Show and tell

Many topics were covered during the two-day Uncensored event. One hot-button issue was pollinator health. Many of the attendees sell to big-box retailers, and those stores have changed label and production requirements in response to pressure from consumers and bee advocacy groups.

Jim Berry, founder of Texas’ J. Berry Nurseries, stopped using neonics at Home Depot’s request. It has been tougher to control whiteflies without them, he says.

Alice Farris of Ontario’s Woodhill Greenhouses also stopped using neonics, but she believes the Home Depot’s campaign actually communicated a positive message on its tags.

The 1-inch by 4½-inch tag in question contains the following statements on the front: “This plant is protected from problematic aphids, whiteflies, beetles, mealybugs, and other unwanted pests by Neonicotinoids.” The back of the tag reads, “Treated by Neonicotinoids. These pesticides are approved by the EPA.” It also includes a link to the Home Depot’s website for more information.

Berry disagrees with the “positive message” take.

“To me, those tags still say ‘Don’t buy me. I’m covered with poison,’” he says. “It’s forced us to go away from neonics.”

Now that Home Depot and Lowe’s have begun the process of phasing out neonics entirely, many growers are switching to older, less-effective chemistries, according to several growers in attendance. Lloyd Traven is co-owner of Pennsylvania’s Peace Tree Farm, a certified organic greenhouse operation. But he still believes there is a place for neonics, and that a conversation should be had about responsible use.

“In God we trust, but everyone else had better show me some data,” he says. “This is a valuable tool for growers. If it’s used with justification, it’s fine.”

Automate to innovate

Automation was the biggest topic of discussion at Uncensored. At the previous year’s meeting, several growers with automation experience were peppered with questions from their peers who wanted to know how they did it, how it worked, and how much it cost.

“This industry was built on cheap labor and cheap transportation. But we don’t have any of these anymore,” says George Hackney, owner and president of Hackney Nursery, Quincy, Fla.

This year, the discussion was more of a conversation than an interrogation. Almost everyone had automated some aspect of their operation, and they were eager to share the details.

Chad Corso of Corso’s Perennials, Sandusky, Ohio, said his operation was having success with Label Gator – a machine that prints barcodes and labels, allowing the nursery to buy plain pots and print on the fly. Corso’s used to place stickers on pots by hand – a very time-consuming process.

“[Label Gator] cut so much labor, it paid for itself in six months,” he says.

For many growers, the prospect of automating is daunting. But that’s because they’re trying to do too much right away. The nursery and greenhouse operators who had success automating aspects of their operations often started small.

“The trick with automation is how to work it into what you’re doing,” says Steve Black, owner of Raemelton Farm, Adamstown, Md.

During the last two years, Raemelton Farm has implemented an automated irrigation system. The system covers the nursery’s field production with drip tube over the production ground and electric valves out in the field.

Five years ago, the nursery partnered with USDA on a research project with the aim of developing a system of buried moisture sensors in the tree roots as a way to control irrigation on/off events.

The use of a clock-based controller means Raemelton Farm doesn’t have to devote personnel to the menial task of opening and closing valves. The computer handles it automatically.

“There is absolutely no reason to be having one of your really experienced, seasoned, dependable guys sticking his thumb in pots to decide whether to turn the water on or not,” Black says.

With the moisture driven system, the nursery has a set point of 25 percent available water in the soil, and if it goes below that, the system will automatically run then re-measure the soil moisture. When it tops 25 percent, the system stops. If you get rain, the system just doesn’t turn on until the soil moisture dips below that 25 percent mark. And when it does, it only runs enough to reach that mark again.

It took several attempts for the researchers to determine the best spot to measure moisture in the root zone. For most trees, the majority of roots are in the top foot of soil. Even if they have roots deeper than that, all the feeder roots are in that top foot, Black says. After trying 6, 12, 18 and 24 inches as part of the research project, the nursery decided 6 inches is the optimal placement. More consistent irrigation has led to consistent growth, which has its own advantages.

“Any continuous growers, like maples, dogwoods, they never stop flushing growth over the whole summer,” Black says. “Even the trees that only flush once a year like oaks, they’re building carbohydrates all summer long. We add a month and a half of good, solid growing season just by having consistent soil moisture.”

The hardware is made by Decagon Devices, a Pullman, Wa., company that specializes in soil moisture sensors. It can certainly be used to save water, but that’s up to the grower, many of whom are inclined to push plants hard and fast.

“Plant growth rate is nice, the lack of plant stress is nice, but the big value is taking a whole person off the payroll who was opening and closing valves,” Black says.

At his nursery, George Hackney uses spacing robots from Harvest Automation in combination with an AgriNomix TRIKE horticultural forklift.

The Florida nursery uses the forks to pick up scattered Knockout rose containers, then place them where the robots can quickly reconsolidate them.

The nursery had a lengthy trial and error process before they found containers that would work well with the TRIKE and fork system. Nursery Supplies sells a wide-lip container that is easier for the TRIKE to grab and for the robots to pick up.

“It’s not easy and it’s not quick,” he says of the process. “But it beats having people filling wagons, walking them back in and regrouping plants.”

Labor and conveyors

Brian Decker hates every dollar he spends on labor. The president of Decker’s Nursery, Groveport, Ohio, would much rather spend that money on infrastructure or mechanical improvements. Two years ago, Decker decided the weak link in his nursery was the tagging program.

Orders were pulled onto a trailer, the crew would tag five or six plants, pick them up and set them on the ground to create a space on the trailer to work.

“I’m 6’1” and bent down at a 30 degree angle trying to tag plants and I realized this entire system was absolutely ludicrous,” Decker says.

Let your people do the stuff only people can do. Automate everything else. — Steve BLack, Raemelton Farm, Adamstown, Md.

So he purchased another conveyor system. The loading supervisor can adjust the speed of the conveyor belt based on the plant – for instance, it can be slowed down for a thorny barberry. Plants are labeled as they come down the conveyor and fed onto a collection table.

Decker also replaced the original conveyor stands with stands made of old roller racks. This is helpful because when loading a semi, his crew can quickly assemble the conveyors to reach into that truck and simply roll the entire drive unit and all the attached conveyor pieces out as the truck fills. No matter what type of loading configuration they face, it’s easy for his crew to feed plant material into the truck.

His crew loved the system. Because of the conveyors’ length, they were no longer out in the weather, plus everyone was more comfortable standing up straight.

“Countless customers think we’re rocket scientists for loading trucks this way,” Decker says. “That’s what amazes me. I did it as a kid countless times, loading and unloading trucks (the old way), but I can’t fathom why you would make the decision to not spend $15,000-$20,000 on a set.”

Teamwork as a motivator

Mark West, managing partner at Cedar Valley Nurseries, had his own conveyor story. The lightweight modules and accompanying gas generators were the object of skepticism and derision at the Oklahoma nursery when they first arrived.

After containers are filled with soil in the potting barn, they are placed on the conveyors and moved into the field. During the shipping season, the conveyors are used to load product into trucks. West says some of his workers can outwork the conveyors, which made adoption of the new technology tricky.

“We have guys that will carry three 3-gallon pots in each hand,” he says. “The problem is those guys are hard to find.”

To incentivize the crew to use the conveyors, West set up a team bonus system based on how many pots are moved per day. During the spring filling season, crew members can make 125 percent of their normal weekly salary in bonus alone.

“They were resistant to the conveyors at first until they realized this made them money,” West says. “They realized if they didn’t get as tired by the end of the day, they could move more pots. As long as we get 22,000 3-gallons per day down on pads, I’m happy.”

Many growers struggle to implement automation solutions because they’ve done well with manual processes and have a workforce that is reluctant to change. West incorporated conveyors into its business, and improved attitudes toward the system by empowering its employees to decide whether the new or the old way is best.

“They’re trying to make money; I’m trying to get the job done, and I try to minimize the amount of time I spend preventing them from doing one or the other,” West says. “I have to sign on in my mind to ‘You may pay a huge bonus this week, but the work got done with fewer workers than it would have taken before.’”

West is not concerned about employees working too hard to abuse the system.

“If they do more in the same time period, I still won,” he says. “Yeah, I paid more today to get some of tomorrow’s work done but I still essentially paid the same amount. I could hire more guys to get it done even faster, but remember their team bonus. They’re all dividing the same pile of cash. So if one guy says, ‘we need to add my uncle and cousin to be part of the team,’ the other guys will say no – they’re going to take money out of their cut.”

Aside from bonuses for production, a team can be fined for poor quality or off counts. The workers police themselves, so there is a bit of pressure applied to anyone who isn’t pulling his or her weight. The team bonus is the driver behind the program’s success.