If you have any questions, you can contact us at 330-302-4203 or email us at conference@cropking.com.

Armando Suarez
    Armando Suarez graduated from the University of Arizona, with a Masters in Agricultural Engineering and spent several years in various parts of the hydroponic horticultural industry, notably as a consultant for Grodan(Rockwool). He is currently working for Netafim, the company that gasve the modern drip irrigation to the world and the supplier of the precision irrigation equipment used in CropKing's production systems. He will be speaking about plant irrigation and the messages deliverable with different irrigation programs.

Jennifer Nelkin
    Jennifer Nelkin is with Gotham Greens. She will be sharing some of what her group is doing and thinking. Her topic will be “Sustainable Urban Agriculture: Opportunities for CEA”. They are looking into the future and applying some of the techniques we use in the hydroponic greenhouse in other locations and ways. NY Sun Works has The Science Barge. So that you will have some background in what they are doing, you can visit their web site, www.nysunworks.org. We should expect to see some of the things and applications they are using implemented in non conventional ways in the future.

Dr. Mohyuddin Mirza
     Dr Mohyuddin Mirza has worked with hydroponic and other growers for years in Alberta, Canada. His insight into the growth and development of plants is always presented in a way that growers can both understand what is going on and modify their approaches to produce more and better quality from their plants. His work with growers has also called upon him to deal with the costs of  environmental modifications in the greenhouse. 
     This year, his topics include:  “A Fresh Look at Plant's Needs - From Beliefs to Practices”. What is happening in the world of plant nutrients? As nutrients are getting expensive, growers must manage their crops with an understanding of plant's needs and how to meet them without wasting. Presentation will focus on integrating all plant growth factors to accomplish good cash flow for the family and the community. “Vegetable Crash and Burn - Issues From Root Zone to Top Zone”. This talk will review all what is not supposed to happen but does happen. How to manage the crops for better production by understanding physiological and disease parameters is the focus. 
     On Saturday morning while some conference participants are visiting the lettuce greenhouse, an optional presentation, “Caribbean Greenhouse Industry - From Belize to Bahamas and In Between” will be offered. In 2007 Dr Mirza had a chance to visit 7 Caribbean countries and examine greenhouse production and marketing and come up with recommendations to move the industry forward. This is where he saw a successful lettuce grower adopting management practices developed by CropKing.

Phil Johnson
     Phil Johnson has a BSc Honors Degree in Horticulture from Pershore College in  the UK, in which he specialized in glasshouse crop production. Following his degree, Phil worked as a grower manager for Humber VHB for seven years, responsible for 9ha of hydroponic glasshouse tomatoes. Phil joined Grodan in January 2003 as a Technical Advisor in the UK. He moved to NewZealand in October 2004 to provide Crop Technical Support for Grodan customers growing a wide range of crops in both Australia and New Zealand. In October 2008, Phil took on the responsibility of Canadian Business Manager for Grodan North America. Phil will focus much of his presentation around roof zone management and the use of water management for plant growth control.  

Jeff Balduff will be talking in sessions in the Prospective Grower's session and Hydroponic Forage in the Grower's session. Jeff has been involved in agriculture all of his life. Raised on a widely diversified vegetable and grain farm, the knowledge he accumulated from working on a farm has now been applied to the greenhouse vegetable industry. With his degree in Farm Management and his experience as an active greenhouse grower, he has helped to designed CropKing's Growers Choice Electrical Panel and the Nutrient Injection System. He assists CropKing's customers with advice on the construction of their unit as well as answers questions about growing, insect control, and disease.

James W. Brown from CropKing, a regular writer in Maximum Yield and a horticulturist in the hydroponic industry for 25 years will be presenting various talks. He is a graduate of Cornell University with a Masters Degree and a Vegetable Crops Major, and an Associated Degree from the Nova Scotia Agricultural College. He is the author of the CropKing Grower's Manual, and is a requested speaker at hydroponic seminars and conferences. He works with hundreds of growers throughout the country and is widely recognized as a knowledgeable and talented professional in the hydroponics industry.

If you have any questions, you can contact us at 800-321-5211, 330-302-4203 or email us at conference@cropking.com.