Horticultural and Environmental Sciences Innovation Centre
(HESIC)
Niagara College
Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON
ABOUT HESIC
Niagara College’s Horticultural and Environmental Sciences Innovation Centre (HESIC) is a leader in industry-driven horticultural applied research and innovation in Canada, specializing in greenhouse and controlled environment agriculture. HESIC focuses on validating and testing innovations through collaborative research and development with industry partners.
HESIC specializes in performing growth trials with horticultural crops that evaluate innovations, technologies, and improvements, contributing to their development and moving them toward commercialization. The Centre’s expertise includes assessing technologies, innovations, production practices, soils, media amendments, pest and disease control approaches, and more. HESIC also offers research in cannabis cultivation, along with genomics and variety testing services for a variety of crops and growth configurations.
With access to a specialized research greenhouse with individual bays allowing for various growing configurations, a postharvest lab, analytical lab, vertical grow room, Health Canada-licensed cannabis growing facility and a team of experts, HESIC provides a collaborative platform for companies seeking to advance their horticultural innovations. HESIC clients also benefit from tax credits related to research and development, and may also be able to take advantage of government funding programs to help offset the cost of services.
Since its inception, the Centre has developed a strong reputation for industry-responsive applied research and has become an anchor for innovation in Ontario’s agriculture sector. All HESIC research projects are industry-driven, meaning they are developed in direct response to partner needs—whether it’s validating a new input, optimizing production practices, or evaluating a new technology for commercialization. HESIC also provides technical services, such as work in genomics, and variety testing. The Centre is critical in bridging early-stage innovation and market readiness by offering expertise in technology validation, growth trials, production system evaluation, and integrated pest management (IPM).
In 2025, HESIC moved into a specialized, 13,541-square-foot research greenhouse at Niagara College’s Daniel J. Patterson Campus in Niagara-on-the-Lake. This new greenhouse is in addition to their already functional Health Canada-licensed cannabis cultivation facility. The new facility is entirely dedicated to industry research and technical services and includes five independently controlled research bays, a vertical grow room, a postharvest lab, specialized equipment, a fully equipped analytical laboratory and a soon to be additional Health Canada-licensed cannabis cultivation space. The greenhouse facility design allows for precise environmental control over variables such as temperature, humidity, lighting, and CO₂—supporting diverse applied research trials, from plant growth and production practices to IPM and sustainable agriculture.
Contact HESIC
Kimberley Cathline
Associate Director, Horticultural and Environmental Sciences Innovation Centre
135 Taylor Road, Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON L0S 1J0
Services offered in: English
Request Interactive Visit: http://interactivevisits.ca
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RESEARCH AND INNOVATION EXPERTISE
EXPERTISE
- Product Testing, Validation and Development
- Genomics Services and Variety Testing
- Controlled Environment Agriculture Growth Trials
- Cannabis Cultivation and Breeding
Previous Research Projects:
- Evaluation of biochar-amended media on fertilization requirements and growth of basil and gerbera in greenhouses
- Innovative breeding: Achieving targeted homozygous genetic modifications in multiple Cannabis sativa cultivars within a controlled indoor environment
- Validation study of spent gourmet mushroom substrate as a media amendment in crop production within a greenhouse
- Phytotoxicity evaluation of dipping unrooted Cannabis sativa cuttings in a novel biopesticide product
- Sweet pepper variety trial
Fields of projects:
- Controlled Environment Agriculture
- Genomics and Plant Breeding
- Variety Testing
- Sustainable Agriculture
- Cannabis Cultivation
- Integrated Pest Management
- Circular Economy
- Plant Health
TECHNOLOGY SECTORS
- Agriculture
EQUIPMENT AND LABS
| Equipment | Function |
|---|---|
| CONVIRON GEN2000 Growth Chamber | Controlled growth chamber with a range from 11.3ft² to 45.2ft² growth area for tall plants, short plants, tissue culture, controlled pollination, and entomology trials |
| Vertical Grow Room | 43m² vertical grow space with ebb and flood tables and LED lights for vertical production and propagation trials |
| TA.XTplusC Texture Analyzer | Evaluating firmness and post-harvest quality of fruits and vegetables |
| Mettler Toledo Titrator Excellence T5 and InMotion™ Flex Autosampler | Testing the titratable acidity of fruits and vegetables |
| Orange Photonics LightLab 3 High Sensitivity Cannabis Analyzer | Quantifying standard and minor cannabinoids and terpenes in cannabis |
| Konica Minolta CR400 Chroma Meter | Evaluating the colour characteristics in fruits and vegetables |
| BINDER FED 720 and Thermo Scientific Heratherm™ Advanced Protocol Drying Ovens | Removing moisture content of plant material for total dry weight biomass measurements |
| Automatic Seed Counter | For fast and precise quantification of dry seeds |
| Seed Extractor | Mechanism for harvesting seeds from dried flower crops, including cannabis |
| ATAGO PAL-1 Digital Handheld Pocket Refractometer | Measuring the refractive index of fruit and vegetable juices to obtain °Brix (Total Soluble Solids [TSS]) |
| Phenospex DroughtSpotter | Scales for precision irrigation and collecting high quality gravimetric data including drought stress tolerance |
| Phenospex Traitfinder | Digital phenotyping sensors and multispectral analysis for non-destructive 3D data collection |
| Hoogendoorn Aquabalance System | Measuring weight, drain, and pH/EC of highwire crops for optimized irrigation and drought stress trials |
| LI-6800 Portable Photosynthesis System | Collecting photosynthetic gas exchange and chlorophyll a fluorescence measurements |
| Opti-Sciences MPM-100 Multi Pigment Meter | Meter using transmittance and fluorescence for measuring chlorophyll, anthocyanin, and flavanol content and nitrogen flavonol index |
| LICOR LI-3000C Portable Area Meter | For non-destructive leaf area measurements of plants |
| LICOR LI-600PF Porometer Fluorometer | Porometer with Pulse-Amplitude Modulation (PAM) fluorometer for measuring stomatal conductance and chlorophyll a fluorescence |
| LICOR LI-180 Spectrometer | Measuring light spectrum via PAR (as color-specific photosynthetic photon flux density [PPFD]), photon flux density (PFD), irradiance (W/m²), and other parameters |
| Spectrum Technologies SPAD 502 Plus Chlorophyll Meter | Non-destructive measurements of relative chlorophyll content in plant material |
| QuantStudio™ 3 Real-Time PCR System, 96-well, 0.1 mL | Quantifying DNA amplification in real time (qPCR) |
| NanoDrop™ One/OneC Microvolume UV-Vis Spectrophotometer | Measuring nucleic acid/protein concentration & purity via absorbance |
| SimpliAmp™ Thermal Cycler | DNA amplification (PCR) |
| E-Gel™ Power Snap Plus Electrophoresis Systems | DNA/RNA/protein separation & visualization |
- Walker Environmental Group Inc.
- Seminis Vegetable Seeds Inc. (Bayer CropScience)
- Plant Products Inc.
- 4Plant Corporation
- Terra Optima Labs Inc.
- Anatis Bioprotection Inc.
- 360 Energy Inc.
- International Zeolite Corp.
- Heartee Foods
- GrowDoc App Inc.
- Lifecycle Organics Inc.
- EcoWool Canada Inc.
- HiGarden International Inc.
- Ogena Solutions Canada Corp.
- VCycene Inc.
- Aerobiovac
- Vineland Research & Innovation Centre
- A.M.A. Horticulture
- Zwart Systems Inc.
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