Control Dekk, a greenhouse automation company based in western Michigan, celebrates seven years of their OASIS system, which is their innovative hanging basket irrigation technology. What started in 2013 with the simple statement – “There’s got to be a better way to water hanging baskets” – has since grown into proven technology that’s revolutionizing the way modern and conscientious greenhouses grow and water hanging baskets.
Proven Technology
“We’ve had people come to us from all perspectives – from the excited early adopters to the ones who really vetted us to the ones who stood back waiting for OASIS to prove itself,” shares Len Logsdon, Control Dekk’s Greenhouse Automation Engineer. “Across the board, though, we’ve been able to help all kinds of businesses and growers use OASIS to their advantage and to see for themselves what a gamechanger the OASIS system is. That’s what keeps us excited and committed to producing a product that takes hanging basket irrigation to the next level.”
Simple and Effective
The OASIS system operates on the simple premise of watering hanging baskets by weight rather than by time. Traditional systems involving countless tabs and switches, watering by time, and resulting in uneven crops and wasted water can cause growers more time and more headaches. The OASIS system is changing that by watering baskets to growers’ ideal basket weight with one module that’s easily installed on new or existing Echo, Boomerang, or FormFlex lines. The simplicity of the system along with its efficacy has growers not just excited but eager to implement OASIS as much as they can.
Brad Wolf, CEO and grower at Green Valley Greenhouse in Minnesota, says, “We gave OASIS a try on four lines and then did an entire new addition with it. Once we saw how the system worked in a broad capacity and how we could set it up the way we wanted it, we really started seeing the return on investment. Two years after starting with those first four lines, we’re up to 86 lines on OASIS, and we’re not going to stop there.”
Growing Strong
The OASIS system has gone from watering baskets in a handful of greenhouses in Michigan during its prototype phase to watering over 1 million hanging baskets in 2019 alone. The growth hasn’t stopped there. Greenhouses across the United States and now even in Canada are catching wind of the irrigation technology that delivers on being simple, straightforward, and impressively accurate.
Control Dekk was founded in 2013 by brothers and growers Jordan and Jared Dekker along with Len Logsdon, a controls engineer with decades of experience in developing and troubleshooting automation technologies. Utilizing Len’s experience and knowledge, the OASIS system was developed to help save growers time and stress and to produce more consistent quality hanging basket crops.
The 3D booth of Control Dekk at Cultivate’20 Virtual
Cultivate’20 Virtual
Control Dekk exhibited at online event Cultivate’20 Virtual where they showcased their OASIS system. The live event is over, but the Cultivate’20 Virtual platform is still accessible till September 1st.