In the tulip hatchery of Boon and Breg in Andijk, almost the entire process is automated. The equally fully automated water supply, which recycles 99 percent of the water, is a crucial component of this. For KaRo Tuinbouwtechnieken, which developed the system, and JUMO, the supplier of the control system, there are now exciting times ahead: does the system do exactly what it is supposed to do? From the outside, it looks like an ordinary greenhouse, but inside is a 2.0 forcing facility of Boon and Breg in Andijk. Fully automated, the tulip bulbs move through a greenhouse while growing. Only once do people have to be present to place the tulip bulbs in a plastic crate at the start. Three weeks later, the tulips are packed ready for sale all over the world.

Last year, we started building a water treatment plant in which we reuse 99 percent of the water," says Arjan Rood, owner of KaRo Horticultural Techniques, which developed the plant especially for Boon and Breg's state-of-the-art forcing facility. "Every time, the water we reuse has to be fresh again and it has to contain the right fertiliser on which the tulips can grow." KaRo uses a complete JUMO package with sensors and the mTRON T control system to control its water treatment plant. This PLC control system has a modular design and can process the measured values of several sensors and monitor the limit values. The O/I modules ensure high measuring accuracy and control quality. "Such a central control system is very important for us. Every hour, we pump 80 cubic metres of water with a precisely measured concentration of chlorine and a sophisticated quantity of fertiliser to keep the tulip growth going throughout the forcing. The dosage is very precise", emphasises Rood. The JUMO mTRON T controls the dosage, which is geared to water quality, such as the addition of oxygen and active chlorine.

In addition to the dosage, aimed at water quality, eight different fertilisers are also added to the feed water. This too is done fully automatically with the PLC control system. Depending on the three-week flowering phase, the fertilisers are dosed in different combinations. Using sensors, the PLC takes care of the pH correction, fully automatically. "This water treatment process is now fully automated and we are happy that we were able to outsource it to a party, in this case JUMO," says Rood. "We no longer have to look after this and can focus entirely on optimising the limit values and ensuring that the tulips flower properly." In recent months, KaRO has continued to work intensively on this optimisation. In October, the new forcing period started, which runs until December. By Christmas, the tulips should be available in abundance in the shops again. "Now our water treatment process must really prove itself for the first time," says Rood. "The accuracy of the process monitoring will now be put to the test. With the sensors and the automated process control from JUMO, we have a qualitatively very reliable system. With the new water treatment, Boon and Breg will be able to deliver an even more sophisticated approach to a whole season of tulips, which will bloom in living rooms at exactly the right time."