Turn turn turn

Photos courtesy of Jiffy

Florida grower American Farms started with just five acres in 1991. Over the years, it has expanded to more than 100 acres producing annuals, perennials, flowering tropicals and seasonal holiday crops for big-box stores, independent garden centers and landscapers.

All of that business keeps American Farms busy. It now does about 19 million liners a year, according to Managing Director John Hardiman.

“Time is money. Space is money,” Hardiman says. “So, we have to turn it over in the production process. Every greenhouse is looking at turnovers. That’s what we’re judged by in this industry.”

Making turns faster doesn’t mean much without turning over a product that is high quality. Hardiman explains that American Farms prides itself on offering the most high-end product it can offer. When it comes to improving efficiency, it’s necessary that any change ensures it can maintain quality.

Hardiman says he has found areas of opportunity in substrate and automation. The substrate was an easy choice. He uses Jiffy Preforma plugs to cut propagation time.

“Jiffy offers solutions to address our needs for consistent, high-quality propagation media,” Hardiman says. “And what it does is allows us to turn all of our varied crops in less time with much better uniformity, higher yield rates and an overall better quality in the liners. It’s a very consistent, well-aerated and relatively sterile media.”

One of the biggest advantages of Jiffy’s Preforma plugs, according to Hardiman, is the fact that plants root so quickly and solidly. He explains that’s not the case with loose fill substrate.

In order for transplanting to occur with loose fill, he says, roots need to be much more extensively developed than with Preforma. It’s a quality that allows American Farms to transplant a product like impatiens in 10 days rather than eight weeks.

But Hardiman has also found efficiency in automation. So, it’s important that the substrate and automated equipment work well together.

“Preforma lends itself very well to our automation process with the robotic planters and the bonded material,” he says. “It holds very well together versus the loose media, and you can plant it a little quicker, and it does no damage to the roots or the liner, and it reduces labor costs and improves the uniformity of the crop consistently.”

More than that, Hardiman says that Jiffy has been a great partner in helping to improve efficiency. In the past, American Farms’ largest tray of Preforma plugs was 105, but there were space issues, which would usually be solved by adding an additional transplant range. Instead, the business worked with Jiffy, which customized a 144-plug tray for all the transplant lines. The result was a 35% increase in production.

“It was like building a new propagation range for zero cost,” Hardiman says.

Hardiman says that automation in conjunction with Preforma has driven efficiency while maintaining high-end standards. He encourages other growers to consider the combination, which he says can reduce labor while increasing production by 50%. But he warns, “Once you do that, then you can’t set it down fast enough. The machine we use will average 10,000 pots an hour. And you got to be on your best game to do 10,000 pots an hour.”