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- Greenhouse Expands with Transplants
- By Lisa Lieberman
California Correspondent
- With cultivation costs becoming more expensive each year and government restrictions growing tighter, it’s as important as ever to make sure that plants in the fields get off to good starts.
As a result, it seems that more processing tomato and fresh vegetable growers are turning to transplants rather than growing plants from seed. Field transplants have established root systems, so they are generally more adept at fighting off diseases and weeds in the earlier stages of life than plants grown directly from seeds in the field, said Edwin Fichtner, the nursery manager for Plantel Central Valley Nursery, LLC., in Huron, Calif.
“When you start out with transplants in the field, you’re starting out with an established crop and non-established weeds, so you’re giving the plants a head start,” Fichtner said.
Fewer weeds means less labor and cultivation costs, and often times fewer pesticide applications and thinnings, Fichtner said.
In order to accommodate the growing demand for transplants, Plantel has expanded its Huron nursery from three greenhouse acres to six greenhouse acres in the last three years.
In the next few years, the company may increase its greenhouse facilities to 15 acres, Fichtner said.
The company services about two dozen large and small growers in the Central California Valley as well as the deserts in California and in Yuma, Ariz., Fichtner said.
In addition to tomato transplants, the nursery also grows cauliflower, broccoli, red onion, bell pepper, seedless watermelon plants, strawberries and herbs. Oregano, basil, and fennel are a few of the 15 different herbs the nursery grows.
The three-year old nursery is an offshoot of its parent company, Plantel Nursery, Inc., Santa Maria, which is on California’s central coast.
Plantel’s owners decided to open a satellite nursery further inland in Huron so it could be closer to its Central Valley growers, according to Fichtner.
Greater availability of more heat resistant varieties of vegetables made it possible to grow transplants in the Valley, which typically experiences much hotter summers than the coast does, Fichtner said.
The fact that the transplants are grown inland rather than on the coast means that Plantel can better simulate the actual growing conditions of California’s inland fields where the plants will eventually be planted.
While the idea of most greenhouses is to protect the plants, Plantel’s philosophy is that it is just as important to expose greenhouse plants to outside elements, said Will Taylor, Plantel’s greenhouse grower.
“If you grow plants in a greenhouse with the optimum temperature and humidity and you put them into a field in a natural environment (without acclimating them), you’ll shock them,” Taylor said.
To this end, Plantel’s Huron facility has retractable walls, roofs, and shades. These can be opened and closed depending on weather conditions. The entire greenhouse is hooked up to an Argus Information System, which measures light, wind speed, wind direction, temperature and humidity.
“We can use those measurements as tools to automate the greenhouse to know when it’s too windy and to close its walls. Or the computer can leave the walls open and close the roofs when it’s raining,” Taylor said.
Most of the cultivation at the greenhouse is done mechanically, Taylor said.
The plants are mechanically seeded, irrigated, fertilized and if needed, sprayed with insecticides with an overhead water boom that evenly spreads all of the inputs, Taylor said.
“We want uniformity in the greenhouse. We want to know that every single plant has had the same amount of water. We want the plants to have the same exact temperature, the same amount of heat, the same amount of everything,” Taylor said.
Uniform cultivation conditions guarantees uniformity in the plant stands when they’re ready to go into the fields, Fichtner said.
“It’s important to have uniformly (sized) plants, because if you have plants that start to produce fruit at fluctuating times, your crews are going to have to make multiple passes through the field and only pick a portion of the crop at one time and come back later to pick. That’s an added expense,” Fichtner said.
Plantel also uses a system to keep the plants uniformly warm and dry in the greenhouse. Once the plants reach a few inches in height, the plants are brushed with an overhead brusher after each irrigation. Keeping the leaves dry helps reduce the risk of disease, Fichtner said.
Plantel uses infrared heaters to keep the plants warm. The infrared heaters heat the soil and the plants directly instead of the air. This method of heating helps save energy and ensures a more evenflow of temperature than forced air heating, Fichtner said.
When it comes time to leave the greenhouse, all transplants are forklifted onto trucks, Taylor said.
“No human hands touch the trays until the plants are actually transplanted in the fields,” Taylor said.
Reducing human contact with the plants is another way to keep the plants healthy, Taylor said. This way, if one plant is diseased, there’s less chance of a worker spreading the disease from one area of the nursery to another, Taylor said.
In the same way that attention to detail is an important part of the Plantel’s operation, diversification of risk is another key ingredient in the company’s overall financial health, Fichtner said.
Plantel has about three acres worth of strawberries planted in 1,200 sq. feet of space, Fichtner said. The plants are grown four plants per pot in vertical columns eight pots high.
Plantel had strawberries available this year in late January. This year, Plantel is hoping to hit the November and December markets when there are few California strawberries on the market.
“There is fruit coming out of Mexico and Florida at this time, but it doesn’t ship well,” Taylor said. In general, West Coast buyers prefer California strawberries when they can get them, Taylor said.
The underlying goal of the nursery is to grow both transplants and crops and market them locally, Fichtner said. This idea appeals to both growers and buyers, Fichtner said.
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