Moore Park greenhouse facility
Our Moore Park greenhouse facility has 4 greenhouses which cover 12,000m2. We specifically grow Monarca eggplants and currently have close to 30,000 plants.
We grow our greenhouse eggplants year round with our peak growing times being July to October. . Greenhouse eggplant tends to have less blemishes and disease issues than field eggplant. Our greenhouses allow us to control the temperature, light and water depending on what the crop needs. Greenhouses produce a good quality and high yield for a small footprint compared to outdoor cropping.
The Moore Park facility also has 38 acres of land for outside farming, which we are currently growing galangal and turmeric, as well as housing our tissue culture ginger for our future crops.
Our location at Moore Park, close to the beach means there is little to no chance of disease or insect pressure from other farms. It also means it is not as cold at our facility compared to other locations, making for optimum growing conditions.
Farmer Profile
Our Moore Park Greenhouse Facility is run by our greenhouse manager, Jason Smith. After serving in the Navy for 9 years, Jason dived head first into the world of fresh produce, spending the first 7 years of his horticultural career learning hydroponics and greenhouse operation.
Jason started out growing tomatoes in Bundaberg, Queensland, at a 1.3 hectare greenhouse facility. Soon after he was promoted to head grower and converted from tomatoes to continental cucumbers. He also took over managing two other sites at Booyan and Fallons Rocks, taking the total greenhouse crop size to 11.3 hectares.
For a short time Jason took a step in a different direction, working for a seed company covering an area from Bowen to the Lockyer Valley, before starting with Carter & Spencer in 2012, at our Moore Park facility.
Jason worked on setting up our first eggplant greenhouse (GH1), converting it from herb growing to a greenhouse suitable for greenhouse high wire crops. Shortly after he converted two more greenhouses (GH2, GH3). Our fourth greenhouse (GH4) was converted three seasons ago. The learning curve was steep for Jason, as eggplant is not very forgiving.
Jason now has over 20 years greenhouse experience and production and quality has improved each year, with a strong focus on hygiene and timing of all tasks. The most important side of greenhouses, as with most industries, is finding the right staff, without this the results don’t happen.
