Farm Lab Friday- Field Trip- Part II

celery transplants inside a modern greenhouse

(LINK to Part I)


As I mentioned in my first Farm School post this week, we took a field trip to Greenheart Farms.  They are a leading commercial transplant producer. They start vegetables, ornamentals, and specialty plants.  As you can see from the picture above, they have grown and sold literally billions of plants.  The above celery plants are pampered in a modern greenhouse with retractable top and sides.  They receive water, nutrients, and chemigation through the sprinklers above the tables.  It's a state of the art facility.

 This room was full of several varieties of roses and although the room (greenhouse) was about as long as a football field, this was only half of it.  It kept on going...  Notice that everything is constructed of materials that can be sterilized to help eliminate pathogens.

 Across from the roses there were acres of greenhouses full of plants.

 The greenhouse on the right houses the celery we saw in the first picture.  As you can see, the greenhouse roof and side curtains have been pulled down to protect the celery from overheating and to maximize sun exposure.

 This is a greenhouse full of cottonwood trees that Greenheart has grown from seed.  These baby trees are destined for a special project that Greenheart has undertaken for the Federal Government (Bureau of Reclamation).  These trees will be transplanted onto federal lands near the Colorado River as part of a program to rehabilitate damaged federal lands and bring back the indigenous flora and fauna to an area that had been cleared of native vegetation many years ago.  This is the kind of program I like to see, rehabilitation leads to sustainable ecosystems again.  I plan to drive out and see it.  I hope it helps native wildlife populations in the area recover as well.

 This was my FAVORITE greenhouse.  Besides growing all those awesome transplants, specialty plants for unique rehabilitation programs, and lots of pretty ornamentals, they also supply chain stores like Home Depot with BEAUTIFUL poinsettias each Christmas.  This room was full of them and so were all of the greenhouses on the left side of the picture below.  They are growing approximately 200,000 poinsettias for this Christmas season.  That's just 200,000 more reasons to love this company...

 Wow!  That's a lot of poinsettias.  They even sell them to local non-profits for fundraisers.

 This is Austin.  He's a fellow student.  Austin is the one responsible for those fantastic looking hydroponics lettuce plants I showed off in a previous week.  He's quickly becoming a hydroponics guru.

 After our tour, Professor Nunez arranged one last stop.  We stopped at Grimmway Farms' Cal-Organic field in Cuyama Valley.  The machine in this picture is a field packing operation.  It was interesting to watch harvesting in action.  We watched hard working field hands cut purple cabbage heads and hand them up to workers inside this contraption.  Those on board, prepped and packed the cabbage in boxes for shipment.  They work so fast and hard in hot, humid conditions.  I know I couldn't keep up.

  Here is a look across one of the fields.  It was hard to believe how perfect these organic vegetables looked.  We saw very minimal evidence of insect damage, and the heads were HUGE.  Grimmway has organic production down to perfection.  I'd sure like to go to work for them someday to learn from the best.

 Have you ever wondered why veggies like lettuce and cabbage are all about the same size in the store, but seem to vary in size in your own garden?  I have the answer.  Field hands only harvest large, fully ripe cabbages.  They leave the smaller ones for the next pass through the same field later, in a few weeks.  It's not magic.  There were many smaller cabbages left in the field for later, just like at home.

 Here, Professor Nunez was talking to us about how much the organic industry has advanced over the years.  He said that it used to be the case that you could tell which fields were organic just by looking at them.  They were weedy and full of pest damage, but TODAY, you can't tell.  In fact, If you ask me, they're not just competitive, these specimens were superior to the conventional crops I often see in my grocery store.  Look how big that broccoli crown is.  It's HUGE.  It was likely a Greenheart transplant.  They contract with Grimmway and their Cal-Organic label.  Mr. Hertel (Greenheart Farms Sales Manager) said that about 25% of their business is now organic.

 We did end up back at our small urban farm at the college, eventually.  Look at the size of our plants.  They're growing great thanks to the tireless work of our professor.  He pops in often to water and manage the crops.  

These plants have really taken off in the last three weeks.  Those are my size 10 Nikes next to those immature cabbage plants.

Well, that's all for this week.  Next week, we are harvesting some of our lettuce and donating it.  I'll write about that later.  I had a great time.  This trip was very informative on the commercial production end of plant science.  I am fortunate to be in a great class, with some really nice people; and we are blessed to be learning from the smartest, most experienced crop scientist I have met.

Until next time.  Have a great week!




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Farm Lab Friday- Field Trip- Greenheart Farms

Another Friday at the school's farm lab passed, but this one was special.  Instead of the usual manual labor, dirt under the fingernails, in the shoes, and on the clothes; we took a charter bus over to the coast.  Our mission, to see one of the best commercial transplant growing facilities in the state, Greenheart Farms.  The same generous folks that donated all those vegetable transplants to our class at the beginning of the semester.  This day was so amazing that I have to break up the day's events into multiple posts.

Greenheart Farms Seed House Tour

 Here, we are joined by our tour guide Greenheart Farms Sales Manager Paul Hertel (center).

You may be able to see large white container bags in the distance (right side) of the picture above.  Each big bag holds up to 3000 kg (that's 6610 lbs) of perlite, coconut fiber, or peat moss.  They're mixed together in the seed room to become Greenheart's transplant soil medium.  I don't know the percentages, nor do I know what other additives they use to make their proprietary blend, but rest assured, it's perfect.  I saw literally tens of thousands of transplants and could see NO empty tray cells. 

 Big container bag up close.

 This room is part of the "Seed House".  Here, you can see the soil components mixing and climbing an elevator toward their destination, seed trays.  (You may also see my friend and fellow classmate Damian in this frame.  Hi Damian!)

 The soil is carried overhead and drops into the next room.

 down this tunnel, into a machine

 that siphons it and packs it into transplant seedling trays

 The machine fills them perfect, every time.  Mr. Hertel told us a story about the importance of precision soil placement.  If the machine were to overfill trays, it would lead to economic losses for farmers because overfilling cells causes root netting (roots grow into eachothers trays).  This would dramatically slow down field workers pulling them from trays.  They'd have to waste precious time separating each plant before inserting them into the machines that plant them in the field.  Time is money.

 Speaking of precision... This machine consists of 144 hoses and a vacuum.  It vacuums up 144 seeds and places one in each cell.  It does this perfectly, every time; no matter how small or large the seed.  It can be calibrated for seed size and shape. It's amazing to watch, it never makes a mistake.

Here, seeded trays move toward misters that moisten the soil and then outside to be stacked on special made pallets.

 Here, the seed trays await stacking

Palleted, waiting to be set in a greenhouse or field to grow.  The profit margins are so small in this industry that trays are not generally seeded, until they are sold.  No waste.  The trays each hold 144 seedlings and pallets hold 12 trays.  (In this picture there are more than 90,000 seeded cells that are going to become 90,000 plants).  This tour was a real eye opener into the industry.  There is no room for error, that's why so much of the process is automated. Precision is essential.  Farmers can't and won't afford poor quality products, so transplant growers can't afford to make mistakes.

Thanks again to Mr. Paul Hertel and Greenheart Farms for taking the time to share this amazing operation with our class.  Stay tuned for my next post about our trip to Greenheart Farms Greenhouses. They are working on some fantastic projects.

Here's the LINK for Part 2

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Another week passes on our little suburban homestead...

Another beautiful week has come and gone.  I love the cooler Fall temperatures and how the weather influences the colors in our trees and plants.  As usual, I spent several hours primping the garden, starting seeds and transplanting them into ready beds.

This week I started a new project.  Readying new, portable conduit hoop houses for the beds.

I bathed and groomed my furbabies, although they were very unwilling participants.  

Here, my baby Chocolate stands awaiting a warm water bath and clippers...  He was trying to get out that door, but alas a metal screen.  If you look real close you can tell that I have already made a pass with clippers to help the shampoo get him clean.  Doesn't he look just like an Ewok from Star Wars?  I think so.

On Friday, we worked at the farm on my weekly FARM LAB trip to Bakersfield College's campus farm.  You can see our progress here.

After a hard day's work at the farm, Jerry and I managed a trip to our local Kern County Fair to experience the animals, crafts, tractors, vendors, rides, and of course the fried foods.  We saw some really unique things that we have never seen before, and so rather than share what we all see at the Fair, I am going to share a few interesting pictures below.

Jerry loves old tractors

Shark tooth fossils...

beautiful handmade, intricate beaded jewelry

like this delicate looking beaded necklace

 

Jerry found a puppet show theater, he was so excited, but he missed the show...

We saw pretty young ladies dancing...

and local California State University Bakersfield (CSUB) Nursing students helping the community by providing FREE health screens that included BMI, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose testing.  I got my screening done.  It was great fun.  These young men and women were very professional and informative! Great ambassadors for their school!!!

Hey, that looks like our fair mascot K.C. The Bull!!!

Here's Jerry standing beside one of the most interesting pieces of artwork I have ever seen made from gourds...  These "people", the chess set, table, chairs, acrobats, dogs, cats, and even mice were all made from manipulated gourds.  

I still can't believe they're gourds

another gourd craft, what a pretty purse.

and a gourd candle lamp...

followed by a gourd basket or jar...  

Who knew you could do so much with a gourd.

It wouldn't be a county fair without food crafts.  I found LOTS of lovely fondant cakes...

This one is decorated in some of the most lifelike gum paste flowers I've seen.

FARM LAB FRIDAY Integrate Pest Management in Vegetable Crop Production Class

Well, another busy, exciting week is winding down and I have so much to share.

I took a mid-term at school followed by an introduction to Hydroponics at the school greenhouse.  Believe it or not, these romaine lettuce transplants are the same age as these in the field...  

Hydroponics create perfect growing conditions for plants: climate control, mineral and nutrient control, and pest control.  Both plants came from the same batch of transplants we planted a few weeks ago, and the field romaine looks great, but the hydroponically grown romaine is almost 300% as big.  Amazing.

My row in the center of this picture was among a lucky few that were full of grass this week...  Thankfully, my wonderful Husband went along with me to school and helped me weed my bed, all 195' of it...

This marker denotes an area of my organic bed that I am experimenting on.  The plants behind the marker, up to the next marker were all treated with Superzyme, a biologic product full of beneficial organisms that are supposed to be fast acting and help your organic plants grow faster.  In my test plot (so far) my Superzyme treated plants are smaller than my untreated plants...  I will keep watching them and report again next week.

Another experiment, this time the product was called Actinovate and it left measurably larger plants.  Yippee! Sorry, these shots were taken before class and before the bed was cleaned up.

A successful IPM strategy includes frequently checking the plants in the field for pest and disease damage.  On the image above, you can see what is called "tunneling" inside the leaf.  This is done by leafminers, which are flying insect larvae that literally get inside the leaf and eat tissue, which makes them difficult to kill because they're inside.  Our organic field had a good amount of this damage, so far, it's not at threshold levels, but I suspect this is only going to get worse.  I wonder if the Professor will let us use Spinosad??? That's an organic insecticide that can "get them" with multiple applications; they have to ingest it from the plant tissue...

It may be hard to see in this picture (sorry, I get so excited when we catch a pest insect that my hands shake) but there is a small light green caterpillar on this leaf and he is the little villain responsible for all these holes.
He is a cabbage looper.  I caught my own shortly after I took this shot.  They are everywhere at the farm this week, turning our organic and some of our conventional cabbage plant leaves into swiss cheese.

All in all, it was a great day at the farm, we DID get the whole row weeded.  See.  The spots that look empty are actually red leaf lettuce.  When they're this small, they're almost invisible from this distance. lol

Later, to reward ourselves Jerry and I went to our local fair and enjoyed animals, tractors, crafts, fried foods, demonstrations, and lots of excitement.

I hope you had a great week too, and I hope next week is even better for you.  Bye for now!

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