Crop Health Laboratories presented Power Growers Seminar over the weekend in Santa Clara, CA. The event provided a comprehensive introduction to plant sap analysis technology. This new nutrient management strategy was created by Sjoerd Smits, owner of NovaCropControl and HortiNova.

Both companies are based out of the Netherlands and currently sap samples are shipped there for analysis. Crop Health Labs is changing that and is hoping to have a U.S. lab in operation in 2015.

Sjored Smits was one of the keynote speakers at the event and shared more about his research at HortiNova, the history of the company and benefits of utilizing plant sap analysis.

“We are more then seven years into the business of doing plant sap. We have found it to enhance plant health. We want healthy crops with disease suppressiveness. Plant sap looks more to the available part of the nutrients compared to the total part in a tissue analysis. We heard from our clients that in the past tissue analysis didn’t reflect what you saw in the crop and plant sap does.”

NovaCropControl works with growers from 15 countries and currently can test for 21 different parameters. Once the samples research their lab, there is a fast 24-hour turn around time so growers can take quick action. They are also currently testing 200 different organic, sustainable and conventional crops.

Listen to my interview with Sjoerd here: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/chl/chl-14-smits.mp3″ text=”Interview with Sjored Smits”]

Find photos from the event here: 2014 Crop Health Labs Power Growers Seminar Photo Album