 Dayton
"Dirt"
Weekly Blog entries
by Tom Dayton
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January 20, 2012
We are in the depth of winter and the planting in the greenhouse seems to go
on and on.
This coming week we’ll be receiving about 10,000 cuttings of various annual
flowers from Guatemala. These cuttings will require a light misting until
rooted and in addition some of the varieties need to be dipped in a weak
solution of IBA (Indolebutyric Acid) and supplemental lighting with a high
pressure sodium lamp that will provide about 1000 foot candles of light
during these cloudy dark winter days.
Another aspect of our winter growing is weekly testing of the growing media
of the plants to make sure that the pH remains in an acceptable of 5.6 to
6.2, depending on the plant. The fertilizer or salt level is monitored along
with the pH to ensure that it is neither too high nor too low. Values that
are too high might burn the roots and could damage or kill the plant. Values
of salt readings that are too low indicate not enough fertilizer has been
applied to keep growth going so that the plants are full and beautiful for
sales in May.
It takes a lot of preparation and planning well ahead of the planting to
develop a system to yield a good crop of flowers and make it profitable!
I remember the “old days” when we sold 8, 4½ geraniums in a wooden basket
for $8.00 or $9.00. The trouble began when natural gas prices literally went
through the roof and many greenhouses in our area were of the energy hungry,
single pane glass type. Needless to say, the geranium greenhouses went out
of business which caused these inexpensive geraniums to vanish.
Today, new types of compact geraniums can be grown in packs that have 6, 3
inch pots that enables our customer to purchase plants at an affordable
price and allows us to make a reasonable profit. For sure, the free market
has brought a whirlwind of changes in just a few short years.
Tom
January 13, 2012
The
warm weather this past week has been welcomed by almost everyone but as I
stated in my January 6th blog it can create problems for plants too.
On the upside, anyone who heats with natural gas and is on a floating rate,
costs are going down. In fact the gas company may even run out of storage
space due to heavy production in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia and
because of mild winter temperatures. Well do I remember the dreaded gas
meter indicator clicking round and round when the price for the gas alone
was closer to 8.00 per MCF instead of the now 4.50 on the floating rate.
While the nursery will save greatly on natural gas costs this year as
compared to 2 and 3 years ago, other costs have risen such as pot and flat
prices for our greenhouse product. However, we did lower prices on many
greenhouse products last year and did not raise others that have remained
the same for years and found that our total revenue and profit was up over
the last two year’s average.
I’d like to see such a strategy of some lower prices in the grocery store
but I think that would be just wishful thinking.
Our seminars are getting closer and with mine being the first one on
February 4th, I’m having to do a lot of research as I’m finding out that I
don’t know enough about some of the trees I’ll be speaking about.
So far, winter has been “good” to us but we still have a long way to go.
~Tom
January 6, 2012
The weather is acting
more like it’s late March to very early April instead of the depth of winter
in January!
A little colder temperatures would be nice for our plants in cold storage as
a few varieties of plants want to break out of dormancy and fungus problems
increase because of the warmth and high humidity in the storage houses.
Contrary to popular belief, I don’t run away to Florida all winter as I’m
busy in the greenhouse, busy reviewing spring orders, busy researching new
products, busy with the upcoming seminars and busy with tax work. Winter
for me is an opportunity to get a lot of behind the scenes work done.
Be sure to review our upcoming seminars that start February 4th that are
not only educational but give a welcome break from winter’s grip.
~Tom |
