Highlights from the Greenhouse Production Tour at Cultivate’23
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/ August 15, 2023 / Home & Garden / 4 minutes of reading
The greenhouse production tour was one of many hands-on, in-depth learning experiences available at Cultivate’23. Every year, the tour comes to new locations, rotating between Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. This time, AmericanHort took the tour group toward Cleveland to visit Green Circle Growers and Secrest Arboretum.
Customer Service Manager Susan Kasper starts off the tour at the storage building for woodchips at Green Circle Growers. In the winter, the operation burns 25 truckloads of woodchips per day to heat the greenhouses. Photos: Julie Hullett
Green Circle Growers has six large boilers to heat the greenhouses.
Susan Kasper holds young plants from tissue culture.
Green Circle grades its orchids four times, grouping similar sized plants together.
Green Circle Growers sells 9 million orchids per year.
Green Circle often collaborates with AgriNomix, which is headquartered in the same city, for new equipment and trials.
When an orchid is in its “adolescent” stage, it is placed into this clear cup, so it grows upward instead of outward. The cup must be clear because orchids photosynthesize through their roots. The cups are steamed and reused.
Each orchid, such as the one seen here, will receive a stake and several small clips to encourage it to grow upward and stand straight.
Green Circle Growers uses radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, which sort the orchids by various specifications, such as the number of weeks left before shipping.
Plastic sleeves help protect orchids during shipping. Green Circle reaches 80% of its customers within one day, and the remaining 20% within three days. The operation ships as far west as California.
Watercolor orchids in various shades of blue often appeal to members of the Jewish faith during Hanukkah.
The pineapple bromeliad is a “hot commodity” right now at Green Circle.
Although empty at the moment, this greenhouse bay uses an ebb and flow watering system. The water comes up from the floor to avoid wetting foliage and increasing the risk of diseases.
These conveyor belts from AgriNomix carry soil across the room before it is dumped into a potting machine.
Soil is dropped from the conveyor belts into this potting machine.
Dr. Michelle Jones, Professor and Extension Specialist in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science at Ohio State University, led the tour through the research greenhouses.
Some graduate students at OSU are studying insect pests and how to identify a low population. The students test specific insects in each cage.
Dr. Sachin Naik, a post-doctoral scholar at OSU, studies rhizosphere bacteria and its responses to greenhouse production practices.
The machine along the top of the photo, called PlantEye by Phenospex, scans plants and reports 20 types of phenotyping data, such as biomass.
Graduate student Evili Martins, right, is studying how biostimulants help geraniums overcome stress, such as a high pH.
Graduate student Ty Rich, right, explains his research in heuchera by using plant growth regulators (PGRs) as a drench instead of a foliar application.
Jason Veil, Curator of Secrest Arboretum, explains the organization’s three-pronged mission — education, research, and outreach.
Secrest Arboretum started an echinacea trial four years ago.
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Green Circle Growers, ranked No. 8 on Greenhouse Grower’s Top 100 Growers list, boasts 6.5 million square feet of production space. Customer Service Manager Susan Kasper and Vice President of Growing Corwin Graves led the group through many production spaces at Green Circle, but only a small piece of its entire operation. Green Circle kicked off the tour with snow cones for all attendees.
The tour group also visited Secrest Arboretum and research greenhouses for Ohio State University Extension. Dr. Michelle Jones, Professor and Extension Specialist in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science at OSU, led the tour, along with many graduate students excited to share their research with the group. Check out the slideshow for a virtual tour.
