Integration of explanatory and empirical crop models for greenhouse management support

In the management of greenhouse nurseries the grower has to deal with complex dynamic optimisation problems. In many of these problems the behaviour of crops is an important issue. Crop models, that formalise our knowledge about the crop, could thus be an important element of management tools in horticultural practice, but their role has been quite limited up till now. Yet, it is likely that such tools will become more important and that their implementation in future management tools will become more feasible than before. An important role for such model based support systems will be in the design, evaluation and adaptation of cultivation schedules (blueprints). Models that are able to deal with such complex problems are built of many sub-models, because they have to cover the full problem domain, to provide useful answers. Relevant sub-models could be arranged in a parallel structure, where they sub run basically independent of each other, using the same inputs. Alternatively, output of (photosynthesis based) sub-models could provide input to other sub-models. For many applications it is in fact irrelevant what the source of information provided to a decision maker or an automated control system is, as long as the information i