Perennial prowess

From field-grown flowers and greenhouse annuals to a wide selection of perennials, Phil Sharkey III has grown a variety of plant material over the last decade. Although he didn’t grow up in the greenhouse like many of his peers, he quickly fell in love with the industry.

Sharkey initially went to school to study music, then “floated around the workforce” for a few years before going back to school to pursue a new profession. While perusing programs at the local community college, he picked horticulture off the list somewhat randomly. But once he got his hands in the dirt, he never looked back.

“Horticulture has this peculiar blend of being an art and a science, which appeals to me,” Sharkey says. “I’ve always felt my best when I could do a job and, at the end of the day, look back on it and see what I’ve accomplished.”

While working in his college greenhouse, Sharkey responded to a job posting for a farm manager at a local cut flower farm. He spent a couple of years there after graduating, then moved to an annual greenhouse for the next several years. When he came to Casertano’s Greenhouse & Farm as lead grower about six years ago, adjusting to perennials was a bit of a shock.

“With a perennial farm, you’re a little bit of nursery, a little bit of greenhouse and a little bit of field grower,” he says. “The overwintering aspect was freaky the first couple of seasons, because you walk into the greenhouse in December, and it looks like it’s dead. I had to learn how to care for dormant plants.”

Since then, Sharkey has grown accustomed to the seasonal cycle of perennial plant care as he continues to innovate Casertano’s growing operation.

Understanding the environment

As lead grower, Sharkey oversees 17 acres of production space at Casertano’s original farm in Cheshire, Connecticut, with six acres under cover in one large gutter-connected greenhouse and several small hoophouses. Casertano’s also has a second location of similar size, overseen by another grower.

Sharkey’s goal is to consistently produce a variety of quality plants for wholesale clients including big box stores, grocery chains and independent garden centers. “Most of my time is spent scouting, checking up on crops and troubleshooting,” he says.

When he joined Casertano’s, Sharkey oversaw nine staff members who watered plants by hand. Since then, automated irrigation systems and trimmers have helped alleviate this labor burden, saving time and costs.

Now, he relies mainly on two section growers and a spray applicator — all Spanish-speaking H-2A workers — who handle growing tasks day-to-day. “The single best thing I’ve done is to pay for a Duolingo subscription to relearn what Spanish I forgot from high school,” he says.

After teaching his growers the basics of irrigation, he walks the crops with them to point out special plant needs. Each issue they identify becomes a learning opportunity for the entire team.

“One thing I always tell the people who work for me is you don’t have to know what is wrong with the plant to know if something is wrong with the plant,” he says. “The biggest advice is to be observant and know your environment, and be able to recognize when things are out of whack.”

Controlling pest pressures

A few seasons ago, Sharkey and his team noticed that the whitefly population in the greenhouse was out of control, and chemical applications were losing their effectiveness. After consulting with a few suppliers, Sharkey began experimenting with biological controls to combat bugs.

“We started inside the big gutter-connected greenhouse in the winter when it was a limited amount of crops,” he says. “When we have to treat an aphid hotpot, we’ve kept it to that section and treated with things that are friendly to the biologicals. We haven’t employed any hard chemicals in here in a long time.”

Sharkey implemented a three-step beneficial program of applying nematodes to the soil, spraying Amblyseius swirskii predatory mites to target thrips and whiteflies, then bringing in Eretmocerus eremicus parasitic wasps to tackle whiteflies toward the end of the season.

“It’s been a huge success,” he says. “Not only have we not seen a whitefly in this greenhouse, but our thrips have been almost non-existent, which is huge.”

Rolling out this biological program into the hoophouses is challenging because the houses are wide open for part of the season. Instead, Sharkey is exploring ways to attract natural beneficial insects from the surrounding woods. “We’re looking at crops that will attract them and plants they can harbor in,” he says, such as sweet alyssum, ‘Purple Flash’ ornamental peppers or possibly mullein, either potted inside the houses or planted along the edge of the farm.

To keep up with the demand for quality perennials, Sharkey is always looking for ways to improve the efficiency of his growing operation, leveraging new techniques and technologies to empower his team with the perpetual goal of “doing a better job than we did the year before,” he says.