower wants to work with CropKing, Martin says all they’d have to do is just call and sit down with them. “They’re super detailed and really easy to work with,” he explains. “Obviously, I can’t say enough good things about them. They’ve been a real big help.”

And Martin says that other growers he knows share his opinion. “I know that’s not just my experience, but I’ve met other farmers and all of them have the exact same experience [with CropKing], whether they have a very small operation or they have a larger one like ourselves,” he says.