TEMPLE, Texas (KXAN) — Central Texas is gaining access to more crisp vegetables. Revol Greens opened its new facility in May and have begun shipping its product. The company claims its new greenhouse is the largest in the world.

“It’s pretty amazing, and it’s longer than a football field wide, and it’s quite a number of football fields the other way,” said Revol Green CEO Michael Wainscott.

The facility sits on 20 acres of land in Temple, Texas, just down the road from H-E-B’s distribution center. It has an additional 40 acres available for future expansion. “Temple’s centrally located so we can get to Dallas, even get to Houston, San Antonio and Austin (are) all right there.”

Growing lettuce with science

Wainscott said they used new technology and science to ensure they can grow year-round.

“The heat, you know, that was always the big question. I think it’s probably 101 outside right now. And I would say in here, it’s probably 82 degrees.”

Special material is used for the roof of the greenhouse. Giant swamp coolers line the walls, pumping in cold air and keeping the space cool.

The company grows a variety of greens in the giant space. “We have different compartments. So we’re able to control we have different water management units. So we control pH, fertilization of different things at different levels.”

The company relies on Artificial Intelligence to monitor all of these different factors.

Iron Ox, another greenhouse-driven farm located in Lockhart, uses robotics and machine learning in its facility.

The advantages of greenhouse growing

Besides year-round growing, one of the major advantages of growing the way Revol does, according to Wainscott, is how little water they use.

“What’s great about being able to do a closed environment like this is we’re able to manage water significantly. better.”

Wainscott said a single container of lettuce grown in their facility uses four pints of water. That same amount of lettuce when grown in Salinas, California would require 12 gallons of water.

Greenhouses, in general, use less water. Aeroponics, which has a footprint in Central Texas, grows plants vertically in a greenhouse and uses a tiny amount of water to grow lettuce.

This low water usage is one of the reasons Wainscott likes the giant greenhouse.

“I’ve been in sustainable agriculture for over 20 years, and really trying to find where the next trend in agriculture where we’re going to see the biggest change,” Wainscott said.

Greenhouses are a growing trend in agriculture. Business Wire reported that in 2022, the industry was worth $35.5 billion. They estimated by 2027, the industry would be worth $61.6 billion.

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