For as long as growers have been seeding, germinating and propagating plants indoors, they’ve been doing their best to give their plants perfect conditions. But what’s better than raising them as closely as possible to what nature intended?

Greenhouses are great, up to a point, and that point is often the rounded curve of a tunnel overhead. In Europe and in other locations across the globe, Rovero, a company based in the Netherlands, has been offering their open-roof greenhouses for a long time. Now, they are partnering with America’s Atlas Greenhouse to bring these structures to the U.S.

Greg Ellis, vice president of sales for Atlas, believes this partnership could not have come at a better time. Ellis joined the company two years ago with more than 40 years of experience in the industry, with a goal to expand Atlas’s reach from the Southeast to the rest of the U.S.

Atlas offers an expansive catalog, with everything from a 12-by-12-foot growing space for the backyard to much larger installations for commercial markets, vegetable and fruit growers, ornamentals, retail garden centers and even cannabis operations.

“Rovero has been in the European market forever, but it’s never any representation in the States. Their owner started having conversations with a few prospects here, and connected with an Ohio greenhouse,” Ellis explained. “In that whole process, an acquaintance recommended Atlas to them. We have a complete product line, but not an open-roof house. Our thinking was you can either reinvent the wheel or partner with someone doing it really well already. And I think it’s the best option on the market.”

Greg Ellis, Bill Rowohit and the rest of the team at Atlas Greenhouse are excited about their expanded outreach – and their new partnership with Rovero. Photo by Courtney Llewellyn

That Ohio operation is Foertmeyer & Sons Greenhouse, which has been in operation since 1988. President and founder Mark Foertmeyer said he’s tried a lot of growing options over the years, and he installed four acres’ worth of Rovero open-roof houses last year. He was very vocal about how pleased he was with them at this year’s Cultivate event.

“If you look at the needs of a plant, a greenhouse may be the worst place to live,” Foertmeyer admitted. “We have growth regulators, fungicides, pesticides – it’s because we’re putting plants in a stressful environment. We need to put our plants in a more natural environment” – and he does, with open-roof greenhouses.

There are obvious challenges to growing outdoors without protection: weather variability, pests and disease, intense sunlight, soil erosion and quality. The advantages of a greenhouse with a fully opening roof include a controlled environment (with precise control of temperature, humidity and other microclimate factors); optimal sunlight utilization; integrated pest management; precision water management (shelter from wind reduces evaporative water loss and more efficient irrigation); enhanced air quality (reducing dust and pollution on foliage); and improved soil management.

In addition, those selling plants from these buildings are likely to keep customers around longer if it starts raining and they can simply close their roof.

“We really feel like this, in addition to our Atlas product line, makes us a one-stop shop for everybody out there,” Ellis said. “It’s something new and different and it makes it easier to open doors.”

To learn more, visit AtlasGreenhouse.com/structures/rovero.

by Courtney Llewellyn