At Emmerich Greenhouses we start all our own seedlings 100's of thousands of them. We use this state of the art vaccum seeding machine. The nozzles come in different sizes depending on the seed type. They suck up the seed then blow them down the tube into the seed tray. It takes less than a minute to seed a 512 plug tray
By doing our propagation like this it saves a lot of shipping and reduces our carbon footprint.
By doing our propagation like this it saves a lot of shipping and reduces our carbon footprint.
We start a lot from plants from bulbs. The list is large but includes, Amaryllis,Paperwhites,Daffodils,Hyacinths,Tulips,Lillies,Oxalis,Crocus,etc.
We also grow many types of plants from cuttings. The cuttings are shipped next day airfreight and immediately placed in rooting media and under intermittent mist. As you can see in this photo the cuttings are kept a cozy 75 to 80 degrees with the small rubber tubes that contain hot water.By using this method to propagate plants we avoid the unnecessary shipping of rooting media,packing,and plastic.
In 2008 we bought this outdoor wood boiler . We used to burn 10,000 gallons of fuel oil per year to heat the greenhouses. Now we burn about 2,000 gallons of fuel and about 70 cords of firewood.Chris cuts ,splits, and moves this wood several times during the process.Fortunately all this work coincides with our "slow" time. During sub 20 degree nights, the boiler needs a 2:00 o'clock feeding. By the way ,heating with wood is renewable and adds no additional carbon to the atmosphere because when a log rots in the woods it gives off the same amount of carbon. It also saves us a ton of money.