Small-scale Nursery Production
Market
Retail garden centers want small plants in 1-3 gal containers.
Landscaping firms want larger containers (3-5 gal) and B&B woody plants.
Restoration projects use 1 gal containers, bare root, plugs, liners.
Wetland restoration uses divisions, rhizomes, live stakes, bulbs.
Marketing ideas:
Start small.
Market locally.
Find out what has been successfully grown.
Find out who competition is.
Before committing to contract growing, try growing a crop when no one is depending on you.
General Production
Two types: field and container.
Field: direct seeded or transplanted from seedlings; lifted as bare root.
Container: from seed, rooted cuttings or field-grown seedlings
Container now more common:
Better survival
Requires less space
Does not need good soil
Allows grower to expand planting season
Five major considerations in determining where to establish a nursery:
Soil
Climate
Water
Market
Labor supply
Irrigation
Two most widely used systems: overhead, drip
Overhead covers large area, is cheaper to install.
Produces uneven water distribution.
Encourages disease.
Creates runoff.
Can use a lot of water.
Drip systems use 60-70% less water.
Are less affected by wind.
Workers can keep working while they are on.
Biggest drawback is keeping emitters clean.
Third kind of system is capillary sandbeds.
Cost most to install.
Create no runoff.
Drawback: weeds and containerized plants grow into them.
Basic rule: water often, especially on warm, sunny or windy days. The reservoir available for water in a container is very limited.
Irrigation Runoff
Water, fertilizer and pesticides a problem.
Runoff water may be collected in ditches or in tile systems.
This water may be routed through a bioswale to a pond.
May be settled out and re-used.
A runoff-minimizing strategy is pulse irrigation.
Water five or six times a day instead of once.
Controlled by a computerized system.
Cultural practices to reduce runoff:
Avoid irrigating bare soil.
Have roughened soil surface to retain water.
Use less-porous media that retain nutrients and water.
Use slow-release fertilizer.
Integrated
Use resistant plants.
Build populations of beneficial insects.
Monitor pest numbers.
Determine treatment thresholds.
Use spot treatments of pesticides least harmful to beneficials.
Container Production
Advantages:
High density of plants possible.
Soil quality is irrelevant (must drain).
Planting times are less weather-dependent.
You eliminate some operations (like root pruning).
Lower transport costs (light-weight media).
Less root loss and better survival.
Disadvantages:
Small containers need frequent watering.
Nutrient depletion.
Need winter protection.
May become root-bound.
Trees can be knocked over by wind.
Container costs.
Labor costs to pot.
Root stress due to temperature extremes.
Weed Control
Important in container production.
Focus on two areas:
In the pot.
Under the pot.
Sanitation is least costly control.
Keep vegetation-free zone on and around planting bed.
Grow on weed-barrier.
Herbicides widely used in container nurseries.
Wind, birds, surface irrigation bring in seeds.
Pre- and post-emergent herbicides used.
Cheaper than hand-weeding.
Fertilization
Four ways to fertilize:
Incorporate
Top dress
Liquid feed
Foliar feed
In container nurseries, incorporation and liquid feed are commonly used.
Frequent watering and limited container volume result in nutrient leaching.
Two fertilizer system used: slow-release and liquid.
Slow release can be organic or Osmocote-type (incorporate).
Nitrogen is the main nutrient in liquid feeding.
Costs
Overhead
Direct costs
Marketing
Overhead:
Taxes, depreciation, interest, rent, utilities, insurance, maintenance and repair, new construction, new equipment, supplies, management and administrative salaries, labor wages not assigned to a particular crop.
Direct:
Costs tied to a crop.
Seed, potting soil, fertilizers.
Prices charged should reflect:
1. Exact production costs, plus profit, for each crop.
2. Prices and quantities offered by competitors.
3. Supply and demand for crop.