AgriStarts

The Challenge

Business was almost going too well for Randy Strode and his son Ty of AgriStarts in Apopka, Florida. Product was in high demand and they knew they were going to need more plant volume while maintaining the already incredible quality and uniformity their customers had come to expect. Expansion was the answer.

They chose BioTherm to design and install the heating system. Agri-Starts may be a tissue culture-to-plug production business, but their needs are not much different from any demanding growing facility. If anything separates this type of production from that of a finishing greenhouse, it’s that heat is even more important when used as a growing tool (and not just as cold weather protection).

Taking the tissue culture from the lab, sticking it in soil media, and getting it to root without disease, and on time, requires precision heat.

The Solution

BioTherm’s finned heat pipe and low water volume not only mean high efficiency, but also quick responses to changes in soil temperatures, helping to maintain that all-important “flat line” result.

How It Works

BioTherm designed AgriStarts’ boiler room with two fan-assisted, low mass boilers and the ability to expand the system to five total boilers when the next 50,000 square feet of greenhouse is built.

Good roots are king. The DuoFin under-bench system that BioTherm installed pulls the roots of the baby plug down, strengthening them and creating the required turgidity—and most importantly doing all this when the grower wants it to happen.