As the commercial greenhouse industry grows, the need for making things simpler and less intensive grows a bigger operation. Eventually overtime an operation may grow bigger than anticipated and it can become a struggle for maintaining the workforce employed. The secret to this expanding industry is the use of automated systems. These automated agricultural systems can be used to fully automate a greenhouse or a little automation to aid in things like irrigation, lighting, and ventilation.

A common system that is used is an auto-dosing system that automatically applies plant nutrients and water at specific times and measures.

Within the auto-dosing system, there are individual parts that keep the system running smoothly and efficiently. In this system there is a fertilizer injector, a booster/ source pump, a control interface, a pressure gauge and electrical readout of pH and temperatures, and the dosing pump. There are three different types of dosing pumps that can be installed into an auto-dosing system, The magnetic diaphragm pump uses a magnet to control a diaphragm to pump nutrients and inject them into the system. A volumetric piston drive is also known as a water driven pump, uses water to move nutrients through a system. In a venturi drive, the use of narrowing and widening pipes changes the water pressure to create a movement of water and nutrients through the system.

For plants to remain happy and healthy it is important to nurture a suitable living environment. Having high levels of humidity or setting the temperature too high or low causes the environment to be too wet, resulting with stressed plants. Stressed plants are more prone to pests, mold and mildew.

It is important to remember that an environment where temperature and humidity are controlled will encourage plant performance and increase the transpiration rate for nutrient uptake, leading to tastier produce, rapid production of crops and the ability to steer plants to a growth cycle.

There are a variety of methods you can use to control the greenhouse environment, including fans, vents, wet walls, shade cloths, radiant heating and fogging.