About Sun Harvest Greenhouses and Garden Centre
Sun Harvest Greenhouses and Garden Centre broke ground in 2002 with the construction of a new, state of the art greenhouse in Glenburnie, 5 minutes north of Hwy 401 on Division Street within the city of Kingston. Greg and Allison Shannon, after two years of research, began growing hydroponic pesticide – free tomatoes, with the vision of being a local grower of great tasting, fresh produce and selling it directly from their greenhouse store and supplying local grocery stores in the Kingston area.
Greg and Allison Shannon believed they could grow a better tasting tomato and market it locally. It was a risky decision, considering that the food business is a fiercely competitive, global marketplace, and local food at that time was a relatively “unknown” concept.
Greg and Allison graduated from the University of Guelph in Agricultural Sciences, and had previously owned a small mixed farming operation. Since then, Sun Harvest tomatoes have earned the reputation of being the best tasting tomatoes in Kingston, available from April to December.
Great tasting produce, grown pesticide free!
Many people ask if our tomatoes are organic. The way we explain it is that growing hydroponically means growing plants in water and not in soil, and as such, our tomatoes are not grown in the traditional organic way. Soil provides inherent fertility or nutrients for plants and without soil, you need to add nutrients to the water in order to sustain excellent plant health and production. All nutrients are added in carefully measured quantities depending on the stage of growth of the tomatoes and are recycled continuously so that there is no waste of nutrients and water.
We do not use pesticides to control pests in our vegetable greenhouses but instead use crop-scouting techniques to monitor pest populations in the greenhouses and introduce beneficial insects (good bugs) in sufficient numbers to reduce the numbers of harmful insects (bad bugs). We introduce bumblebees regularly to ensure consistent pollination, so the bees are our most important beneficial insects.
Hydroponic and pesticide free, we offer some of the best and tastiest produce in the Kingston Area!
We grow a huge selection of the best and most unique garden plants, annuals and perennials.