Today’s technology can automate every aspect of irrigation, saving labor and water, but it comes with a price With irrigation controls at your fingertips and data on soil moisture levels and plant stress a click away, today’s nursery producer has more control over plant health than at any time in history. And with labor and […]
Stretched to the limit
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Extreme weather wreaks havoc on greenhouse poly film With 15 acres of greenhouses under his management, Jeremy Dewar at North American Plants in McMinnville, Oregon, replaces polyethylene (poly) film on a recurring basis. Lately, however, he is replacing it at a higher rate than usual. Like other greenhouse operations in Oregon, the greenhouses at North […]
A season of nightmares
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With low availability and higher driver and truck costs, shipping costs skyrocketed in 2022 For as long as Erica Hill can remember, Union Pacific railroad has provided the nursery industry with a special commodity rate to move stock during the spring shipping season. Until this year, that is. “With container availability issues and with the […]
Lean outdoor growers ferret out waste, boost profits
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Small margins and lengthy production timelines at nurseries mean that small changes implemented with Lean production techniques can add up to less waste and better margins — while better protecting workers.
‘A perfect storm of hurdles’
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Container vendors deal with supply chain, labor and raw materials issues, which in turn affects growers and retailers In her 14 years as hard goods buyer in the nursery industry, Cheryl Atwater has seen economic cycles come and go, plant trends peak and drop off and markets surge and decline. Never, however, has she experienced […]
Dealing with a known quantity
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Wholesale nurseries find personal service and relationships are still key for making the sale Many nurseries no longer input orders manually, in some cases saving hundreds of work hours monthly. Smartphones have become indispensable as nurseries snap photos of plants and shoot them across the country in a matter of seconds. And in response to […]
Getting the word out
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Growers take an interest in steering landscapers and end users to the right tree for the location No tree can grow best in the wrong place, and no location can be enhanced by the wrong tree. To that end, the flow of information between tree growers, and experts in the markets they serve, is critical […]
Arranging for efficient greenhouse production
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The intentional, strategic use of space can determine how efficiently a greenhouse functions and how profitable it is Nursery operators tend to fill greenhouses to capacity, so that enough product is available when sales come knocking. But according to Rick and Elizabeth Peters of Lean consultants The Peters Company (Wilsonville, Oregon), a packed greenhouse at […]
Keeping drivers in the loop
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Communication is key to treating truckers well during driver shortage Jackie Weisenberger of Oregon Pride Nurseries Inc. rarely hears that a driver has backed out of picking up a load from her McMinnville nursery. “Earlier this spring, we had that happen, but that was happening everywhere,” she said. “As things died down, as we got […]
A billion-dollar bounty
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Several factors explain Oregon’s robust plant sales figures, particularly in woody material When Rich Bailey of J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co. in Boring, Oregon, relocated to Oregon from Chicago several years back, he was struck by the wide diversity of plant materials produced by Oregon nurseries. “This state grows so many different types of […]