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Doing Things On Time
| Dr. P. Allen Hammer
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>> Published Date: 6/15/2010
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 I see one very bad habit in many greenhouses that needs to be changed: not doing things on time. We can all come up with many reasons for being behind on our To Do list, but I will argue that there are a number of greenhouse production operations that should never be delayed. Delaying some jobs greatly reduces finished plant quality and adds dollars to production costs.
No. 1 on my list of most important on-time operations is transplanting rooted liners and plugs. Rooted liners and plugs are shipped at optimum transplanting stage (at least they should be). Placing rooted liners or plugs on a greenhouse bench for more than a day or two after shipping nearly always results in loss of plant quality. Two or three weeks can be a disaster. This is equally important for those of you rooting your own liners or growing your own plugs.
Holding rooted liners or plugs after they’ve reached a transplanting stage never results in a better liner or plug. This is often the time root rot organisms get started because root injury occurs from impossible moisture control. Plants also become deficient in nutrients because of limited root medium.
Second on my list are spacing, pinching and applying needed PGRs. All too often I see plants in greenhouses that should have been spaced, pinched or treated with a PGR a week or two previously. Such delays always affect finished plant quality. Extra plant stretch in the early production phase can never be corrected. The early low branching of plants on compact nodes always improves finished plant quality.
Third on my list is monitoring plant nutrition in the plant root zone. You should never wait until you “see” a nutrition issue to measure root zone nutrient levels and pH. The on-time approach is to conduct routine tests of root medium and make changes in fertilizer applications from root medium data, not leaf symptoms.
Fourth on my list is monitoring insect and disease issues. It’s always easier to control an insect or disease problem at a very early stage; a delayed response always makes the problem much harder to control. Routine (at the very least weekly) scouting for insects and diseases is essential. This means yellow sticky cards, walking the crops and picking up plants for close inspection. Inspection includes looking at roots and stems as well as upper and lower leaf surfaces. Seeing an insect or disease problem from the center aisle is always a very bad thing.
Lack of planning is generally the reason greenhouse production operations are not done on time. It’s essential that needed materials and labor requirements are planned well in advance. Delays in shipping and workers not showing up are events that interfere with the best of plans, but those should be the exception and not the norm. Unfortunately, I see running a week or two behind as the norm in many greenhouses.
Once things get behind, the grower never, ever catches up. The cycle simply continues throughout the production season. One drastic approach to solving a delayed transplanting issue is to simply dump the 2-week-old rooted liners and plugs, or cancel the incoming orders until you’re able to catch up on the transplanting task. This is certainly a drastic approach that seems very expensive; however, I suggest you take a close look at the real costs of a 2-week delay in transplanting a rooted liner or plug.
To me, poor planning of labor requirements is the major reason many greenhouse production operations are not done on time. We all have a very bad habit of underestimating how long it takes to get a job done. Correctly planning the labor requirements is just as important as planning the number of pots or volume of root medium needed for the job. I know we’re all looking at ways to reduce labor costs in the present economy, but underestimating labor is extremely costly to the grower. It makes little sense to save labor costs when that decision adds production time and costs, and affects finished plant quality. Growers paying attention to details and doing things on time—every time—always produce the best greenhouse crops. GT
Dr. P. Allen Hammer is a retired professor of floriculture at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, and is now in product development and support for Dümmen USA.
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