Project Details
Industry
Project Type
Turnkey – new design and build
Location
Kingsville, Ontario, Canada
Structure(s)
Prospiant Produce Venlo Greenhouse
Setup/Technology:
- Custom-engineered and fabricated structure
- Aluminum roof with certified diffused tempered glass
- First newly designed larger-opening venting system
- Automated slip-in screening system
- Custom staggered-gutter growing system with leach collection
- Radiant heating system throughout, complete with tube rails and grow pipe at the crop level
- ASME-certified 3-pass boilers and CO2 condensers, plus a custom collector and distribution system
- Hot water storage tank
- High-pressure fog system for humidity and adiabatic cooling
- F-Clean air baffles
- Irrigation system with leach collection, filtration, sterilization, and storage for re-use
- Customized drip irrigation for requested density and flow
About Gold Star Farms
Luis Chibante and Ernie Ingratta launched Gold Star Farms in 2023 in Kingsville, Ontario, to tackle the challenge of growing high-quality hydroponic strawberries profitably in a greenhouse.
This wasn’t Chibante’s first leap into uncharted territory. He’d already earned a reputation for the cutting-edge growing systems, cultivation methods, and robotic-packing automation he had introduced at his Kingsville cucumber operation, Golden Acre Farms.
Innovation Started at Golden Acres Farms
Chibante employed Prospiant to build Golden Acre Farms, the first high-wire greenhouse cucumber facility in North America.
The high-wire method grows plants vertically along wires to heights extending nearly to the greenhouse roof. Fruits develop along a main stem. Every few days, the grower releases wire from overhead to lower the tops of the plants. This practice keeps the stems continually growing upward.
Chibante gained several benefits from employing the high-wire approach:
- Reduced crop turns: Growing to greater heights extended the plant’s lifespan. This allowed him to go from four crop cycles yearly to just two. The plants yielded more fruit over time with fewer production gaps between new crops.
- Better quality: The plants had ample room to develop long, straight cucumbers along the main stem. As a result, the fruits grew more uniform in size—unlike those grown using traditional methods, where overcrowding and dense foliage led to short, stocky fruits of varied sizes and quality.
- Improved conditions: Growing plants on high wires enhanced air circulation and light distribution, resulting in healthier plants.
- Higher yields: The efficient use of vertical space, combined with fewer crop turns and better growing conditions, improved plant productivity. The high-wire system yielded more fruits per square foot than traditional growing systems.
Chibante also streamlined his operations from harvest to shipping by developing an automated packing system. The system uses self-driving carts, conveyors, custom robotics, automated sealing equipment, vision systems, and pallet stacking and wrapping equipment to increase efficient output and reduce labor.
Handling packaging in-house increased the market value of Chibante’s crop. Buyers happily paid a premium for the convenience of receiving pre-packaged cucumbers, complete with labels and branding.
Today, cucumber production at Golden Acre Farms covers 44 acres (expanded in three phases).
A New Opportunity Sparks a Big Idea
In 2020, Chibante bought a neighboring property. As with each of his Golden Acre Farms facilities, he came to his trusted partners at Prospiant and approached them with a unique request: build a greenhouse facility that would allow him to grow cucumbers or strawberries.
Ever the trendsetter, Chibante trialed different growing systems to maximize all-day sunlight and plant density. He decided on a staggered-gutter approach for this specific facility.
The system consists of two stationary gutters suspended from custom-engineered greenhouse trusses. Each is positioned at a different height to ensure sunlight reaches both levels and to prevent the upper gutter from shading the lower one.
With this approach, Chibante effectively doubled the number of plants grown in the same horizontal area, allowing him to realize more yield per acre.
This also gave Chibante the flexibility he needed to switch between crops. When he grows strawberries, he uses both gutters. For cucumbers, he only needs to use one gutter.
Chibante teamed up with his brother-in-law Ernie Ingratta, a proven owner-operator of Five Star Farms for the new venture, hence the name Gold Star Farms.
Prospiant completed the initial build in 2022, with future expansions mapped out and built into the design from the start.
The Venlo-style facility at Gold Star Farms covers just over 17 acres and has 41 growing bays.
Kevin Soares, Chibante’s general manager, oversees operations at Golden Acre Farms and assists at Gold Star Farms, ensuring operational effectiveness.
Venturing into a new crop can be nerve-wracking, but partnering with Prospiant gave Gold Star the support needed to proceed with confidence.
“When you’re stepping into something new, it helps to work with a company that has extensive experience in strawberry and cucumber cultivation,” Soares says. “Prospiant was with us every step of the way. If we had a challenge, they were already thinking of a solution. Instead of pushing that solution on us, they educated us first, so we could come to a joint decision.”
High-Tech Tools Maintain Ideal Climate Control
Prospiant custom-engineers and designs its greenhouses for durability and longevity, prioritizing location-specific customization over cookie-cutter design.
This includes analyzing historical data for the greenhouse’s location and assessing wind loads, sunlight exposure, and other environmental factors.
With this information, Prospiant can recommend a structure built to withstand the elements while maximizing free resources such as natural light through the glazing and fresh air through efficient venting.
Beyond the structure itself, Prospiant packs the greenhouse with cutting-edge features and technology that help Gold Star Farms maintain the perfect growing conditions for its crops.
Coverings, Screens, and Curtains
The greenhouses have an aluminum roof and certified diffused tempered-glass coverings.
Black-out polycarbonate coverings used on the facility’s non-sun-prevailing sides (north-south) increase insulation and eliminate the need for vertical light abatement screens.
The sun-heavy sides (east-west) have glass coverings to maximize access to natural light. Air baffles, which are F-Clean material installed within the peaks of the greenhouse, divide the attic space into smaller sections.
This enhancement improves airflow control, boosts efficiency, and prevents temperature fluctuations. Additionally, it reduces the demand on the heating system and helps maintain crop uniformity.
Ventilation and Climate Control
Prospiant, with its partners, modified and installed a larger-opening venting system, the first of its kind. The system increases the amount of air that can be brought into the greenhouse or exhausted outside.
The vents are controlled by zone and have insect netting installed for pest control.
A high-pressure fog system helps maintain the humidity levels required at different stages of crop cultivation. It pushes water through specialized high-pressure nozzles, creating an ultra-fine mist that evaporates instantly, cooling the air and boosting humidity.
Maintaining ideal humidity improves plant activity, which aids with more efficient water and nutrient absorption, increasing the plant quality output.
Heating and CO2 Use
High-efficiency, ASME-certified 3-pass boilers and CO₂ condensers are used to produce hot water for temperature control, allowing for distribution of the needed CO₂ by-product throughout the greenhouse.
A hot water storage tank holds the hot water created during daytime CO2 production in the summer. That stored water is used later for heating to maintain the ideal climate when the greenhouses get cold at night.
A multi-purpose tube-rail system circulates hot water for radiant heating throughout the greenhouse while doubling as a track for crop work, harvesting, and any needed maintenance.
Grow pipes—smaller heating tubes running through the crop canopy—keep the microclimate at the crop level in check by removing excess moisture. This also prevents diseases from developing.
Water Management
Roof gutters assist with the collection of stormwater, routing it through the greenhouse support columns to underground pipes that transport it to the stormwater collection pond.
Inside the greenhouse, a localized, pressure-compensated irrigation system ensures every plant receives the same amount of water and nutrients to promote the even growth needed for commercial production.
The growing gutters collect leach and excess water and nutrients not used by the crop. The water management system then filters, sterilizes, and stores everything for reuse.
With a stainless-steel spray line, growers have a valved connection available at every other post along the center walkway for easy access during cleaning or plant spraying.
Rodent and Weed Barriers: Ground Cover and Knee Wall
A dual-layer floor, consisting of a white ground cover on top of a thick, woven, black underlay provides weed protection for the greenhouse.
The foundation knee wall extends 12 inches below grade and 12 inches above grade, offering frost protection and an impenetrable barrier to keep rodents out of the greenhouse.
Backups and Redundancy
Redundancy is critical in a greenhouse to ensure the continuous operation of all its systems and equipment. Prospiant provides a light oil tank and back-up generator with every produce greenhouse.
The oil tank provides an alternative fuel source that keeps the boilers running during a natural gas outage to maintain the greenhouse environment.
The back-up generator provides the power to run the control systems, necessary motors, and pumps for uninterrupted operation.
Focusing on the Future
With three seasons of production behind it, the management at Gold Star Farms has learned firsthand how the advanced capabilities of its new greenhouses have impacted production efficiency.
General manager Kevin Soares reflects on how these structures have contributed to their success, what they’ve learned over time, and how they’re using these lessons to push the boundaries of what’s possible in greenhouse strawberry and cucumber production.
“What we’ve learned in these first few seasons has already changed how we plan for the next,” Soares says. “Prospiant is more than a builder. They’re part of the learning curve with us. They can tailor a structure to accommodate the crops we want to grow. That matters because it shows up in OPEX and output.”
This kind of collaboration with customers not only supports growers in the moment—it also helps inform how Prospiant continues to improve its designs and systems for what’s next.
“A greenhouse like this isn’t just glass and steel—it’s a living, evolving system,” says Tony Abbas, Prospiant’s Vice President of Sales and Business Development. “You must design it around the crop, the climate, and where the grower wants to go long-term. This is a very good operation with two proven owners at the helm; it is destined for success.
“We made this facility universal, so they can pivot to other crops if they want. That’s what we focused on with Gold Star, and our job doesn’t stop at the build. We stay connected because innovation doesn’t stand still—and neither do our growers. We’re here to help them as they help us, a true partnership for success.”
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