Water at the Root: Revolutionizing Agriculture at Planteva Farms

managing the water behind the food we grow has never been more important.

As of September 30th, 2025, 85% of Canada's agricultural landscape was classified as in drought. 

Planteva Farms is getting to the root of the issue.

With a seedling production method that uses up to 90% less water than traditional growing methods, Planteva Farms is proving that stronger seedlings and smarter water use go hand-in-hand.

A Healthy Start

At Planteva Farms, the goal is simple: grow stronger, healthier seedlings that help farmers get more out of the water and resources they already use.

It’s not always about using less water in the field. It’s about giving crops a stronger start so every resource goes further.

According to Bryce Nagels, CEO of Planteva Farms, focusing on early-stage seedlings is something that is often overlooked,

“Everyone's focused on finishing crops. We decided to focus all of our intentions and energy on that first phase because if you do that really well, it's actually going to carry through and have a big impact on the plants as they mature and grow and become something that actually is sold and then ends up in the customer's hands.”

Bryce Nagels, Chief Executive Officer Of Planteva Farms

For Robert Hecht, Chief Operating Officer, health is wealth.

“If you can provide a higher quality seedling, it's going do a lot more with the resources it's given.”

Robert Hecht, Chief Operating Officer, Planteva Farms

While proper seedling production benefits how water resources are optimized on farms, Planteva are also changing the game on traditional methods of nurseries, further saving water.

The Solution

Traditional plant nurseries typically spread their seedlings out over a very wide surface.

The floors get flooded, allowing trays to soak up the water, and whatever isn’t used gets drained and wasted.

What Planteva Farms does is quite different.

“We have a stationary water system, so all the trays are going to rotate through the growing unit. They get lifted and weighed, and based on weight, we determine whether they need to be watered or not.”

This system allows Planteva to reduce their in-house water consumption for seedling production by 90%.

According to Hecht, that 90% is staggering when you consider agricultural areas in constant states of drought.

“The societal impact of what Planteva is doing is really dramatic when you factor in access to freshwater for farms is a diminishing resource.”

Healthier seedlings are also having massive implications on crop yields. They also help control the other nuisance farmers face at the early stage of a plants life: pests and disease, which can lead to massive water and resource waste.

“What we've seen is that we're typically able to generate a thirty to forty percent increase in yield.”, says Nagels.

When it comes to lettuce grown in Quebec, this translates to water savings equivalent to nearly 50,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

And this is just for one type of lettuce.

Establishing Deeper Roots

With their presence well established in Quebec and other parts of Canada, Planteva’s reach is expanding.

One of the companies’ recent milestones is a strategic partnership with Weber family farms in California’s Salinas Valley.

The Salinas Valley in California, the "Vegetable Basket" of North America. 

The region is a major agricultural hub that is responsible for about 60% of vegetable production for North America, according to Nagels.

“If we can bring change and impact around the way that things are produced there, it actually has a very highly measurable impact for water conservation and environmental impact as well.”

Construction of a phase-two farm is anticipated to begin construction starting in 2027.

Their flagship Montreal-North facility is also expanding, with construction currently underway and operations set to begin by Fall 2026.

Expansion of Planteva's Montreal-North facility.

The role of AquaAction 

For Robert Hecht, being part of AquaAction played an important role in helping shape Planteva’s journey during its earliest stages.

“Being part of AquaAction as someone not coming from an agricultural background was an instrumental part of educating me as to how important and impactful technologies that can save resources are.”

Beyond mentorship and support, the experience also connected Planteva with a wider community of entrepreneurs, innovators, and strategic partners all working toward the same goal: building a more resilient future.

“And by meeting other like minded people in the cohort was invaluable for me in terms of just meeting other entrepreneurs. Meeting strategic partners was something that was really helpful to us, especially at our earliest stages.”

Robert Hecht, 3rd edition of AquaEntrepreneur

As water challenges continue to grow across North America, solutions like Planteva Farms show that meaningful change does not always begin on a massive scale.

Sometimes, it starts much earlier.

It starts at the root.