AVF recently spoke with James Goodwin, Regional Manager EMEA of Bluelab who talked about how they plan to educate and empower the controlled agriculture growers of the future.

“At Bluelab, we believe in elevating the standard of growing into an art form.
Our vision is of a healthier world, free of pesticides, reduced water usage and fewer food miles”.

– Who is Bluelab?

We are a New Zealand-based company with an international reach, with offices in the United States, Asia, and Europe.

Our Mission is to maximize growing the plants; so, we’re all about healthy plants and consistent growth which ultimately reduces inputs and increases yields. This gives the customer or the grower additional margin. “We give people the tools to be successful”.

We started off making meters to measure the pH, nutrient and temperature of growing solutions, predominantly hydroponic.

– What is your technology, and who is it for?

We specialize in and equip commercial growers in the art of growing. From hand-held measurement to full-scale automation, Bluelab is the industry standard for CEA irrigation, dosing, and climate needs. Our extended range of products can automate, control, monitor, and measure environment, irrigation, and manage nutrients for commercial growers and includes:

• Intelligent automated dosing systems to control and make dosing more efficient
• Systems for precision monitoring and controlling the growing parameters
• Fertigation controllers
• Climate controllers
• Remote monitoring – staying connected to your plants anytime, anywhere
• Automated data capture
• Equipment for substrate based, hydroponic and aeroponic growing systems

– What is unique about your product and approach

We have our own in-house software engineers. Bluelab’s entire product range has been developed with growers, for growers. This means that our robust, accurate and easy-to-use tools can withstand the knocks and drops that come with everyday growing. It is a little slower to develop in-house however, when we do bring something new out, it is fully tested, and we know that it really is a little bit different to anything else in the market. So, we’ve got a new product called the Bluelab OnePen™, which is coming out next month. There is nothing out there that does what it does!

The Bluelab OnePen™ is a handheld meter that allows you to log data on our software system Edenic, so you can connect all our monitors and controllers in one place. You can access the software through your phone, your tablet, or your PC, which allows you to remotely monitor your plants and change the growing parameters.

The Bluelab OnePen™ will completely automate that whole process of data collection. Simply put the pen in the solution to take the reading and the device will send all the data back to a central point.

We design our new products to complement existing products so that you don’t have to throw everything out and start again. For example, if you’ve already got pre-existing peristaltic pumps controlling your nutrients, you can upgrade to our controller with those pumps with very little loss of functionality.

Currently we are working on an algorithm to allow the Bluelab Pro Controller Wi-Fi to dose the pH level up and down (rather than the current up or down options) to match the change in acidity noted in liquid nutrients – which have become slightly more acidic, so you’re having to put pH up before you start the process of adding pH down on a regular basis. So, we’re adapting to that need.

Intelligent climate control designed for CEA – Autogrow IntelliClimate automatically manages all aspects of grow room climate control from temperature to CO2, lighting to humidity, all in one simple controller. Designed specifically for the indoor grower, the Autogrow IntelliClimate controls all aspects of your growing environment so you can easily manage your grow room climate control systems.

We also strongly believe in the education side of things as well. It’s not just about giving people meters, it is about educating and guiding them through the growing process.

– What is the potential of your technology going forward?

Originally, we designed our equipment for smaller growing environments. But, now as the needs of the grower have changed, we’ve adapted to meet larger scales. So, all our products are scalable whilst remaining a manageable size.

We started in greenhouses, but our equipment works perfectly for smaller and mid-size controlled environments. Within a CEA environment our products, very economically, allow you to have the capability to create multi-nutrient zones where you can test the different growing parameters of your plants using one controller for multiple zones.

At Bluelab we believe growers need to understand how each plant type grows and be able to respond to the data you receive from our systems throughout the growing cycle. If things start to go wrong with plant growth, then the grower needs to be able to adjust the growing parameters in line with the feedback being received from the data collection. The data our systems provide will allow you to see what is happening and to adjust the parameters accordingly to continually optimize the growing conditions for each plant type using the multiple settings available on our systems.

Equally importantly we want to provide growers with the monitoring and control system that meets the needs of their current growing system. Growers can add in scalability and complexity as and when needed. To this end we feel Bluelab can provide a service to customers that is flexible and meets their individual needs whether they are a start-up, a medium-sized company or have a larger-scale built environment to service. This way growers can use the technology the way they need. For example, one large organization has installed 700 of our controllers to run their system but then have integrated the API into their own monitoring system – so what we provide is very flexible for growers to tailor to their needs and scale with their business.

“So, we try and make our equipment as simple for people to use as possible, either as a new set-up or to integrate it into whatever their existing systems are.”

Bluelab has experience working across a wide range of growing environments and systems including greenhouses, medicinal cannabis, algae growing facilities on rooftops and indoor microgreens.

– What are your goals in the future?

We really are focusing on the small to medium-sized grower in the CEA space. That’s where we see our future. We are all about perfecting our tools to provide the best options to growers and supporting growers across a range of sectors. We continually demonstrate how we adapt to market changes to remain competitive and relevant within the industry.

– What are you looking for in the VF space – what kinds of collaborators?

We are open to working with growers and people looking to develop integrated systems and to work with distributors and with Universities looking for a system to use while trialing growing plants in vertical farming and controlled environments.

If you would like to know more about Bluelab’s products, opportunities to become a distributor and possibilities for project cooperation then contact James Goodwin.

You can come and meet the Bluleab team at VertiFarm 08-10 October 2024, Messe Dortmund, Germany.