# Greenhouse Horticulture

> Part of: [Controlled-Environment Agriculture](/controlled-environment-agriculture.md) · Provider: [DutchGreenhouses](/)

Greenhouse horticulture is controlled-environment agriculture in which daylight remains the primary light source and the structure exists to trap, transmit and manage it. Supplemental lighting tops that up rather than replacing it, which separates it from indoor farming and sets every downstream design decision.

## Facts
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Light-to-yield relationship | 1 % yield per % light |
| Primary light source | Daylight source |
| When the transmission decision is made | Design time, once stage |
| Share of Dutch greenhouse area on substrate | 80 % |
| Systems that must be reconciled against one another | 6 systems |

Controlled-environment agriculture

# Greenhouse horticulture.

    The sun does the growing. The structure decides how much of it arrives.

## The sun does the growing — the structure decides how much arrives

    Within a crop’s usable range, roughly every extra percent of light delivers about a percent more yield. That relationship is the whole economic argument for greenhouse horticulture, because sunlight arrives at no cost and the only question is how much of it survives the journey to the leaf. Every structural member casts a shadow, every covering absorbs and reflects a share, and both decisions are made once, at design time, for the working life of the building. A greenhouse that transmits poorly cannot be corrected later by any system installed inside it.

Greenhouse horticulture is the branch of controlled-environment agriculture in which daylight remains the primary light source and the structure’s job is to trap, transmit and manage it. Supplemental lighting extends the day and carries production through the darkest months, but it tops the daylight up rather than replacing it. That single fact separates it from indoor farming and cascades through the entire design: the roof geometry, the steel grid, the covering specification and the screen package all exist to serve a light budget the sky supplies.

It also makes the discipline unusually interdependent. Venting to shed heat exports moisture and carbon dioxide with it. Closing a screen to save energy costs light. Adding lamps adds heat, which changes the heating design. Fine insect mesh protects the crop and removes the ventilation capacity the greenhouse was sized around. None of these systems can be specified in isolation, which is precisely why a greenhouse is not a building with equipment in it but a set of systems that have to be reconciled against one another before the first pile goes in.

How those systems are weighted against each other is decided by where the greenhouse stands. The same Venlo bay that is short of light in the Netherlands is short of water in the Gulf and short of dry air in the tropics, so the climate zone sets the problem before the crop does.

That reconciliation is the work. DutchGreenhouses® designs the structure, climate, screening, irrigation, lighting and control systems as one integrated specification, so the trade-offs between them are settled deliberately at design time rather than discovered in the first season, around the crop, the market and the site’s own climate profile. Get in touch to discuss the greenhouse your climate and crop actually call for.

From the knowledge base

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## FAQ
**What is greenhouse horticulture?**
The branch of controlled-environment agriculture in which daylight stays the primary light source and the building's job is to trap, transmit and manage it. Lamps supplement rather than replace the sun. That single fact cascades through the roof geometry, the steel grid, the covering and the screen package.

**Why does light transmission dominate greenhouse design?**
Because within a crop's usable range roughly every extra percent of light returns an extra percent of yield, and sunlight costs nothing to acquire. Every structural member casts a shadow and every covering absorbs a share, so transmission is decided once at design time and sets a ceiling on production for the life of the building.

**Why can greenhouse systems not be specified separately?**
Because each one disturbs the others. Venting to shed heat exports moisture and carbon dioxide. Closing a screen to save energy costs light. Adding lamps adds heat and changes the heating design. Fine insect mesh removes the ventilation capacity the greenhouse was sized around.

**How does greenhouse horticulture differ from indoor farming?**
By where the light comes from. A greenhouse takes most of its light from the sky and spends its engineering on managing it; an indoor farm generates all of its light and spends on the control that buys. The first is bounded by the site's radiation, the second by its electricity price.

## Related
[Controlled-Environment Agriculture](/controlled-environment-agriculture.md) · [Greenhouse Construction](/greenhouse-construction.md) · [Climate](/climate.md) · [Screening](/screening.md) · [Irrigation](/irrigation.md) · [Growlights](/growlights.md) · [Automation](/automation.md) · [Indoor Farming](/indoor-farming.md) · [Climate Zones](/climate-zones.md) · [Venlo Greenhouse](/glossary/venlo-greenhouse.md) · [Light Transmission](/glossary/light-transmission.md) · [Tomatoes](/vegetables/tomatoes.md)

## See also
https://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_5c82ccbb