Future Of Nursery Industry May
COLUMBUS, Ohio On
the Ohio State University ag
ricultural campus sits two new
buildings that university horti
culturists are banking will
change the face of nursery
stock production in Ohio.
With roll-up end walls and
sidewalls and plastic curtains
for a roof, the buildings look
anything but a typical green
house. But the structures,
known as retractable roof
greenhouses, have helped
nursery operations in the
south, southeast, and Pacific
Northwest become more prof
itable and efficient, and has
increased the industries’ sus
tainability. Hannah Mathers is
helping Ohio nursery growers
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to do the same.
“Retractable roof green
houses make a lot of sense for
container and nursery stock
production,” said Mathers, an
Ohio State University nursery
and landscape specialist. “It
gives you the flexibility of al
lowing the building to be a
greenhouse or an outdoor en
vironment. Sometimes you
want your material in a green
house and other times you
don’t”
Construction of the build
ings, one with a flat-roof and
the other with a peaked-roof,
began last summer with the
help of a $lO,OOO grant from
the Ohio Nursery and Land
scape Association. The re-
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tractable roof greenhouses are
the first of their kind to be
used for nursery production in
the Midwest
The idea of natural ventila
tion is the driving innovation
behind retractable roof green
houses. The design allows a
grower to retract up to 90 per
cent of the roof, guaranteeing
that temperatures never rise
above ambient. The ability to
retract the roof and roll-up the
sides allows for better temper
ature and humidity control
and improved wind and light
conditions.
Stephen Myers, chairman of
Ohio State’s department of
horticulture and crop science,
said retractable roof green-
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 17, 2003, Grower & Marketer-E3
Lie In A Greenhouse
houses would not only benefit
the nursery industry, but
would also be useful in other
agricultural areas.
“It think the application of
retractable roof greenhouses
will expand into other crop in
dustries like vegetables and
fruit, as well as interfacing
with pest management pro
grams,” said Meyers. “For ex
ample, hail is a problem for
crops. You can just hit a but
ton and close the roof. If birds
are a problem with cherry
trees, close the roof. If it’s too
hot, close the roof. You can re
ally do a lot of things with it
that can be to a grower’s ad
vantage.”
The justification of retracta
ble roof
greenhouses
in Ohio is al
ready being
met with
some skepti
cism in the
nursery in
dustry, but
Mathers is
looking to
change pub
lic opinion
by demon-
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strating their usefulness, effi
ciency, and affordability
through a series of research
studies.
One that is generating the
most attention is a project
funded by a $58,000 16-month
USDA/Ohio Department of
Agriculture (USDA/ODA)
Specialty Crop Block grant to
develop an Ohio tree liner pro
duction system. Mathers and
Dan Struve, an Ohio State
horticulturist, are the authors
of the grant and applied with
the Ohio Nursery and Land
scape Association to obtain
the USDA/ODA funding.
The study analyzes the fea
sibility of growing tree seed
lings to “whip” height four
to eight feet tall and a Vi inch
to Va inch in diameter to be
sold as tree stock to other
nurseries in Ohio and other
parts of the nation. The Ohio
nursery industry does not
grow its own whips because
the growing season is too
short. Nurseries obtain whips
from the Pacific Northwest,
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