The Bootcamp taught you how to grow: water chemistry, media, systems, climate basics and daily maintenance. This course is about everything that turns a working system into a farm that supplies the market reliably, profitably and legally. Two days of theory and planning in a group of six, with homework before and between the days, so you leave with a plan for your own operation and the templates to run it.
Next course: Monday 9 and Tuesday 10 November 2026 · 09:00 to 16:00 each day, lunch break 13:00 to 14:00
Prosperita Trade Warehouse, Windhoek · 6 seats · N$4,900 (10% off for Bootcamp participants)
Who it is for
Bootcamp graduates and growers who already run a hydroponic system and want to sell what they grow: to a WhatsApp group, a market stall, restaurants, retail or a distributor. You should know your pH from your EC and have kept plants alive for a season. If you have not done the Bootcamp yet, start there; the two fit together and the Bootcamp earns you the alumni discount.
Why this course is different
- Built on real operations: the content comes from systems we run and have built for others in Namibia, not from a textbook written for Dutch glasshouses.
- Your numbers, not ours: the homework is your site, your water, your crop and your market. By day two you are working on your own plan.
- Small on purpose: six seats, so every participant's operation gets discussed in the room.
- Honest about cost: we talk about what automation, greenhouses and inputs really cost in Namibia, and when they do not pay.
What we cover
1 Day one
Run the system properly
- Fertigation in depth: pH and EC management, bleeding, high lime in your water, recipes, how deficiencies show on top and bottom leaves, and knowing what is in your water before you add anything. How to deal with salts already in the water, or make use of them with the advanced nutrient calculator.
- Crop steering: using EC, irrigation and climate to push a crop in the direction you want.
- Greenhouses and climate control: tunnel greenhouses as the baseline, roll-up sides, dealing with heat, tracking data, which crops for which house, and maintaining the greenhouse as the asset it is.
- Tools, automation and technology: automated dosing, how to decide what tooling is worth it, maintenance, and where sensors and AI help a one-person farm.
- Input management, downtime and hygiene: planning your inputs, a backup plan, UPS and generator, and the hand wash and foot wash that stop the biggest problem in any greenhouse: people.
2 Day two
Run the business
- Sowing and harvesting schedules that match what you have sold, not what you hope to sell.
- Assessing demand and winning customers: grow what the market wants. The path from friends and family to a market stall, restaurants, small retail, supermarkets and distributors, and what each step demands of you.
- Financial model and cash flow: a one-year runway for a greenhouse operation, worked on your numbers, and how to prepare for a funding application.
- Staff and roles: what to expect from workers, what they need from you, and who carries which responsibility.
- Pest and disease management: what to buy and what is available in Namibia, withholding periods and safety protocols.
- Record keeping, traceability and SOPs: the sheets and procedures a buyer expects, provided as templates.
- Regulation and governing bodies: import restrictions on inputs and registering with the Namibian Agronomic Board.
What you take home
Your own production plan and one-year financial model, the SOP pack and record keeping sheets, a slide reference, and a working file you can hand to an AI assistant so it knows your farm. Plus a seat at the table with the other five.
Homework and preparation
Before day one you will be asked about your site, your water and the people you could sell to. Talking to a restaurant owner or a shop before the course is part of it. Between the days you work on your plan. Expect a few hours of preparation; it is what makes the two days worth N$4,900.
Taught by growers
Deane Spall has spent a decade in regenerative agriculture and built the systems at Mariental and Gmundner Lodge. Justus Voigt runs Habitat Hydroponics, Namibia's hydroponics retailer and Bluelab partner, and builds the tools that run its systems. Both teach the Bootcamp.
