The Palisade Insectary, 750 37 8/10 Road, celebrated the completion of its new growhouse building and upgrades to existing greenhouses with a ribbon-cutting ceremony March 23.

The new growhouse adds four separate rooms of growing space with vertical growing capacity to help rear biocontrol agents (such as wasps, mites and midges) that work to control non-native weed and insect pests, the Colorado Department of Agriculture said in a news release. The new structure will allow the insectary to grow more noxious weeds in a controlled environment to help with research and deployment of biocontrol agents.

The growhouse has no windows, and the four grow rooms will be powered by LED lighting and have specific temperature settings to allow for extended growing time, the news release said.

The new building is dedicated to Brant Harrison, a peach farmer, owner of Kokopelli Farms, and Palisade community leader who passed away in 2023. Harrison was a leader in agriculture, converting his farm to organic in 1991, working with the Palisade Insectary on biocontrol, helping eradicate the Japanese beetle from the Western Slope, and serving on the Colorado Agricultural Commission from 2015 to 2023.