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Business & Biology :: by Chris Beytes
Published:3/1/2008
Elzinga Greenhouses is combining high-end marketing with sustainable production in their new 4-acre USDA-certified organic greenhouse.
(from the March 2008 issue of GrowerTalks)
Angelo Caputo, the retired owner of a small Chicago grocery chain, adopted an organic and natural food lifestyle after being diagnosed with cancer in 2004, around the same time his wife died from the disease. Not only did he adopt it for his own health, he began selling organic produce in his stores, too, making Caputo’s a noted Chicagoland destination for shoppers seeking an incredible array of fresh produce. Angelo is in remission today—“controlled lymphoma” the doctors call it—and he credits his relative health, in part, to his revised diet.
Across the lake in Portage, Michigan, greenhouse owner Mark Elzinga had been selling bedding plants to Caputo’s for decades. Hearing Angelo’s story led Mark to an “epiphany” of his own about pursuing sustainability, including organic production, at his five locations.
“Here’s a guy,” Mark says of Angelo, “who said, ‘I’m going to do something. I’m going to implement it in my stores, it’s going to help me, it’s going to help my employees, it’s going to help my customers.’ And he made money at it, and that’s what we all want to do.”
To that end, Mark has just completed construction on a 4-acre greenhouse that will be dedicated to growing organic vegetables and herbs—one of the first in the country to be USDA certified to do so. Those 4 acres of product will go to 185 Meijer stores in the Midwest, although he plans to expand his customer base for organics until he’s keeping the house filled year round.
But don’t think organics and sustainability are just philosophical, feel-good decisions for Mark. He’s all business.
“I think there’s money in this,” Mark says matter-of-factly. “We believe that this is a way for us to get more money for our products.”
The proof is in the pricing: Mark’s new line of organic veggies and herbs, which will sell under his “Fresh Flavors” brand, will wholesale for “significantly” more than his traditional unbranded vegetables and herbs (which he’ll still offer). And he expects sustainable business practices to save him money, not cost him. He cites Wal-Mart’s recent efforts as a perfect example.
“When Wal-Mart says, ‘We’re going to reduce the size of our soap bottle,’ they have less waste, less cardboard, more room on shelves, more room in trucks so their trucking costs go down, they bring less stuff over the big pond in containers—and it all cuts their cost of doing business. That’s the real story [of sustainability].”
Making the Decision
Mark and his head grower, Roger Rosenthal, began planning their organic greenhouse in April 2007. But they’d been using sustainable production and business practices for quite a few years already, adopting natural fertilizers such as Daniel’s, using biological controls, and recycling their plastics whenever possible—basically just doing common-sense things to control costs and improve quality. They’d also been building up their vegetable brand, Fresh Flavors. The combination of experience in sustainable production and POP-based retail marketing made it possible—and profitable—for them to launch an organic program, Mark says.
“It stemmed from our success growing sustainably at our other locations—it wasn’t that hard. We felt we were very successful at it. And we were learning things from growing sustainably that made us think, ‘If we take the next step (to organic), it’s not going to be nearly as bad as we’d think.’”
Roger, however, wasn’t quite as sanguine.
“A year ago, when Mark told me we were going to grow organic in here, my jaw hit the floor,” Roger recalls. “My immediate thought was, ‘I can’t use this, I can’t use that’—all the things you can’t do. I think a lot of people think about organics that way. But really when you learn about organics, there’s so much more than what you can’t do; there’s a whole system involved. A ‘living soil’ for instance. So I think it becomes less frightening and more, ‘Ah, so that’s how it works!’ It’s not just about what you can use and can’t use.”
“Living” Soil
Elzinga’s organic program starts with what Roger referred to as “living soil”: a potting mix that, rather than being sterile and inert, is chock full of beneficial bacteria and fungi which serve to feed the plant while protecting it from pests. Then he increases its biological content with the use of compost tea, which they brew on-site.
Sun-Gro is blending their soil (it’s proprietary to Elzinga, but Sun-Gro does have other natural and organic mixes available commercially, says Sun-Gro’s Willie Faber). It starts with standard peat moss, which is combined with composted organic pine bark, rice hulls, coir (which acts as a wetting agent, since chemical wetting agents are not permitted in organic production) and worm castings for a starter charge and growing-on fertility (more on this later). Then they blend in Azomite rock powder (for micronutrients and a bit of phosphorus) and 3 lbs. of lime per yard (since they can’t apply acid to adjust the pH).
Worm Power
That’s both a trade name and a statement of fact: worm castings (vermicompost, to be scientific, or worm poop, to be crass) is a potent form of organic nutrients. It improves soil chemistry, enhances a soil’s physical properties and enhances the plant and soil biology. It’s the key element of Elzinga’s organic program, as it provides the beneficial organisms that inhabit Elzinga’s potting mix. These organisms are bacteria and fungi that are found in abundance in natural soils, but which we’ve eliminated from modern greenhouse potting mixes. However, many growers and researchers feel that bringing these natural organisms back into our production systems can improve quality and reduce our dependence on artificial means of pest control, nutrition, height control and more. Worm Power is produced by RT Solutions of Geneseo, New York (www.wormpower.net). They ship it in 1-cubic-yard boxes. “It’s costly,” Mark says, “but it’s wonderful stuff!”
Mark and Roger have found several ways to use Worm Power. They’re having Sun-Gro blend it at 10% into their potting mix (although they may be able to cut that to 5% worm castings and 5% compost if they find a suitable source of organic compost). They’re brewing a vermicompost tea that’s so potent they call it “Garden Espresso,” which they’ll apply to crops through their Cherry Creek irrigation booms. They’re even experimenting with top-dressing plug trays with Worm Power instead of vermiculite. So far results look promising, Roger says, with tomato seedlings showing thicker stems, wider leaves and no phytotoxicity issues whatsoever.
Roger has been making small batches of compost tea in a 25-gal. brewer, but in order to make 4 acres worth of liquid feed, they’ve installed two commercial-size, 500-gal. Growing Solutions brewers that can make 1,000 gal. of Espresso every 24 hours. It will be applied to the crops through their booms, and since it isn’t nearly as concentrated as a standard soluble fertilizer, it will be injected using a custom 5:1 fertilizer injector that can flow 200 gpm.
“There are two ways to approach nutrition,” Roger explains. “One is the conventional way, that our plants are living on what we’re applying over the top. Organics can be done that way. But the approach we’re taking is that we have the soil cycling, and we’re feeding the soil. We’re encouraging that cycling. From that, the nutrients release.”
Biocontrols
While organics is new to Elzinga’s, biocontrols are not. Roger has nearly 10 years of experience releasing beneficials into his bedding crops. Currently he’s using several different techniques, including ladybugs for aphids; using barley plants (“banker plants”) infested with cereal aphids that feed parasitic wasps; and applying the beneficial mite Amblyseius cucumeris onto plug trays using a carefully cleaned granular pesticide applicator for control of thrips and shore flies. They also want to plant prairie plants around the perimeter of the greenhouse to act as a natural insectary for beneficial insects.
“[The biocontrol companies] are working on a lot of different ways to make biocontrol more economical, to make it last longer. This is a good example,” he says, indicating the piles of cucumeris. “If we were to just throw them out on the crop, we’d have maybe three to four weeks with it. If we put them in piles so they can breed and reproduce more, we can get six weeks before we need to reapply.”
Another aspect of natural control they’ve tested with great success is “brushing” plants for height control and stem strength. Mark learned the almost-forgotten technique of brushing tomato plants with a broom from his dad’s partner. Mark and Roger updated the concept by hanging strips of plastic from the bottom of their booms, then running the booms back and forth across the crops about 20 times per day, generally in the morning before they watered. They tested it with garden mums last fall with “unbelievable” results, Mark says. “It cut our growth regulator applications in half.” For proof, Roger would normally go through 50 cases of growth regulator per year. Last year, when they did inventory, they had 23 four-bag cases left.
To give a more modern slant to the idea, they’re going to try mounting blowers on each boom to blow the plants instead of brushing them.
Despite these successes, Mark and Roger will be the first to admit they’re not experts on organics or sustainability. They depend heavily on people who have much more experience than they do. One of them is Alison Kutz-Troutman of Sound Horticulture, Bellingham, Washington (alison@soundhorticulture.com). Alison is consulting with them on all things sustainable and organic, steering them through the intricacies of soil and vermicompost, compost tea, the sourcing of all organic products; and she’s assisting with their biocontrol efforts. (See her article on compost tea on page 38 of this March issue of GrowerTalks.)
Getting Certified
Most worrisome to growers considering organics seems to be the certification process. But, say Mark and Roger, it wasn’t nearly as difficult as they expected.
“At first, I think we thought we were looking at a lot of government regulation and red tape and steps,” Roger recalls. “But along the way we found that the people who certified us were very helpful. There were some issues to take care of, but they weren’t nearly as tough as we thought when we originally went into it.”
They worked with CCOF—California Certified Organic Farmers—which is an independent agency that’s authorized by the USDA to certify organic production (CCOF also certified Plug Connection in California). CCOF guided them through the process and answering their questions.
For instance, Roger says, “I was really concerned about keeping this facility separate from the other facility. But when the CCFC inspector came out, she didn’t have anything to say about it. It was more about the recordkeeping.”
While Roger was dealing with production issues, Mark was worried about paperwork—“filling out forms and constantly keeping up on that stuff.” But he hired an experienced administrative assistant, Charity Little, who took the burden off of him.
The most challenging part of the process, Mark says, was developing a tracking system from sowing to sale.
“Anyone who buys something from a Meijer store, we have to be able to tell what batch it came from, when it was shipped out of our greenhouse … it’s a complicated system of lot numbers and colored tags.” And they have to implement SOPs—standard operating procedures—for every step of production, to ensure everything is done the way it’s supposed to be. Mark hired Prima Communications in Michigan to handle that. Prima writes SOPs for pharmaceutical companies and other industries, so they could easily handle SOPs on topics such as cart washing, entering and leaving building, taking herb cuttings and so on.
As for the cost of certification, Mark estimates it at about $5,000. There’s also an annual fee, which helps support the process.
Sales Talk
At the time of our visit in late January, the greenhouses were practically empty. But by March 12, the date of an open house Elzinga’s is hosting, the facility should be filling up with the organic products slated to ship to Meijer stores this spring. Planned production includes 25,000 flats of herbs; 75,000 flats of 3.5-in. vegetables (12-count flats); 20,000 10.5-in. pots of “Urban Gardener” vegetables; 50,000 5-in. heirloom tomatoes; 6,000 “Flavors by the Gallon” veggies; and 20,000 5-in. “Ethnic Flavors” herbs and veggies.
But that’s just spring. Mark says there are gaps in the greenhouse based on the season. For instance, they could be shipping south in the winter when Midwest customers aren’t taking vegetables. So Mark’s next task is to broaden his customer base while expanding his organic program to make maximum use of his organic capabilities.
“There are opportunities,” Mark says. “We’re working with Plug Connection on some of their programs. We’re trying to develop some of our own off-season programs. We need to fill this space up.”
Kicking the Fossil Fuel Habit
Elzinga’s new greenhouse looks impressive enough on the surface, but it’s what you don’t see that’s really amazing: a geothermal/solar system that should provide 80% of their heating needs. But first, the greenhouse itself:
It’s a DeCloet twin-peak gutter-connected double-poly house with raised rack & pinion roof vents. The six bays are 36 ft. wide and 840 ft. long. Height is 16 ft. to the gutters. Co-Ex polycarbonate glazes the sidewalls, while AT plastic supplied the double poly. Ridder rack & pinions and motors power the large vents in each roof. VRE supplied the shade curtains, and lights in the plug and propagation area are from PARsource.
Inside, you’ll find Hawe container benches from Tava Systems filling about half the house; in the other half they’ll grow on the floor. Cherry Creek booms provide irrigation throughout.
Heat is hot water—in-floor, under-bench and overhead. Hot water is fairly new to Elzinga’s, as they’ve been fans of unit heaters for years. But now they’ve got a dozen Hamilton Engineering Evo Duo mini boilers, linked (along with all the other environmental systems) to a Hoogendoorn computer control. Anderson injectors handle standard feed, while a custom injector will push the compost tea into the irrigation lines.
That’s where the ordinary stuff ends. Just outside the greenhouse is a large heat pump, 200 4-ft. by 10-ft. AES solar collectors and a 60,000-gal. insulated water tank and, hidden from view, 23 miles of polypropylene tubing sunk in 200 wells, each 300 ft. deep. The well system covers 4 acres.
This geothermal system, designed by GMB Architects (www.gmb.com) and installed by Midwest Geothermal, uses Michigan’s year-round ground temperature of 53F to create 120F water that can be used for most of the greenhouse’s heating needs. The system works like your refrigerator or air conditioner, only in reverse.
First, a mix of water and antifreeze is pumped through the 200 solar panels, which will warm the water (to what temperature, they’re not yet sure). Then that warm water is pumped into the 23 miles of underground tubing for storage. It’s a closed loop, so the water/antifreeze mix never touches the ground water. As it’s needed, the water/antifreeze mix will be sent through the heat pump, which will extract energy from it and use that energy to heat a second closed loop of greenhouse heating water. The now-chilled geothermal water gets pumped back through the solar collectors and into the ground tube system.
The heating water, which is now at about 120F, is stored in the above-ground tank to use in the greenhouse. Also stored in the tank is 180F boiler water (which naturally rises to the top of the tank, while the cooler water sits at the bottom). The Hoogendoorn computer can call for whatever temperature water the system needs to keep the greenhouse warm. Mark says the geothermal system should be adequate eight months of the year. Plus, having almost-free 120F water on hand year round means the boilers don’t have to work as hard, even in the depths of a Michigan winter.
Mark figures payback on the “high six-figure” system will be eight to nine years, based on current fuel and electricity prices. As for its efficacy, the system is proven in institutional uses such as hospitals and schools around the country.
“Everything comes from oil in our business, from the plastics on our roof to the plastics in our pots,” Mark says of his decision to invest in geothermal. “We’re so tied to it, and if we don’t do something now—be proactive—where are we going to go?
Want to Learn More?
Mark says he’s learned a lot about organics from these two books and
this website, which he recommends to any grower thinking about getting
into organics:
“Organic Gardening for Dummies,” by Ann Whitman
“Organic Gardening for the 21st Century,” by John Fedor
TO READ A RELATED ARTICLE, "The Market for Organics," from the same issue, CLICK HERE.