Location: Right Place, Right Time
Your business can only succeed if you’ve chosen the right location and right setup. A crop of rare orchids may thrive in your first class geothermally heated greenhouse, but if it’s located at the top of a treacherous mountain road, you may not be able to find enough intrepid customers or fearless truckers that are willing to do business with you. Alternatively, the busy corner retail space in a charming upscale suburb will certainly bring you plenty of prime retail traffic, but is there enough room to maintain the growing space necessary to prepare next season’s features? What about room to expand?
Considerations for climate, water supply, topography of the land, the need for windbreaks, and more should also figure significantly in your site selection process, as well as any regulatory requirements unique to local greenhouse and nursery businesses.
Plant Selection: Growing Up
“Greenhouse Grown” is no longer a particularly helpful tag in the nursery business. Plants grown 100% within a greenhouse environment, could include container-grown shrubs and small trees, annual bedding plants started from seed in cell packs, hydroponic lettuces and hothouse tomatoes, and certified organic foodstuff of all types. Each of these types of plant and methods of production require specific planning, equipment, and sometimes very strict operating rules.
It’s important not to get lost in the abundance of possibility. Growers need to calculate the costs of producing different types of plants in order to decide the products to grow, the methods of production, the selling prices and whether the plants are suitable to the specific markets where they’ll be sold.
- Tender annual vegetables like lettuces, squash and tomatoes need to be started from seed to be ready for transplanting soon after the last risk of frost has passed or soil temperatures have reached a certain threshold. Keep in mind the overnight temperatures typical for your greenhouse and consider how often supplemental heat might be needed, which will add to production costs.
- Perennial flowers are most popular in the weeks prior to bloom and should be presented with plenty of swelling buds and newly opened blooms. Make sure you have the required space and conditions to trigger budding often during midwinter.
- Organic food production requires careful handling to avoid exposure to chemicals like pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Potable water or carefully treated natural water must be used to prevent contaminating produce with harmful microorganisms. Consider your sourcing: Municipal tap water is convenient but can be quite expensive, while other sources may require careful storage to maintain potable quality. Weed and pest controls should be carefully maintained to avoid exposure and to quickly respond to threats of infestation.
- Landscaping shrubs and trees need to be offered in a variety of sizes and growing requirements; some may need to be trellised or otherwise sculpted. Different colors and cultivars need to be clearly marked and even isolated. Organization is critical - if a client wants a fruiting pair (male and female) of apple trees, or they want to avoid the vomit-like scent of Ginkgo by planting only male trees, you need to be able to easily identify which specimens meet their preferences
As you define your business’ scope and breadth, take some time to consider what you will be growing, what growth environment is required (soil temperature, air temperature, moisture levels, sun exposure, plus any special needs), how much room and how much time will each product require before sale, and especially how different species and types of products will need to intermingle.
Greenhouse Structures: The House That Built Me
A greenhouse, at its most basic, is four walls and a roof. The walls and roof are translucent, of course, but there are so many more options beyond traditional Victorian glasshouses that it’s important to consider all your options. Some greenhouses are best suited to simply extending a growing season, while others have been optimized for producing delicate tropical blooms in frigid northern winters.
Depending on your climate, the products you intend to grow, your budget, and your customers, certain greenhouse types will be clearly superior while others simply won’t work for your situation. In a later article, we’ll delve more deeply into the different types of greenhouses as well as some pros and cons for each.
Irrigation: Rain on Me
Since greenhouse plants have a permanent, albeit transparent, roof over their heads, they require large amounts of water, supplied at the right times and in the right amounts for optimal growth. Greenhouse operators have several ways to supply this water, from time-consuming traditional hand watering up to several times per day, to overhead sprinklers, or, sophisticated automated drip irrigation systems that apply water directly to root zones. On the other hand, the roots of hydroponics plants are constantly submerged in water circulated by a pump system.
Since both under- and over-watering can damage plants, the decision to invest in a quality automated irrigation system will almost certainly reduce stress on both you and your plants down the line. The type of system you choose will depend partially on the plants you’re growing, as well as your budget, but drip irrigation is recognized as one of the best systems for conservation of water. A higher capital investment up front could make a big difference in your operational costs over the years.
Automation: Mr Roboto
Gone is the day when the gardener would shuffle out to the glasshouse late at night to peer at the mercury thermometer on the wall and quickly add more fuel to the cast iron stove in hopes that the inside temperature would stay warm enough to protect the prized rose bushes.
Today, advanced technologies allow greenhouse operations like watering, heating and cooling, lighting and more, to be managed entirely remotely through a phone or remote application. The degree of automation you choose may depend on your personal preferences, but the larger your greenhouse operation is, the more sense remotely managed systems make. Automated systems not only reduce labor costs, but also give precise real-time data on environmental conditions in distinct growing spaces, which permits immediate controlled responses to changing needs.
