Cultivation Of Crops: greenhouses

Showing posts with label greenhouses. Show all posts

Jul 7, 2015

What Zantedeschia Want: Part 2

#Sun Valley #zantedeschia #zants greenhouses hoop houses Lady Aster

Last week, we learned what Zantedeschia really want in a growing environment: Diffused Light and Cool Evenings. Now it's time to reveal the results of our year-long examination--which one of these growing environments--Hoop Houses or Greenhouses--gives Zants the ideal growing conditions that they really want? The winner is.....

....HOOP HOUSES!

HOOP HOUSE

GREENHOUSE

Yes, that's right. Zantedeschia like Hoop Houses more than Greenhouses, but it's not personal, it's business. Here's how they deliver:

Light Diffusion and UV Supply: The plastic coverings we use on our hoop houses are milky white, which provides the best light diffusion. The opaque color scatters (or diffuses) the sun's rays and allows the light to wrap around Zant's big upper leaves and reach underneath to the dark underbelly. The clear, glass windows of a greenhouse typically provide direct light which can create a lot of shadows. Some plants thrive in this environment, but Zants need as much light on as many of their leaves as possible. In addition to the lack of light diffusion, greenhouse glass also acts as a filter for UV light, which means the majority of UV rays are not transmitted (just try to get a suntan in a greenhouse!). However, the plastic on our hoop houses allows the much-needed UV rays to shine on through.

Temperature: As we have learned, Zants like cold nights. Greenhouses can be too warm, which will result in more leaves than flowers. Hoop houses, on the other hand, naturally start off cooler than a greenhouse. This is because hoop houses are open-ended, which allow for cool evening air to circulate freely. Know what else keeps hoops houses cool? Diffused light! It does create heat, but the heat is not nearly as intense as direct light. Consistent, cool evenings leads to rich, saturated color. Plus, the little bit of cold stress is not only good for vivid-looking blooms, it is also just what they need to grow tall and straight.

This year, our hoop house varieties are exhibiting exceptionally vivid colors as well as stem lengths ranging from 14 to 28 inches. We love these beauties for their iconic, elegant appearance and their remarkable vase life. We're quite excited that we have discovered what Zants really want.....and we hope you are too!

Sep 11, 2013

Lily Talks Lilies (Part 2)

#CAGrown Broadway greenhouses Julia C.R.Dorr Lane DeVries Oriental lilies Sumatra

O my garden! lying whitely in the moonlight and the dew,

Far across the leagues of distance flies my heart to-night to you,

And I see your stately lilies in the tender radiance gleam

With a dim, mysterious splendor, like the angels of a dream!

Julia C.R. Dorr

Pink Oriental Fields Collection from our Bouquet Department

Welcome back to Part Two of our “Lily Talk Lilies” post. When you enter the Dutch glass greenhouses you notice how tall they are, certain varieties of our lilies grow upwards of five feet, but the height of the greenhouse seems like overkill. What’s the deal? The reason the greenhouses are so tall is to have plenty of air in the lilies atmosphere. More air equals a more stable environment, meaning less temperature swings and more consistent humidity levels. Oriental lilies like stability, they are creatures of habit. They like 16 hours of light every day and they like the temperature to stay at a constant 60 degrees Fahrenheit. This is in sharp contrast our LA Hybrid lilies that we grow out in hoop houses; they like hot days and cool nights.

Lilies just before harvest.

A big factor that differentiates our lilies from all others is the abundant availability of crystal clear water. As much of the nation simmers under drought conditions, Humboldt County is blessed with plenty of water…this is a nice way of saying that it rains a lot here. Our farm has several wells on it from which we draw the water for our crops. In tests we have found that the electro-conductivity of the water on our farm is very low compared to other flower growing regions of the world. I know, what’s electro-conductivity? It is the amount of salt in the water, salt conducts electricity and according to our head lily grower, Tim Crockenberg, lilies and most other plant don’t like salt and history shows this is true.

So our lilies grow tall and the blooms reach epic size, then our great picking teams harvest them at just the right time. They are bunched by variety, then put in buckets, here they have a special post-harvest drink. I asked what it was, and suddenly the usually very chatty growers clammed right up. We do have proprietary information of the farm, so this will remain a secret to our success.

Lane inspecting a current crop of Orientals.

One aspect of Sun Valley’s growing operation which I think often gets taken for granted is our experience. The methodical nature of Lane is instilled in our team of growers. Lane carries a little note book with him wherever he goes, and if you pay attention on a farm walk you will see him jotting down extremely specific notes about the crops. All these notes, based on specific batches, blocks of plantings, weather conditions and a host of other factors are cataloged and organized on spreadsheets. This scientific data base has been building since the early 80’s. This knowledge base shows in every stem we pick.

Our Lilies reach for the sky!

The post-harvest teams grade and sleeve the lilies, then they are "cart mapped" and sent to the coolers, where they await transport to their final destination. Each cart holds a set of buckets, and the contents of the buckets are all accounted for on the cart map. The Cart Map has information such as the flower variety, the grade, in some cases the specific customer, when they were picked and how many stems are on the cart. The Cart Maps all have bar codes on them, so every cart can be scanned and tracked. The organizational effort behind an operation like Sun Valley is pretty vast, the Cart Map system is one of the most reliable and dependable systems we have in place to make sure you get the right batch of lilies.

A Cart Map.

At the end of the day, an inventory crew goes through all the coolers and makes sure that the physical inventory matches the inventory our sales reps see on their computer screens. When you call and request ten boxes of pink Orientals, and our sales rep says, “Today I have 9, I will have more tomorrow.” These figures are amazingly accurate.

A Broadway, Sumatra and Bear Grass combo...#CAGrown.

Obviously, we are proud of the lilies we grow at SunValley. The vibrant colors, the great vase life and the consistent supply we offer point to a bigger issue. We believe in high quality flowers, there is nothing worse than a consumer taking home a bunch of lilies which doesn’t perform at its best. Many farms have similar rigorous procedures in place to insure the optimum quality; we applaud these efforts from our fellow growers. High quality flowers that “Delight and Amaze” customers are the key to return sales and increasing flower consumption. There is no short cut.

Lily shadows on canvas

Nov 13, 2012

Farm Weather Report

greenhouses hoop houses Humboldt County Iris Lilies Oxnard Rain Redwoods Salmon Tulips

Egrets at Sun Valley Floral Farm, Arcata.

A flock of egrets looks for shelter from the rain on our Arcata farm.

“Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” -Rumi

Our farm here in the north is ready to batten down the hatches, it looks like the classic Humboldt County rains have begun. Puddles are forming, and it appears they are here to stay. Just east of here, our farm in Willow Creek has had a dusting of snow and a few showers in the last week. To the south, our farm in Oxnard is still enjoying a dry, windy autumn. Our farm in St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada has already been shoveling some serious snow, and at the farm in Baja, people are still wearing shorts…maybe they always wear shorts?

Here on the rugged north coast we are hardy people, many of which don’t even own a raincoat, while living in what is termed a “temperate rainforest.” The rain is essential to our ecosystem, which includes the tallest trees in the world and some of the most dramatic rivers in America.

Coho and Chinook Salmon are starting their amazing journey up the rivers to their ancient spawning grounds. About 2 miles from the farm, salmon are schooling up and preparing for the water levels on the Mad River to rise so they can begin swimming upstream, in some cases over a 100 miles, to reproduce. We are blessed here in Humboldt County with a stunning natural environment, and an awesome community. This environment, although not ideal for suntans, air conditioners or sunglasses is perfect for growing tulips, lilies and iris.

So what happens on the farm when the rain starts? Luckily, all our field crops have been harvested except our yummy artichokes, which don’t mind the rain.

Our hoop houses are the most exposed to the elements. They don’t have much structure, just plastic sheeting stretched over arched metal poles. I asked grower Tim, “What happens to all the water that runs off the top of these hoops? It seems that you would need huge trenches to keep the water under control.”

Sun Valley Hoop House at our Humboldt County farm

Hoop House drainage system.

Tim explained something you would never know without getting the inside scoop. When a hoop house is built on the farm, it isn’t just put up with metal stuck in the ground and the sheeting pulled over to cover it. Our team actually builds up the ground below the hoop house with about 3 feet of sand, and in that sand is a huge series of drainage pipes. This keeps the area well drained, water run-off is controlled and the flowers growing in the hoop house don’t get flooded. The main crops growing right now in our hoop houses are our Royal LA Hybrid Lilies, Asiatic Lilies, Iris and Freesia.

Sun Valley's "Royal" LA Hybrids are coming on strong for Thanksgiving.

Our large complex of glass Dutch Greenhouses are where we grow the Oriental Lilies and our soil grown Tulips. These greenhouses have a steel infrastructure, thousands of glass panes, sliding doors and create a very controlled temperature atmosphere. When the rain comes; the humidity in the greenhouses spikes. A little humidity is great for the flowers; a lot of humidity is a recipe for disaster. A high level of humidity will encourage botrytis. Botrytis is the scourge of the flower farm. It is a fungus growth that will rot the stems and buds of lilies and turn them brown. No bueno.

Cold and wet outside, warm and dry inside.

Grower Antoon explained to me what they do to keep the humidity levels in check. The first thing they do is turn on the heat. Not your traditional heat, but a long series of white pipes through which they pump boiling water. This radiant heating system warms up the air in the greenhouse. Warm air holds more moisture than cold air, so the moisture which has accumulated in the greenhouse moves into the air, and away from the lilies and tulips. After a few hours of heat to pull the moisture into the air, the growers open up the vents on the greenhouse.

The hot, moist air rushes out of the greenhouse, rising into the sky, leaving the plants dry and safe from the devil botrytis. This clever system is repeated throughout the wet season and keeps our greenhouses producing year round lilies and tulips.