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Cold Weather’s Impact on Local Plant Nurseries Winer Plant Protection

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 10:51:10 GMT

Winter temperatures in Florida can get low enough to damage tropical, subtropical, and even sometimes temperate plants, especially if they're not acclimated to lower temperatures.

Plants become acclimated by gradual decreases in temperature over a period of time. Sudden freezes after a period of warm weather often do more damage to plants than a freeze during a period of cold weather. Most plant parts can adapt to cold, but fruits and roots do not develop good cold tolerance. Cold injury to plants in containers is common.

Acclimatization, protection, and proper post-freeze pruning can help your plants survive a freezing spell or harsh winter season.

WHAT TO DO BEFORE THE FREEZE

While Florida has a general climate, your home landscape will also have its own microclimates—areas that are cooler or warmer, wetter or drier than surrounding areas. Consider microclimates when deciding where to put cold-sensitive plants.

Avoid planting tender plants in a low area where cold air settles. Arrange plantings, fences, or other barriers to protect tender plants from cold winds. Make sure the soil has good drainage since poorly drained soils result in weak, shallow roots that are susceptible to cold injury.

Proper Plant Nutrition

Healthy well-nourished plants will tolerate cold temperatures better and recover from injury faster than other plants. Be careful though: late fall fertilization can result in a late flush of growth that is more susceptible to cold injury.

Shading

Tree cover can reduce cold injury during some freezes. Areas under tree canopies can reach a higher temperature overnight because the canopy traps heat radiating from the ground. But if you grow a plant that needs full sun in the shade, it will be unhealthy, sparsely foliated, and less tolerant of cold temperatures.

Windbreaks

Fences, buildings, temporary coverings, and adjacent plantings can all serve as windbreaks and protect plants from cold winds. Windbreaks are especially helpful during advective freezes, but do not help during radiational freezes.

Irrigation

Watering landscape plants before a freeze can help protect plants. Wet soil will absorb more heat during the day and radiate it during the night. Keep in mind that prolonged saturated soil conditions damage the root systems of most plants.

Other Cultural Practices

Avoid late summer or early fall pruning, which can cause a flush of new growth that is more susceptible to cold injury.

Inspect plants regularly for pests and control as necessary since plants weakened by disease, insect damage, or nematode damage are susceptible to cold injury.

WINTER PLANT PROTECTION METHODS

Move plants in containers into protected areas where heat can be supplied or trapped. If you have to leave containers outdoors, push them together and protect with mulch to reduce heat loss from the container walls. (Note: Leaves of large canopy plants may be damaged if crowded together for extended periods.)

Heat radiates from soil surfaces during the night and is mainly lost to the atmosphere unless it is trapped. Reduce radiant heat loss and protect plant roots by placing mulch around the plants. For perennials, the root system is all that needs to be protected.

Coverings protect more from frost than from extreme cold. Covers that extend to the ground and do not touch plant foliage can lessen cold injury trapping heat. However, be careful when putting using plastic as a cover because foliage that touches plastic coverings is often injured since the cover actually takes heat away from the plant.

Examples of coverings include cloth sheets, quilts, plastic, or commercial frost cloths. Remove plastic covers during a sunny day or provide ventilation to keep the air under the cover from heating up too much. Putting a light bulb under a cover is a simple method of providing heat to ornamental plants in the landscape.

WHAT TO DO AFTER THE FREEZE

Watering

After a freeze, especially on a sunny day, plants can lose water because the water in the soil or container medium is frozen. Watering the plants will give them available water and will also help thaw the soil.

Pruning

After a freeze, you can remove dead leaves once they turn brown. You should wait to do any severe pruning until new growth appears. This way you can be sure you are not removing any live wood and damaging the plant even more.

Sometimes cold injury isn’t as obvious. For instance, two symptoms of cold injury are a lack of spring bud break and/or an overall weak appearance. On woody plants, the cambium layer under the bark will be black or brown if a branch is damaged.

Luckily freezes don’t happen too often, which means Florida gardeners can still grow the tropical and subtropical plants that wouldn’t survive in other states. But that doesn’t mean freezes do not pose a threat to your landscape. Follow weather reports and protect and prepare vulnerable plants accordingly before freezes take them by surprise

For more information on winter plant protection, cold-hardy plant varieties, and other winter landscaping questions, contact us

Nurturing Growth: The Challenges and Solutions in Greenhouse Staffing

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 10:51:09 GMT

Greenhouses play a crucial role in modern agriculture, providing controlled environments for the cultivation of plants year-round. However, the success of these green sanctuaries heavily depends on the people who manage them. In this blog post, we will delve into the world of greenhouse staffing, exploring the challenges employers face and the innovative solutions available to address them.

The Importance of a Skilled Greenhouse Workforce

A thriving greenhouse requires a skilled and dedicated workforce to ensure the optimal growth of plants. From seeding to harvesting, each stage of plant development demands expertise. Greenhouse employees are responsible for monitoring temperature and humidity, maintaining proper ventilation, and implementing pest control measures, among other tasks. Without a capable team, the greenhouse's potential for yield and quality could be compromised.

Challenges in Greenhouse Staffing

Seasonal Variability: Greenhouse operations often experience seasonal peaks and troughs in demand. Finding and retaining staff for these temporary surges can be challenging. It's essential to have a flexible staffing strategy to adapt to these fluctuations.
Skill Shortages: Skilled greenhouse workers are in high demand, and finding individuals with the right expertise can be difficult. Employers often face competition from other agricultural industries and must offer competitive compensation packages to attract and retain talent.
Labor Costs: Labor costs can be a significant portion of a greenhouse's budget. Balancing the need for skilled workers with budget constraints can be a constant challenge.
Employee Turnover: High turnover rates can disrupt operations and increase training costs. Employee retention strategies and a positive work environment are essential to combat this issue.
Language and Cultural Barriers: In some regions, greenhouse employers may need to navigate language and cultural differences when hiring immigrant or seasonal workers. Effective communication and cultural sensitivity are crucial in such situations.

Solutions to Greenhouse Staffing Challenges

Workforce Planning: Develop a workforce planning strategy that anticipates seasonal labor needs and aligns recruitment efforts accordingly. This can help reduce the stress of sudden staffing shortages.
Training and Development: Invest in training programs to upskill existing employees and attract newcomers to the industry. Offering career growth opportunities can also improve retention rates.
Competitive Compensation: Offer competitive wages, benefits, and incentives to attract and retain skilled greenhouse workers. Consider profit-sharing programs or bonuses tied to productivity and performance.
Automation and Technology: Embrace automation and technology to reduce labor requirements where possible. Automated climate control systems, robotic harvesting, and data-driven decision-making can all help optimize labor efficiency.
Employee Engagement: Foster a positive work environment that values employees' contributions and well-being. Engaged and satisfied employees are more likely to stay and perform at their best.
Diverse Hiring Practices: Embrace diversity in your hiring practices to tap into a wider talent pool. Training and support for non-native English speakers can help bridge language ga

Conclusion

Greenhouse staffing is a critical aspect of ensuring the success and productivity of these controlled agricultural environments. Employers in the greenhouse industry face various challenges, from seasonal fluctuations to skill shortages, but with the right strategies and solutions, these challenges can be overcome.

By focusing on workforce planning, skill development, competitive compensation, technology adoption, employee engagement, and diverse hiring practices, greenhouse employers can create a thriving and sustainable workforce that supports the growth of their plants and their businesses. In doing so, they contribute to the advancement of sustainable agriculture and the production of high-quality crops year-round.

A New Approach to Cooling Greenhouse Irrigation Water

Sat, 28 Oct 2023 13:42:32 GMT

A research project at a southwestern Ontario, Canada, greenhouse has found a sustainable method to cool the water that growers use to irrigate their greenhouse crops, improving both plant health and quality in the process.

Using funding from the Greenhouse Competitiveness and Innovation Initiative (GCII), Under Sun Acres Inc. has identified that water from a greenhouse’s stormwater management pond can be used to bring irrigation water to the ideal temperature the crops need, as opposed to using an electric or gas-powered cooling unit.

Irrigation water used for greenhouse crops is a combination of fresh water from natural sources such as wells and ponds, municipal sources, leach water that is disinfected and recirculated from within the greenhouse environment, and fertilizer. The ideal temperature for irrigation water is approximately 68 to 72°F throughout the growing season.

“Growers mix fresh water from the municipality with treated leach water to use for irrigation, but when it is warm in the greenhouse in the summer, the treated leach water is the same temperature,” Lucas Semple of Under Sun Acres Inc. “As you lower the temperature of the irrigation water, it increases the health of the plant by reducing plant stress.”

Many greenhouses already use water from their stormwater management ponds to cool the fresh water they get from municipal sources, but they have no control over the temperature of the treated leach water. Its temperature would stay high no matter how much the municipal water was cooled unless they use cooling units.

“We began pulling water from our pond and using a heat exchanger to cool the treated leach water, which lets us cool and control it,” he says. “The unknown for us was the pond – how will the pond water react and is the pond cool enough throughout the summer, for example?”

On top of the heat exchanger equipment, Semple installed a series of temperature sensors into the pond to monitor water temperature at different spots and help track where to take the water from during the growing season for the best results. The key is not being too aggressive in extracting cool water from the bottom of the pond early in the season so the pond water will still be cool enough to meet their temperature requirements during the hottest days of summer.

This project was supported through the Greenhouse Competitiveness and Innovation Initiative, a cost-share program funded by the Ontario government and delivered by the Agricultural Adaptation Council, on behalf of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA).

Commercial growers need to incorporate automation.

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 10:51:10 GMT

Getting a reliable structure with the right growing equipment is a good start, but to truly optimize their greenhouse, commercial growers need to incorporate automation.

Success in commercial growing comes down to one objective: growing the highest-quality crops at the lowest overall cost. This goal is a driving factor behind almost every operation’s decision-making process, as they try to outperform competitors and create a growing space that’s as efficient as possible.

Although the idea is simple, bringing it to fruition can be a challenge for growers. Without the right tools in place, commercial crop production can be cost and labor-intensive, and operations aren’t able to achieve the quality of harvests they need to sustain long-term success.

Getting a reliable structure with the right growing equipment is a good start, but to truly optimize their greenhouse, commercial growers need to incorporate automation. An automated greenhouse allows them to streamline nearly every aspect of their production space and gain precision control over growing conditions.

Although growers will benefit from any greenhouse automation system, they have the most to gain from regulating their irrigation, lighting and temperature. When operations run that equipment through an environmental controller as well, they can produce high-quality crops on even the largest scale, while also decreasing waste, labor and energy requirements.

STARTING WITH AN ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROLLER

When commercial growers plan on bringing automation into their greenhouse structure, they first need to think about how they’re going to manage the different systems. An environmental controller offers an ideal solution, because it allows them to tie all of their equipment together and manage growing conditions through one interface.

Advanced controller models can include up to eight or nine outputs, meaning they are capable of monitoring nine different automated systems at once. This includes everything from temperature and humidity control to lighting, CO2 enrichment, irrigation, fertigation and more.

If growers want to gain total influence over their production space, while further mitigating labor requirements and inefficiencies, they can implement a smart controller. Smart controllers will monitor an automated greenhouse around the clock, collecting information and using it to make on-demand modifications to the environment. This tool enables growers to create a fully automated smart greenhouse that maximizes profit potential, practically on its own.

WHAT IS A SMART GREENHOUSE?

A smart greenhouse takes advantage of a smart controller and other sensors to automatically regulate growing conditions. The controllers used in these greenhouses can react to changes in the environment and make adjustments on their own in real time, helping to maintain an operation’s ideal microclimate.

These automated controllers typically employ portable control panels or can be managed through a phone application. As a result, growers can monitor their automated greenhouse from almost anywhere to ensure everything is working at it’s supposed to.

When equipped with smart technology, an automated greenhouse may give growers the opportunity to collect and utilize data. Data collection allows operations to store a backlog of information that helps them make continuous improvements to their growing strategy. For instance, they can try replicating the same environmental conditions after an exceptional harvest, or make changes if their output wasn’t optimal.

BOOSTING CROP GROWTH AND LIMITING COSTS THROUGH PRECISION CONTROL

Once growers have chosen their ideal controller, they can integrate it into their structure and begin programming equipment. They’ll be able to tailor the automated greenhouse around the specific needs of their crops, giving them a dependable microclimate where they can flourish.

This will not only promote major improvements in crop growth, but also help operations save money by limiting labor, energy consumption and wasted resources. Three elements of crop production that will provide the most benefits in an automated greenhouse are irrigation, lighting and temperature control.

IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT

By automating their irrigation system, growers can put crops on an optimal watering schedule, which will help encourage uniform development and faster growth rates. This should also keep them from having to tend to their setup daily and prevent excess water usage, limiting waste and reducing monthly watering costs.

In addition to promoting more robust growth and decreasing waste, automated irrigation can assist with keeping potential inhibitors at bay, like pests and disease. With a precise watering schedule, potted systems are more likely to retain ideal soil moisture levels, stopping root rot and other common issues from occurring. Similarly, this will help keep hydroponics setups clean and properly aerated to encourage healthy root development.

EFFICIENT LIGHTING

Supplemental lighting requirements are influenced by different factors, like the type of crop being grown, the time of year and the amount of sunlight available to growers, so automation is crucial for maintaining optimal lighting conditions year-round. In an automated greenhouse, growers can keep their light fixtures on a timer, coordinating them with these various elements as they change.

Along with superior growth, this allows operations to keep their energy consumption to a minimum. Electricity costs can quickly get out of hand in larger-scale structures, but if growers are optimizing their light fixtures to run as needed, then they will use only what’s required to produce high-quality yields.

For growers that rely on light deprivation, an automated greenhouse can also be valuable for effortlessly maintaining stringent lighting schedules. While other operations are stuck manually pulling tarps at a set time each day, automated light dep systems can be programmed to open and close on their own. This is generally more effective for creating blackout conditions and can free up a significant amount of time.

TEMPERATURE CONTROL

Since different crops perform better in various climates, growers can use automation to dial in their greenhouse environment as needed, with little time or effort. This can be accomplished in several ways, whether growers are heating in winter or trying to optimize cooling efforts amidst higher temperatures.

During winter, growers can force their heating system to turn off once a set temperature point has been reached. With rising utility prices and a large-scale space to heat, this feature is more important than ever for commercial growers to conserve fuel and improve their bottom line.

The same reality also pertains to growers in hotter climates, as running a cooling system all day can require substantial amounts of electricity. In fact, rather than relying solely on wet walls or ventilation, growers should complement their space with an automated shade system.

Just like light deprivation kits, these can be deployed at pre-determined times to shield crops from the sun’s heat and help maintain interior temperatures. Having a high-quality shade system that’s programmed to operate on its own will require little labor, help reduce cooling costs and support healthy crop growth.

Regardless of where or what operations are growing, automation will give them the ability to control systems and create an ideal environment for their crops. With help from an environmental controller, they can ensure their automated greenhouse is monitored and controlled at all times, producing consistent harvests and reducing the overall cost to run their operation.