Hydroponic Success with CropKing’s Paul Brentlinger
No matter what you grow or where you grow, for every farmer, effective and efficient growing is critical to long-term success. Often, new or alternative growing methods can assist with this, including hydroponics. When pursuing commercial hydroponic production, support from seasoned industry veterans can be invaluable in surviving your early years.
Paul Brentlinger | Photo: CropKing
For more than four decades, greenhouse and hydroponics supplier CropKing has helped hydroponic farmers succeed. The CropKing team, including CEO Paul Brentlinger, shared their expertise at the 2024 Inaugural CEAg World Conference and Expo.
CEAg World caught up with Brentlinger to talk hydroponics. Here are some of his tips for success.
The Lure of Hydroponics
As interest in CEA swells, more existing and prospective growers are exploring hydroponics as well. Brentlinger emphasizes that hydroponics is just one component of CEA — one that’s about more than just growing without soil.
“There are obviously reasons that we utilize hydroponics, and those have been fairly consistent for the last few decades,” Brentlinger explained, noting the advantages driving interest in hydroponics over more traditional growing systems include:
- More intensive plant spacing in the same amount of land
- Greater efficiency and control of water usage
- Greater precision and control of inputs, such as fertilizer
CropKing’s approach almost always couples hydroponics with a greenhouse system.
“I think that’s an important aspect of the process, because that greenhouse is also furthering this concept of being more efficient with the resources we have. Being able to scout better, being able to protect these plants — and, at the end of the day, the products that farmers want to sell — from the elements and from inconsistencies in nature,” Brentlinger added.
The Advantages of Expertise
As CropKing’s second-generation owner, Brentlinger has known hydroponics almost his entire life.
“CropKing has been focused on setting people up in controlled environment agriculture for almost four and a half decades now,” he said. “We have commercial growers in all 50 states and over 20 countries around the world.”
A key differentiator for the company has long been its focus on providing ongoing, customized technical support to its customers. CropKing also offers knowledge-laden workshops that exemplify that support.
By combining both solutions and knowledge, the company is a vital resource for growers, particularly the small-scale commercial growers that comprise CropKing’s core business.
“We’re not necessarily unique in the fact that we sell greenhouses or that we sell hydroponic systems or that we sell supplies,” Brentlinger said. “We’re unique in the fact that we provide people access to over 100 years’ worth of horticultural expertise and knowledge on how to operate these systems at the scale that we’re typically working with, which is traditionally less than an acre.”
The Power of Collaboration
CropKing’s workshops target growers relatively new to CEA.
“If you are in your first five years of growing, then you could probably take some gems away from [these sessions],” Brentlinger said. He went on to explain how having experience in the industry is essential for making these workshops effective.
“For CropKing, who answers these questions for hundreds of growers every year across 50 states, there usually aren’t questions that come to us that we haven’t already worked through. That’s the beauty of experience in this space,” Brentlinger said.
However, he stressed the importance of hearing from actual growers — not just a company that sells things. Workshop panel members are typically growers who’ve been in business for several years, gone through expansions, and continue to be successful in their operations.
“In farming, there is no real secret sauce or magic bullet. It is the collective experience of the industry and all of us working together that really helps people be successful,” Brentlinger added. “Experience is the best assistant to success.”
This article is part of our August edition of CEAg World Insights. Click here to view the entire interactive report.