After eight years of service in the Marine Corps, Ariel Montanez wasn’t really considering a career in horticulture. “The only thing I knew about plants was how to use them as camouflage,” says Montanez, who served in Okinawa and other deployments around the world before finishing his service at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. “I never even thought of plants as a business."

But after earning his business degree, Montanez landed his first post-military job at Monrovia Nursery in 2006 as a human resource assistant.

He worked his way through roles in shipping and logistics, purchasing and maintenance before Monrovia closed its North Carolina facility. At that point, Montanez interviewed for a similar shipping role at Pender Nursery in Garner, North Carolina — but they offered him the position of general manager instead.

“I told them, ‘Look, you realize I don’t have a horticulture background. I don’t know plants,’” Montanez says. “But what I did understand was how to set processes and how to organize people.”

Even without classic plant knowledge, Montanez’s military background provided the right mix of skills to lead the growing team at Pender Nursery, where he’s been since 2013.

“That’s probably the one thing that has helped me as general manager, my military experience: how to organize people, how to motivate people, how to find and develop talent,” Montanez says. “The leaders I had in the military challenged me to be better and work harder, and that’s something I bring to this role. I enjoy seeing people grow and develop.”

Troop mentality

Although Montanez learned leadership from the Marine Corps, he’s definitely “not a drill instructor style” manager.

“I think the drill instructor style works for building Marines, but not necessarily for leading employees. You get more out of people by motivating them,” he says. “I’ve worked for people who had an authoritative leadership style, and honestly, I didn’t enjoy that. I’d rather work for somebody who valued my opinions.”

Instead, Montanez works hard to foster a team environment where everyone has a voice. “From the beginning, I wanted to instill a culture of respect, where people feel that their ideas matter and they’re taken seriously,” he says.

To that end, Montanez meets with the growing, potting and propagation teams weekly to make sure everyone stays on the same page. They discuss plant issues first, then people and processes second – but he’s careful to keep meetings on point.

“If we get into a subject that needs more planning and thought, we’ll table it and (reassign it to) the right team leaders so we’re not dragging it out,” he says. “A lot of people dread meetings because they get stuck in meetings that don’t pertain to them, so I try to make sure that our meetings are meaningful.”

When he stepped into the GM role, Montanez faced a steep learning curve juggling plant production cycles for hundreds of SKUs in Pender’s diverse inventory. The wholesale nursery, which was the first licensed grower of Encore Azaleas on the East Coast, also grows perennials, groundcovers, shrubs, trees and grasses on about 40 acres (10 of which are covered).

“If you don’t manage your inventory, you’ll never be able to manage your sales,” he says, “so I spend a lot of time looking at our crops to see what’s moving. I’m strict about inventory management because of the effect it has on the bottom line.”

To keep products moving through Pender Nursery at a profit, Montanez closely assessed all the processes involved in the operation, and then identified opportunities to improve efficiency. One of the biggest changes happened on the potting line.

“When I first took over, the potting team consisted of 17 people, and the machine we were using wasn’t very efficient,” he says. “By sitting down and looking at how our nursery is arranged, asking ourselves some questions, and experimenting with different processes, we were able to reduce that headcount down to eight people. We ended up eliminating the machine; we’re getting more done without it, and we’re really happy with the quality of the potting.”

Through continuous improvement and strict inventory management, Montanez streamlined the nursery’s operation to alleviate ongoing labor challenges. “When I took over in 2013, we had 60 to 65 people, and just through analyzing processes, we’ve been able to dwindle that down to 40 people at peak,” he says. “We’ve been able to really impact our labor costs and our bottom line.”

To help Pender Nursery improve its plant quality, and ultimately, maintain profitability, Montanez continues to innovate more efficient solutions.

“Be flexible and be prepared for change, because change is always going to happen,” he advises other growers. “If you fear change, that’s the nail in the coffin for a lot of businesses. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and learn from them so you can become better.”

PHOTO © Andy Dean | Adobe stock

Taking solace in one’s landscape or garden took on an entirely new gravitas this spring. Stuck at home with nowhere to go — be it work or play — many homeowners became acutely aware of how a beautiful and functional landscape space impacts their lives and wellbeing. Not to mention, disruptions in the food supply chain and access to fresh produce. The COVID-19 pandemic shone a new light on the benefits of gardening and the beauty of the natural world, as well as the functionality and beauty — or lack thereof — of our existing landscape and public green spaces.

As a free-range kid of the 70’s, I feel lucky that my childhood mostly meant getting kicked out of the house all day to play outside. No TV, no screens or phones, just nature, mud pies and bikes. Our backyard (and the rest of the neighborhood) was a haven for our imaginations because we had no choice but to figure out how to entertain ourselves. With the kids home all day, every day, having some functional places to play outdoors takes on bigger significance.

My mom grew a vegetable garden because we needed to stretch our food budget, which I suspect will be the case for many moving forward. Food gardening saw a huge boost in popularity over the spring as many homeowners and balcony gardeners alike saw fit to fill in shortages with their own homegrown produce. Not that getting started with vegetable gardening is always a cheap endeavor, but many will be looking for low-cost entry points to growing at least a small amount of their own food. As seen by the massive run on seeds this spring, we have many new budding gardeners to educate and grow.

As an adult stuck in quarantine or municipal shut down, landscape priorities also lean towards privacy, beauty and a comfortable place to relax away from all the screens. The backyard pool industry is having a boom right now. Never was there a time I wished more for a small pool in my own backyard. I would imagine kiddie pool sales are way up too.

All this time spent at home has brought to light for many homeowners the importance of improvements they want and need to make on their property. Urban-fit trees and shrubs for privacy and noise reduction, adequate greenspace or play equipment to keep the kids active outdoors, a nice patio on which to relax and destress, pools and hot tubs, and some flowers and edibles to grow their green thumbs. If you are suddenly spending a ton of time in your yard every day, you will quickly realize its deficiencies or lack of functionality for your new reality. This is especially true for homeowners who now find themselves tele-commuters who may be working and home schooling from home indefinitely.

Photo © Joann Dale | Adobe stock

With travel out the window for most of us, at least for the near future, many homeowners are also considering how staycation-worthy their homes and landscapes are or are not. The landscape design and installation companies I work with saw this shift happen over the spring and into summer. Homeowners are choosing to reinvest in their homes and landscape spaces to make them more useful and enjoyable. Selling one’s home has also gotten a lot more complicated and riskier. When you cannot leave your home, or you have had to reevaluate plans to move, an in-place renovation and refresh may be the only option.

Most importantly, many turned to gardening and growing houseplants as a basic way to manage increased anxiety and stress. Garden centers and gardening in general took on the role of “savior” for many of us during the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Plant collecting is back in fashion and I see a big growth in virtual plant communities sharing plant passion and knowledge. If you have not already, now’s the time to ask yourself, “How does my product assortment fulfill these evolving consumer needs and gardening habits?” and, “Am I engaging with consumers in these new digital spaces?”

As you and your business grow and evolve to make the most of our new reality, helping both your landscaper and retailer customers promote the benefits of beautiful and functional landscapes through plants should be a top priority. It is not just meeting retail or installing demand for quantity and quality that is your job. Helping to craft and amplify the narrative about how your plants bring beauty, health, wellness and many other benefits to the holistic experience of home life is just as important. Closely observe the home improvement trends that are happening and integrate them into your end-user marketing.

As stay-at-home now translates to living and working full-time at home, the green industry has a golden opportunity to significantly improve its perception of value. As our customers surround themselves with our plants and products to improve their stay-at-home existence, we will become a much more important and integrated part of their lives.

CAST becomes California Summer Trials for 2021

CAST, formerly the California Spring Trials, is set to return in 2021, under the name ‘California Summer Trials’, according to a press release. Scheduled dates for the new summer trade event are Wednesday, June 23 through Sunday, June 27, 2021.

The 2020 event was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Seeking to help stimulate attendance of brokers, growers and retailers, the change in date was a direct response to requests from the broker community. Many brokerage companies felt that a June event more aligned with their schedules to travel away from their territories to learn about the new plants and programs.

Adobe Stock

Ralstonia solanacearum Race 3 Biovar 2 has been eradicated from U.S. greenhouses

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and its State partners have successfully completed actions to eliminate Ralstonia solanacearum Race 3 Biovar 2 from U.S. greenhouses. This announcement comes just two months after the pathogen was first detected in a Michigan greenhouse in April (NAPPO PAS OPR). In total, the response involved more than 650 facilities in 44 States.

R. solanacearum Race 3 Biovar 2 can cause a wilt disease in several important agricultural crops such as potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. This was the first confirmed case of this pathogen in U.S. greenhouses since 2004.

Photo courtesy of spoga+gafa

spoga+gafa canceled for 2020, rescheduled for 2021

Per a release, spoga+gafa 2020 has been canceled and rescheduled for May 30 - June 1, 2021 in Cologne. The statement read as follows:

“Despite high registration levels in the Spring of this year and extensive preparations, the current COVID situation has caused strong health, safety, economic and travel concerns among many of our registered exhibitors and visitors.

As the health and safety of our customers is of outmost importance to us, we reassessed the overall situation and made the decision to respond to the wishes of the majority of our exhibitors and visitors not to go forward with the 2020 event.”

Photos courtesy of BASF

According to Emma Lookabaugh, a technical service representative for BASF, root diseases can be easily overlooked by growers. Sometimes, she says, growers are looking at other parts of the plant and either misidentify issues or miss them altogether. 

“Things like yellowing or chlorosis of the foliage can be mistaken for fertility issues like nitrogen deficiency,” Lookabaugh says. “Early on, you can also see plants that are slightly stunted. So when you look out across your greenhouse bay, you’ll be able to pick out a couple of plants that look a little stunted, but otherwise healthy.” 

Different root diseases — including, but not limited to, Pythium, Fusarium, Rhizoctonia, Phytophthora and Thielaviopsis — present differently and can lead to other issues for the plant like increased susceptibility to pest outbreaks. 

“In general, these issues all go hand in hand,” Lookabaugh says. “If you have insect damage — say, a high whitefly population on poinsettias — and it’s already stressing the poinsettia, that’s just going to open you up to more problems like root diseases. Looking at it the other way, when you have a root problem, it stresses out a plant and makes it more susceptible to other diseases and pests that could be more damaging than they might be on their own.”  

Identifying root diseases 

According to Lookabaugh, Pythium can cause plants to wilt during the day only for them to recover overnight and appear fine at first glance. However, she says that over time, the wilting will become irreversible. 

“The roots will appear brown and they can be water-soaked,” she says. “If you take your fingers and run them along the root, that outer cortex will actually slough off between your fingertips. And if you pull the plant out of the pot, you will likely see that the roots haven’t grown past their initial plug.” She says rot from Pythium can extend up the stem of the plant and destroy it. Lookabaugh adds mums, snapdragons and poinsettias are three of the crops most susceptible to Pythium. 

Like Pythium, Phytophthora can cause stunting, chlorosis and root rot, but also a noticeable lack of vigorous growth. According to Lookabaugh, the first sign of disease is often a plant not looking as good as it should. African violets, gerbera daisies and woody ornamentals are among the crops most susceptible to Phytophthora. 

Lastly, there’s Rhizoctonia — a disease that often presents itself right at the soil line in a pot or plug. Lookabaugh says that it’s particularly dangerous to plants in flats for one reason. 

“When Rhizoctonia presents in flats, it can spread very rapidly,” she says. “The entire crop could be lost to disease in just a few days.” Like Pythium, it also presents by plants not growing as vigorously as they should. Seedlings can also emerge apparently healthy but then collapse right at the soil line. 

To learn more about these diseases, others such as Fusarium and Thielaviopsis and how they can lead to other issues, Lookabaugh recommends reaching out to technical service reps like herself and/or local extension specialists. 

Preventing root disease

According to Lookabaugh, there are two main things to focus on to prevent root disease: timely fungicide applications and sanitation.

For fungicides, Lookabaugh says a good place to start is a drench application. At the beginning of a growing cycle, applying a drench can prevent disease. However, its effectiveness will fade over time. Repeat applications may be necessary to maintain control throughout the production cycle.

“Most applications wear off within 14-28 days and pathogens can then become active again,” she says. “Waiting until symptoms appear to treat is risky because the plant may be already too far gone to reverse the damage.” 

To prevent that from happening, Lookabaugh says it’s key to apply preventative fungicides on schedule and with the right product. 

“If you are growing a crop that is susceptible to a specific disease or have a history of disease in your greenhouse, you want to stick to a strict, preventative fungicide schedule,” Lookabaugh says. “You want to rotate your fungicides so you’re utilizing different modes of action to reduce the risk of fungicide resistance and also maximize efficacy.” 

BASF products Lookabaugh recommends include: 

- Pageant®, which she advises using at sticking to increase rooting and strong root systems

- Empress®, a product Lookabaugh suggests using as a tank mix when transplanting to continue helping the plant root faster and protect against major root diseases

- Orkestra®, which also helps with root growth and recently became available for use in California and offers control of Thielaviopsis

As for sanitation, Lookabaugh says it is also key to stay on a regular schedule and be consistent with efforts to keep a growing area clean. That can include, but is not limited to, sanitizing growing areas, cleaning benches deeply between crop cycle, sanitizing pots when they have to be reused, treating water if it’s being recirculated and cleaning up any debris where a pathogen can ‘hang out.’ 

One other step Lookabaugh recommends is buying disease-free material from companies with a reputation for cleanliness. Chances are that if a company is known for having disease-free material, it will be pest-free too. 

“Buy from reliable sources that are known for having healthy plants,” she says. “And do everything you can to promote fast rooting.” 

What to know about vegetable expansion  

For growers who are considering expanding into vegetable production, Lookabaugh says the diseases are largely the same as in ornamental production. 

“It’s pretty much the same diseases — Pythium, Phytophthora, Rhizoctonia, etc. — and all of them can be problematic with vegetables and vegetable transplants,” she says. “Tomatoes and peppers seem to be most notably the most susceptible, with Pythium most common with tomatoes.” 

  For establishing robust roots in vegetable crops, Lookabaugh offers the following tips: 

- Start strong. Apply products like Pageant® early in production to promote healthy roots and early disease prevention.

- Have strong sanitation protocols in place and use disease-free plant material, as well as pathogen-free growing media.

- Maintain strong fertility programs.

- For vegetable transplants, Lookabaugh says managing insects and pests is especially important — making scouting especially important.

“It’s the same logic as ornamental crops,” she says. “Any time your plant is struggling or it’s stressed, it is more vulnerable to disease and pest pressures.” 

Overall, Lookabaugh has direct advice for growers looking to update their program. 

“Always rotate with different modes of action,” she says. “And know what product your using does. What controls Pythium will not control Rhizoctonia and vice versa. Consider a tank mix with multiple modes of action to prepare yourself with any root disease you might encounter.”