Growing Ideas :: by P. Allen Hammer

Published:12/1/2007

Sustainability

(from the December 2007 issue of GrowerTalks)


Recently a former student and present greenhouse grower made an interesting statement during our discussion of cold finish of poinsettias. He said cold finish really uses the poinsettia as a solar energy collector during the bright late-summer and fall growth period.


The statement makes perfect sense to those in the greenhouse business, although many of us probably wouldn't express it that way. However, think about the marketing power of that observation. In the era of green, sustainable production pressures, selling a poinsettia as a container of sunshine in December would make for a great marketing approach.


Certainly as our industry is pressured to provide “green” products, we need to use examples like this to tell our story. I think it will be much better if growers tell the sustainability story rather than letting the marketing experts tell a story that could make unreasonable demands on our industry. The greenhouse industry presently uses multiple production practices that are earth friendly. We simply need to package our story differently. My list of sustainable production practices would include the following:


Energy

  • The greenhouse structure is an outstanding solar collector with much of the heat requirement met by solar energy capture.

  • Thermal blankets save energy by reducing heat requirement.

  • Floor heating saves energy by placing heat at plant level.

  • High-efficiency heaters reduce heat loss up the chimney.


Water and Fertilizer

  • Drip irrigation uses less water and fertilizer by reducing waste as compared to overhead irrigation.

  • Flood floors use less water and fertilizer by recycling excess water and nutrients.

  • Irrigation ponds collect rainwater and runoff from the greenhouse for use in irrigation.

  • Soluble fertilizers provide specific plant nutrient needs while reducing extraneous nutrient application (e.g. Sodium).


Pesticides

  • Safer chemicals are less toxic pesticides that are more targeted for specific pests.

  • IPM/scouting/sticky cards means we only apply pesticides when required by the crop.


Structures

  • Open-roof greenhouses reduce mechanical cooling requirements and chemical height control requirements.

  • Computer controls allow better monitoring of environment and control systems to increase efficiency of energy used in the greenhouse.


Breeding

  • Designer plants are developed by breeders and have reduced chemical and energy input requirements.


Computers

  • Online ordering and e-mail reduces paper use.


This is my quick, first-draft list of sustainable greenhouse production practices. My reason for the list is to hopefully stimulate you to think about and add to this list all the things you (and the greenhouses you've visited) do each day that are earth friendly. Such a list can be a valuable tool to help you make your business more environmentally friendly and sustainable. You can also use such a list as a proactive marketing tool to promote your earth friendly approaches to production.


“Green” and environmentally friendly products are certainly getting lots of space in advertising. It's difficult to read or hear any advertisement that does not somehow get an environmentally friendly label on a product. And although I sometimes question the environmental label as a real stretch for certain products, it is marketing.


We, in floriculture, haven't been good at marketing our products. Given our present less-than-stellar floriculture sales, we cannot miss the current environmentally friendly marketing approaches to selling products. As an industry we must embrace the “green” marketing movement but with actions that are sustainable for our industry.


We need to be smart in both our approach to “green” production and marketing. We cannot allow others to set unreasonable demands on our greenhouse products. Nor can we make earth friendly, feel-good decisions without good research data to support those changes in production practices.


P. Allen Hammer is a retired professor of floriculture at Purdue Univeristy, Lafayette, Indiana, and is now in product development and support for Dummen USA.

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