SOURCE | Spring 2023 11
Growing Seeds in a New Environment
Mary Auth , Contributing Writer
Building relationships and discovering new ways to interact with customers is something Frank Pennington is good at . Pennington is Northeast Vegetable Seed Manager for SEEDWAY , a wholly-owned subsidiary of GROWMARK . Last July , Pennington recognized an opportunity to capitalize on SEEDWAY ’ s agronomic knowledge to expand into a growing market for the business – Controlled Environment Agriculture or CEA .
Formally creating a CEA department was inspired by Pennington ’ s relationship with Sakata Seed America – a seed supplier with whom SEEDWAY has been working for more than 60 years . SEEDWAY has acted as a vegetable seed distributor arm of Sakata in the commercial seed market for some time . The relationship is now expanded to put someone on the road for CEA markets . That person is Evelyn Zaleski .
Zaleski has been with SEEDWAY for three years and is now the CEA Sales Representative and Trials Coordinator . She is the “ value add ” for the CEA market .
“ I am really surprised how little people know about agronomy when they start building controlled environments . They are mostly interested in the engineering and structural part of the process ,” Zaleski adds . “ It makes SEEDWAY all the more valuable since we can guide our customers through the appropriate seed recommendations .”
Most of the information now available for CEA is tied to lighting , energy , and choice of crops to grow . Zaleski will be helping customers choose the right seed for leafy vegetables and other hydroponically grown crops and will be basing her recommendations on the influences of environmental aspects such as amount and timing of light , space , air , and water temperature . Plants growing under controlled conditions have been around for centuries , mostly in greenhouses and as part of research facilities , but have only come into consideration for commercial scale production since 2017 . CEA is becoming more economically feasible as consumers are beginning to ask for healthy vegetables year-round .
Pennington and Zaleski have increased their involvement in the industry by participating in the 10th Annual Indoor Ag-Con in late February . It was their opportunity to learn more about the industry and create a presence for SEEDWAY . The conference covers the technology of growing crops in indoor systems using hydroponic , aeroponic , and aquaponic techniques . SEEDWAY was one of two seed companies exhibiting . Representatives from Sakata were alongside them to answer questions . Pennington and Zaleski say they will likely follow up with an East Coast version happening in September in Virginia .
Zaleski says she is still in awe of this emerging industry .
“ The first time I stepped inside a commercial greenhouse , I felt like I was a 4th grade student on a field trip ,” she recalls .
Pennington envisions that CEA will only become a bigger part of SEEDWAY in the future .
Frank Pennington
Evelyn Zaleski