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        <title>Hydroponics Today</title>
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    <outline type="rss"  title="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;May 30, 2008&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;They harvest about 75 kilos of giant, perfect peppers each week. St.  David's Hydroponics is a whopping 17 1/2 acres of agricultural activity  under glass -- and it's hot. As I walked through the thousands of  eight-foot tall pepper plants, workers were harvesting red peppers.  Huge trailers full and overflowing with glistening, beautiful peppers  were being wheeled into the packaging area to be sorted by size and  packaged by weight. Boxes were piled high, waiting for shipment to  grocery stores that would offer these tasty peppers within 24 hours of  being picked. Now that's fresh!&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;I grow peppers in my own backyard and what I found at St. David's  Hydroponics was an amazingly huge operation that was more science than  I'd known to be possible.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Harvest ends in November. Plants are removed and new seedlings  are planted. Within four to five weeks the pepper plants are two feet  tall and after eight weeks or so, the first peppers come off the  plants. From November to February, no peppers are harvested.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The plants are pruned back so the peppers grow large and hardy.  As I watched huge trailers of peppers move by me I noticed how clean  and beautiful they look. They use no sprays, they're fed organic  material and everything about growing and running the greenhouse is  perfectly natural. It's an efficient operation, producing healthy,  delicious and safe food.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Pickers were busy cutting ripe peppers from the tall plants,  packers were busy sorting and boxing them while a transport truck backs  into the loading dock. Even though peppers have a shelf life of two  weeks, these peppers will be on the shelves of high-end grocers across  North America the next day or two (depending on the distance). This is  contrary to the shriveled, soft peppers we often see in some local  stores that come from the other side of the world. By the time we buy  them, they've begun to expire.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href=&amp;quot;http://www.niagarathisweek.com/opinions/article/180765&amp;quot; title=&amp;quot;Hydroponic Peppers&amp;quot;&amp;gt;read more&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; ...&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;" text="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;May 30, 2008&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;They harvest about 75 kilos of giant, perfect peppers each week. St.  David's Hydroponics is a whopping 17 1/2 acres of agricultural activity  under glass -- and it's hot. As I walked through the thousands of  eight-foot tall pepper plants, workers were harvesting red peppers.  Huge trailers full and overflowing with glistening, beautiful peppers  were being wheeled into the packaging area to be sorted by size and  packaged by weight. Boxes were piled high, waiting for shipment to  grocery stores that would offer these tasty peppers within 24 hours of  being picked. Now that's fresh!&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;I grow peppers in my own backyard and what I found at St. David's  Hydroponics was an amazingly huge operation that was more science than  I'd known to be possible.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Harvest ends in November. Plants are removed and new seedlings  are planted. Within four to five weeks the pepper plants are two feet  tall and after eight weeks or so, the first peppers come off the  plants. From November to February, no peppers are harvested.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The plants are pruned back so the peppers grow large and hardy.  As I watched huge trailers of peppers move by me I noticed how clean  and beautiful they look. They use no sprays, they're fed organic  material and everything about growing and running the greenhouse is  perfectly natural. It's an efficient operation, producing healthy,  delicious and safe food.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Pickers were busy cutting ripe peppers from the tall plants,  packers were busy sorting and boxing them while a transport truck backs  into the loading dock. Even though peppers have a shelf life of two  weeks, these peppers will be on the shelves of high-end grocers across  North America the next day or two (depending on the distance). This is  contrary to the shriveled, soft peppers we often see in some local  stores that come from the other side of the world. By the time we buy  them, they've begun to expire.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href=&amp;quot;http://www.niagarathisweek.com/opinions/article/180765&amp;quot; title=&amp;quot;Hydroponic Peppers&amp;quot;&amp;gt;read more&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; ...&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;" url="http://www.hydroponics-today.com/perfect-peppers-st-a18.html"/>
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