According to Kale Harbick, a research associate at Cornell University and a part of the Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering Consortium (GLASE), automation’s place in the greenhouse industry, and how much new technology has become ingrained in growing, depends on how it is being evaluated.

“There’s the production automation — like moving plants around and harvesting and packing and all that,” Harbick says. “That side has seen sizeable growth. It’s much more common in Europe now, especially in the Netherlands, but some of those technologies are making their way over here. It’s kind of amazing how much labor a setup like that can save.” He adds that there are automation options to control all aspects of a greenhouse environment — such as heating, cooling and ventilation — with technology able to regulate specific light levels soon to come.

Harbick says that by correctly utilizing automation, growers can make transitioning from season to season — winter to spring, for example — easier.  

“Absolutely, yes, [it can make it easier],” Harbick says. “Both on the automation side and on the control side. The relative benefit largely depends on where you are and what you are growing because the local climate can change so much. For instance: If I was growing lettuce in New York and Georgia, they would be completely different environments. They’d almost have to be totally different systems to make it work.” 

Here are three ways Harbick says automation can help greenhouse operations easily transition from the cold winter to spring. 

1. Automation can help combat location-based issues. 

A major reason why automation technology, in addition to other growing technologies, developed was because of consumer needs, Harbick says. For example, in upstate New York where Cornell is located, produce growers need to be able to grow leafy greens and other crops in the winter because they have customers demanding locally grown, fresh vegetables year-round. On the floriculture side, greenhouses supplying independent garden centers or big box stores with spring bedding plants can’t have the beginning of their growing season delayed due to a later than expected snowfall. Similar issues could impact growers across the Midwest too, Harbick says.

“You have to have some kind of controls to be able to produce when you need to,” Harbick says. “There’s no other way to do it.” 

For flower growers, he says this could mean relying on an environmental control system — technology Harbick says is developed and automated in ways other technology isn’t ready to be yet — to optimize a growing environment even when conditions are not optimal. He adds that in the future, growers will be able to automate their lights for a specific light level instead of only being able to set a minimum; GLASE is currently working to bring that technology to market after finishing its own testing with the help of growers and lighting companies.

2. Automation can help maintain a balanced environment. 

Many growers primarily focus on their daily light integral (DLI), but pay little attention to the other parts of their growing environment, Harbick says. One issue that he says is common in certain houseplant varieties and greens is tip burn when growers put so much emphasis on light that it negatively impacts other environmental factors. 

“I think ventilation is often a key thing that people don’t pay enough attention to,” he says. “If I’m trying to grow as fast as possible year-round, the DLI is one part of it. But it doesn’t work unless I have enough evaporative transpiration (ET) and if I don’t have enough ET, then my plants will get tip burn even if I’m meeting my light targets.”

By correctly utilizing automation, growers can make transitioning from season to season — winter to spring, for example — easier.

So how can growers get the necessary amount of ET? It’s simple, Harbick says. 

“You need to control the humidity so that it’s not too humid — which means in the winter you have to ventilate a lot and ventilate enough as the season changes and maybe stays cold,” he says. “And that’s counterintuitive to a lot of growers and a lot of growers say that that’s ridiculous. But if I don’t bring that moist air out, then the plants can’t grow as fast.” 

3. Automation can help reduce costs.

According to Harbick, one of the major ways growers can lose money is by being inefficient with their energy use. For instance, if a grower needs to keep using a boiler to heat their greenhouses into the spring, growers can pre-set and automate heat levels and only adjust as need be. Or, if a grower is dealing with a warmer-than-expected spring, Harbick says the right type of automation can help automate fans and keep temperatures at an ideal level and not use unnecessary amounts of energy.

Additionally, no matter what level of automation a grower is utilizing, Harbick says it’s vital to still conduct regular check-ups and maintenance to ensure a successful growing season. 

“It’s important to have someone on staff or contracted out that has facilities experience,” he says. “Not every grower knows their way around this stuff. If you don’t do regular maintenance, you run the risk of catastrophic crop loss. If something breaks, are you going to be equipped to handle that situation? The answer has to be yes.” 

Plant growth retardants (PGRs) are an extremely useful tool for controlling plant growth and producing plants that are aesthetically balanced in size with their containers. When it comes time to decide which PGR to use, there are numerous options available to growers.

Among the different active ingredients used for growth control, there is a group that stands out and includes ancymidol (Abide, A-Rest), flurprimidol (Topflor), paclobutrazol (Bonzi, Paczol, Piccolo, Piccolo 10XC) and uniconazole (Concise, Sumagic). Sometimes they are referred to collectively as the “triazoles” and, though only paclobutrazol and unizonazole are true triazoles, all four active ingredients are very closely related. Some growers are intimidated by these compounds, as they are generally the strongest active ingredients available. However, these effective chemicals can be used by anybody if you keep a few key points in mind.

While nearly all growth-retarding compounds affect plants similarly, by inhibiting gibberellic acid (GA) synthesis and suppressing cell elongation, active ingredients can inhibit GA synthesis differently. Ancymidol, flurprimidol, paclobutrazol and uniconazole all inhibit GA synthesis the same — by the step where ent-kaurene is converted to ent-kaurenoic acid. It is important to keep in mind how these four active ingredients all have the same site of action, while being different than other retardants. Tank mixes are an approach to enhance growth control from PGR sprays. If you are interested in using ancymidol, flurprimidol, paclobutrazol and uniconazole in a tank mix, be sure to use them with a PGR that inhibits GA differently (chlormequat chloride or daminozide) or has a completely different mode of action (ethephon).

Like all PGRs, ancymidol, flurprimidol, paclobutrazol and uniconazole are all absorbed by shoots. Since all four compounds are absorbed by shoots, foliar sprays are a viable application technique. However, these four active ingredients are also absorbed by roots, which is why they are the primary active ingredients used for substrate drenches and liner dips. The fact that these compounds are absorbed by both shoots and roots can make the application of these chemicals more complex. It can be challenging for spray applications, because excess solution running off can be absorbed by the substrate, resulting in additional control. However, this can be used to your advantage and these chemicals can be applied as a “sprench,” which is a very high-volume spray that purposefully results in solution applied to both the plant and growing substrate.

There is not enough room in any one article (or a series of articles!) to provide recommended concentrations for ancymidol, flurprimidol, paclobutrazol and uniconazole for the variety of crops we grow in greenhouses; in fact, it can be hard to find recommended concentrations for some active ingredients. However, growers can use published recommended paclobutrazol concentrations as a starting point to determine appropriate concentrations of ancymidol, flurprimidol and paclobutrazol that may be used. For foliar sprays, ancymidol, flurprimidol and uniconazole concentrations should be twice, the same or half the concentration recommended for paclobutrazol, respectively. As an example, if all you could find was a recommended 40 ppm paclobutrazol for a crop, you may also consider spraying 80 to 160 ppm ancymidol, 40 ppm flurprimidol or 20 ppm uniconazole. While the relationship between chemicals is similar for drenches, flurprimidol has greater activity when applied as a drench. Therefore, for drenches, ancymidol would again be applied at twice to four times the concentration of paclobutrazol, whereas flurprimidol or uniconazole would be applied at half the concentration.

If you currently use PGRs, and are looking to expand into new active ingredients, ancymidol, flurprimidol, paclobutrazol and uniconazole are worth considering. Compared to other anti-GA retardants, these chemicals are stronger and give longer-lasting control and are suited to several application techniques. As always, conduct in-house trials to determine which active ingredients work best for you and your facility.

Christopher is an assistant professor of horticulture in the Department of Horticulture at Iowa State University. ccurrey@iastate.edu

Jason Whidden was lucky to find his future wife and his future career all at once, at 14. That’s when he started dating Megan Thompson, whose parents, Lee and Judy, owned Forest Glen Greenhouses in Nova Scotia. Now, at age 33, Jason is still with the same girl, and they’re still working in her family’s business — but a lot has changed since then.

“There seems to be constant change,” Jason says of his role as grower and owner at the wholesale greenhouse. “There’s always room to grow, no pun intended. There’s always room to change and be better.”

Passing down a legacy

As a teenager, Jason started working in the greenhouse with Megan on weekends, and they continued working at Forest Glen all through junior high and high school. After they graduated from college, they returned to her family business full-time in 2008 and married soon after.

Megan’s parents, who founded the greenhouse in 1985, brought Jason under their wing by passing down all the growing knowledge they’d accumulated about greenhouse production and operations.

“It was really beneficial to be trained by my father-in-law and mother-in-law. They both have a lot to offer,” Jason says. “Judy is one of the best growers in Canada, if not North America, and her connections throughout the industry have been priceless. A lot of struggles that other growers have, I don’t have because of her talent and connections.”

Lee Thompson has retired from the family business — making Megan, Jason and Judy co-owners. Every day, Judy and Jason walk through all six acres of the greenhouse together to inspect plants and structures and set priorities for the team. Forest Glen employs 25 people in the spring, six in the fall and four for poinsettia season. For them to see one of the founders walking through the facilities every day is inspiring, Jason says.

“Just seeing Judy out there all the time, they can see the passion and the love that we all have for [growing plants],” he says. “That’s a big help for staff, when the owners actually care and are involved.”

Improving efficiency

Forest Glen has evolved since Jason joined as a teenager. When he started working there, “the facility was all free-standing hoophouses,” he says. “It was a very backyard, mom-and-dad facility. As they grew into bigger box stores, they expanded. They took some [hoophouses] down and went to gutter-connect greenhouses for the efficiency of growing and picking.”

Initially, Forest Glen sold plants to landscapers and grocery stores on a small scale, making delivery runs with a small van. Over time, they focused on big box stores, eventually growing exclusively for Loblaws supermarkets throughout Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. This spring, Forest Glen will also start supplying several Home Depot stores in the same region.

Big box growing “makes everything more efficient,” Jason says, because having a relatively consistent, predictable program every year allows him to focus on process improvements. Adding a conveyor system, for example, helped automate some repetitious labor in the greenhouse.

“We have close to a kilometer of conveyor that runs directly from our transplant line to every house, so product is handled very little as it comes off the line,” Jason says. “We used to have six people unloading, and now it’s one person, maybe two. We’ve been able to spread out our staff over the property and free up some labor that way.”

Other aspects of Forest Glen’s operations have streamlined over time, too. For example, high-efficiency condensing blowers replaced the old hot-air furnaces, and shade curtains were added — achieving close to 50 percent heat savings. The transportation process has improved, too, because now, instead of managing its own fleet — and struggling with finding seasonal truck drivers — Forest Glen contracts its trucking to a transport company, allowing it to focus exclusively on growing quality plants.

Finding balance

According to Forest Glen's website, Megan “has been a common sight at Forest Glen since she was a baby.” Now, that tradition continues, as Jason and Megan are introducing the third generation to the family business. The Whiddens live right next door to the greenhouse, so their sons (Noah, 4, and Jacob, 1) spend a lot of time on-site.

“They’re hanging out in the office constantly. On days when it’s not busy, we’ll bring them out and they get to play in the dirt,” Jason says. “They’re a ray of sunshine for everybody.”

Jason and Megan take turns with Grandma Judy, rotating who stays home with the boys. This setup makes it easier to juggle the difficult balance between work and family by blending them smoothly together. Jason gets to do what he loves, with the people he loves — it doesn’t get any better than that.

“We’re all really lucky, and we say that a lot,” Jason says. “We’re all working, but we’re working together with our family. We’re pretty fortunate.”

Brooke is a freelance writer based in Cleveland.

Spring is just around the corner for some of you, and already kicking into gear for many others. That makes this a really good time to talk about managing your stress. It’s also time to plan on how you’ll manage your staff’s morale. After all, if you can’t manage your stress as the owner or manager, it’s probable your staff’s morale will suffer.

Dark days

In my years working in garden centers, botanical gardens and landscaping companies, I referred to spring as “The Black Hole.” In my market, I’d enter that black hole around Feb. 15 and wouldn’t surface until around May 31. If you asked me about anything to do with my life during those months, I’d be hard-pressed to recall any details. Sadly, it also meant missing out on experiencing the joys of spring, as a horticulturist and home gardener. I just worked. All. The. Time.

The Black Hole of spring also usually meant a blackout on things like vacation, sick days, and weekends, for a big chunk of the year. Overtime and exhaustion are often the name of the spring game. I got sick a lot. It’s what those of us in the industry have been conditioned to do for a long time. Spring is supposed to be insane, right?

Productivity propaganda

I no longer buy into that philosophy wholeheartedly. It feels more like a fear-based brainwashing tactic to get employees to overextend themselves beyond what is reasonable or necessary. I understand that for many growers, 80 percent of your annual sales might be shipping out during the brief period of spring. But I’m not sure the business justifies throwing sense and sensibility out the window when it comes to how we care for ourselves and those who work hard for us.

Wrong rules

As an entrepreneur, one of the most important things I learned about my own productivity was that all the rules I learned about how to work were wrong. Yep, wrong. Studies show that employees are often more productive when they work in a focused manner for five to six hours a day — or about 30 hours a week. Not eight straight hours a day, and certainly not 10 hours.

In the green industry, we’re conditioned to work for long stretches and push those who work for us to do the same. Sure, there were some slower times in the colder months. But those times were expected to be filled up with pressures of spring planning and weekends were never work-free, no matter the season. No real flexibility or understanding from employers was offered on these accounts. That’s why I started my own company. My business, my rules.

Right time, right work

Instead of working when convention dictates we work, you could choose to work when you’re naturally most productive. So, what does that look like for me? My brain is firing off as soon as I wake up, which is usually around 5-5:30 a.m. I like to crack open the computer by or before 6 a.m. and start working, which I do until about 9 a.m. Then I get ready and head to my office by 10 a.m. and start working seriously again by around 10:30 a.m. I don’t talk to anyone before I get to the office or pick up calls, and I avoid scheduling morning meetings like the plague. I typically work through lunchtime (entropy is my friend) till about 4 p.m. and try to do most meetings and creative work in the afternoons. Late afternoon and evenings are the best time for me to exercise — after my brain has checked out. I have an employee at the office who arrives at 8:30 a.m. and stays until 4:00 p.m., so the office is covered for most of “normal” business hours. That said, as a business owner I pretty much work seven days a week and I’m cool with that.

Where can you bend?

When you have a physical greenhouse operation and/or a brick and mortar store, you need people there for set hours. Obviously, all your employees are not going to be able to work their ideal productivity schedule based on their required job duties. Often, the point of their job is simply to be there during business hours, as a point person for customers or other employees.

As the owner, general manager or supervisor you can modify your schedule to be more productive and less stressed. When you are less stressed everyone around you is less stressed, and productivity can rise across the board. Plus, spending some time away from the office with regularity shows you trust your staff to do their jobs, even if you aren’t there. Are you their babysitter, or their leader? Trust can be a big morale booster.

Relax your grip

You might not be able to modify everyone’s schedule. You do probably have staff who would be happy working the same amount of time, just earlier or later. Some might take a longer day with longer breaks. If you can’t get creative with your employee’s schedules, you should at least consider how restricting all time off or eliminating breaks in spring can hurt your employee’s morale and health, and your company’s productivity. If you’ve found yourself discouraging staff from staying home when they are sick — or worse, threatening them if they do — then it’s time for a big course correction.

When it comes to the rules of how and when you work this spring, I’m not asking you to let go of the wheel, or your goals or standards. I’m simply suggesting you relax your grip a bit and see where bending the rules can make more dollars, and sense.

Leslie (CPH) owns Halleck Horticultural, LLC, through which she provides horticultural consulting, business and marketing strategy, product development and branding, and content creation for green industry companies. lesliehalleck.com