Experimental blocks
Replicated open-field plots laid out for randomised complete block design, with positions surveyed and recorded. Guard rows and hydraulic isolation available where drift or runoff is a concern.
The site
Facilities and instrumentation
A working agricultural site configured as a research instrument — replicated blocks, protected cultivation, controlled irrigation, on-site weather recording and a sample handling workflow.
Location
Saint-Amand-les-Eaux, Hauts-de-France
The center sits in the Nord department, in a temperate oceanic climate on silty loam soils — conditions representative of a large share of Northern European arable and vegetable production. A result generated here transfers to a meaningful commercial geography rather than to a microclimate.
The site is within practical reach of Lille, Brussels and Paris for client visits, and within a day’s travel of most of the research institutions we collaborate with.
Infrastructure
What the site can do
Protected cultivation
Covered growing area for trials requiring shelter from rainfall, extended season, or controlled salinity and water-deficit regimes that open-field conditions cannot deliver reliably.
Nursery and propagation
Tray and cell propagation for germination screening, seedling establishment trials and uniform transplant production ahead of field placement.
Controlled irrigation
Metered delivery with per-plot volume recording — the infrastructure that makes matched-water control arms possible rather than aspirational.
Weather recording
On-site instrumentation logging temperature, rainfall, humidity, wind and solar radiation, correlated against every measurement round in the report.
Sample handling
Workflow for destructive sampling: washing, separation, fresh weighing, drying and dry mass determination, with chain of custody recorded.
Imaging and measurement
Root imaging, canopy photography from fixed positions and standardised measurement equipment calibrated across the season.
Application equipment
Calibrated application equipment with per-plot volume control and full logging of dose, dilution, operator and prevailing conditions.
Demonstration plots
Larger visual plots laid out for grower days and investor visits, held to the same measurement discipline as the research blocks.
Site record
Crops in the trial rotation
Species we hold baseline variance data for, which means a new trial in these crops can be powered against real historical figures rather than an assumption.
Solanaceae
Tomato, pepper — fruit count and per-fruit weight endpoints across the harvest window.
Leafy vegetables
Lettuce, parsley — short cycle, high sensitivity to establishment conditions.
Legumes
Sugar pea, green bean — emergence, nodulation and pod yield.
Root vegetables
Radish — fast cycle, useful as a rapid screening crop ahead of longer trials.
Cucurbits
Courgette — high biomass turnover and repeated harvest measurement.
Soft fruit
Strawberry — quality, calibre and repeated-pick yield distribution.
Get started
Come and see the plots
Site visits are welcome throughout the growing season, and are the fastest way to understand what a trial here would actually involve. We will walk you through active blocks.