Washer for strawberry substrate troughs for Jarðarberjaland in Iceland
“The substrate troughs washer just works the way they said it would”
Jarðarberjaland is Icelandic for Strawberry Land – a fitting name for the greenhouse company where Steinar Jensen and his wife Hólmfríður Geirsdóttir grow strawberries for the local market. Sitting on a source with near-boiling water, energy and heat use are naturally sustainable – but sustainability is also very much a conscious choice for the husband-and-wife team.
After the storm: Back to the drawing table
In 2022, a storm blew away one of the production houses, forcing the two owners to go back to the drawing table. “We had to do everything from scratch,” Steinar recalls. “We got new gutters and new trays, from Bato. Of course we also needed a new washer for those trays, so we asked Bato for a recommendation, and they came up with Limex.”
Refurbishing beats recycling
Steinar did some research and approached Limex to ask if they had a washer available for their needs. “It just so happened that we had a used washer of the required type,” says Joep Janssen of Limex. “We replaced all the electrical components, pumps and controls and such. From a sustainability perspective, we always prefer such refurbishing projects – because with recycling, you end up having to melt metal, which isn’t very environmentally friendly.”
Washing substrate troughs without chemicals thanks to geothermal heat
Steinar says it’s important for Jarðarberjaland to work as sustainably as possible. “We value good hygiene, without using chemicals. We also use biological crop protection and UV-C lights, and we get our electricity from the local water-powered plant.”
Sitting on a geothermal source with water that’s 90 to 95 degrees Celsius also helps to achieve those sustainability goals. “The water is so hot that we can feed it straight into the washer without adding chemicals – actually, when we’re washing, you can’t see the machine because of all the steam!”
No issues with Phytophthora in the substrate troughs
Jarðarberjaland supplies strawberries year-round. Every week, they harvest and plant a new row, so they’re constantly rotating and washing trays. Good hygiene is therefore crucial: “you don’t want plant remains and potential mold risk being spread to the next cycle, and so far the Limex washer seems to be doing just that”. Asked about his experiences, Steinar says: “Everything is according to what Limex has said, it just works the way they said it would.”
