B' 116-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 31,1990 Spring Greenery Found At Nickeson Greenhouses Karen Hicks Bradford Co. Correspondent HORNBROOK (Bradford Co.) — On the first day of spring, Bradford County lies covered in a layer of new-fallen snow. A wint er storm warning is in effect, schools will close early, and the green of spring is nowhere in sight. At Nickeson Greenhouses in Hombrook, however, preparation continues for the inevitable return of mild days and longer nights. Owner Jerry Nickeson makes numerous decisions about which plants should be moved to colder greenhouses, which plants should be moved to warmer areas. It’s the critical game of timing to ensure that the blooms for the busiest sea son of the year will precisely match supply and demand. Flow ers for Mother’s Day, Easter, and Memorial Day constitute 80% of his greenhouse business. This year is particularly diffi cult because Easter is 21 days later than last year. It is not a simple matter of starting the plants 21 days later. The differences in growing conditions m March and April may require some tulips to start 41 days later to get them ready for an Easter that’s 21 days later. Seventeen years of experience predict that Jerry will time things just right. He had started his first greenhouse in a cornfield in 1973. That February, the piece of land was a barren field; in March a 26x100 foot greenhouse was erected. He bought 7,000 cuttings of geraniums, and by June 1 hip entire stock of potted geranium plants was sold to a wholesale gar den center buyer. All those nights of worrying, and early mornings up early wor rying, were suddenly replaced with an empty building and time on his hands. What was he to do? He started building his second greenhouse in September and filled it with poinsettias for Christmas. Nickeson Greenhouses now comprises 28,000 square feet in eight greenhouses, with construc tion of number 9 just begun. Jerry jokingly admits, “If I could have known at the begin ning what I knew five years later, I probably never would have begun. I simply would have been overwhelmed.” Yet 17 years later, not for senti mental reasons, geranium prop- Grower Jody Applebee is taking geranium cuttings of the Nickeson greenhouse busi ness. Geranium propagation is now an 8-month project, begin ning with 500 new stock cuttings from Oglevee in Connelsville. Oglevee supplies greenhouses across the country with plants developed in cooperation with Penn State and other universities. The plants are free from the bac terial wilt that nearly decimated the geranium industry. From these 500 stock cuttings, Nickeson produces over 100,000 rooted plants. Nickeson learned his trade at Penn State’s Horticul ture Department and by working for over two years for the green houses of Marcus Sensinger in Lchighton. Working from the original 500 cuttings, rooted in movable propagation benches warmed by coils of Biolherm polyethylene plastic that circu lates warm water through the soil, Nickeson maintains 74’ soil temp erature and an air temperature that may drop to 60* without harming the plants. By June 1, the multipli cation from cuttings is up to 5 to 1. By December 1, the stock gera nium count is up to 19,000 plus the original 500. From these they take cuttings, and in January, February, and March they start shipping the small, rooted plants to other greenhouses to pot and sell as finished plants for Memor ial Day. At the peak shipping season, mid-March, the turnaround from cutting to rooted plant is two weeks, with each bench refilled as soon as it is emptied and the soil Nickeson built this seeding machine for $4. He says 8 to 10 stacks of lights In germination room contains 1,000 square feet of bench space. pasteurized. Nickeson ships 10,000-12,000 plants per week during this height of production. The two techniques of the Biotherm soil wanning, and the soil pasteurization between plant ings save Nickeson hundreds of dollars in energy cost and lost plants. The energy saved by back ing off the air temperature, a Rows of Cineraria and Calceolarls for a local flower show are being grown. harmless practice if the roots are kept warm and cozy, is tremend ous. The Biotherm practice actual ly saves energy and allows Nicke son to speed up plant growth. Soil pasteurization involves heating the soil to 180" for 30 minutes to kill the harmful bacter ia. The steam process takes about 2.5 hours to force the coldest spot in the soil to the necessary 180' for the full 30 minutes. Before steam pasteurization, it was com mon to lose 50 percent of the cut tings; now, Nickeson loses less than 1 percent of his rootings. Studying industry advances, combined with old-fashioned ingenuity are the major causes for Nickeson’s success. In his words, the adage “the Greenhouse busi ness is selling space,” motivates every aspect of his business. He installed rolling benches so that for the 6x12 feet, 2,000-pound benches he needed only one aisle instead of one for each bench. His large greenhouses now hold 15 benches instead of 13, resulting in a 20% increase in capacity with no additional construction, energy, or property tax costs. In his germination room, the space-saving technique was his own devising. All the bedding plants at Nickeson begin in this room. The 20’x20’ space contains 1,000 square feet of growing area, with 32 square foot shelves stacked five high. The stacking allows the warm-loving plants to grow near the ceiling, the cool loving plants to grow near the floor, to take advantage of the natural air stratification. The room is temperature controlled, with the room also controlling the heat in Jerry’s office next door. He is quick to apologize to visitors for the coolness of his office by stat ing, “The building is controlled by the plants next door - so I’m sec ond class here.” From mid-January to mid-May, the bedding plants, one-half of which will be sold wholesale and one-half retail at the property, are started from seed. With some plants, that is more difficult than others. The popular wax begonia plants begin from seeds that num ber over 1 million per ounce. Nickeson used to mix the seeds with Knox gelatin so he could plant them. The one-inch plug trays that Nickeson now uses so that he can transplant the wax begonias with out disturbing the roots require a greater precision - one seed to each plug. Nickeson could have bought a $lO,OOO Hamilton seed er. Instead, he designed his own machine - the cost, $4. Using a drill press, he drilled 400 wells exactly the diameter of a seed in a metal plate. Then he drilled a catch basin around each well. Four hundred seeds on the elate eouals 400 seeds in the flat. Just right. The technique is simple. You spread 2,000 pelletized seeds over the plate, rock it gently, and the excess seeds will roll into the tray at the edge of the planting box. Place the box over the flat. Slide the plate so the wells are open, and the seeds drop right into place on the flat. Simple. When you know how. And know-how is the key to the business. When they first started using the plug flats at Nickeson’s, they were having very little suc cess. Then they learned that the simple act of scooping the soil mix into the middle of the flat, then spreading it to the sides, was com pressing the soil so that the young roots had no airspace. Now, they fill the flats carefully, and water the soil mix before they fill the trays, not after. With the small plugs, the water drainage can be a serious problem, literally drown ing the roots. Nickeson resolved the problem by placing each plug tray on top of a regular tray. This increases the column of water, and allows the water to drain down into the bottom flat. Years of accumulated know how such as when to pull the first daffodil and crocus pot from the freezer to check the number of days to flowering, how to circulate 20,000 cubic feet of air per minute through the greenhouse to cool the air when the sun is shining steadi- ly, where to position the cold frames with circulating water coils and roll-down plastic to produce some of the sturdiest garden plants in the region, why pay for peak electric use in the germination room when you can turn on the cool while lights on off-peak hours and also take advantage of the cool night air to lower the temperature in mid-May; ensure that Nickeson Greenhouses will continue to produce. The three full-time, year-round employees and the 10-12 full-time peak season employees are thankful that the brave, foolish, naive young Jerry Nickeson had the guts and ingenuity to chance it 17 years ago.
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