2. What they said I am talking about…
This discussion will help you understand the
ingredients of a successful propagation environment,
how to optimize and hasten callusing and rooting of
annual cuttings and herbaceous perennials, and
identify fast, moderate, and slow callusing and rooting
herbaceous perennials.
3. What I am going to talk about..
Our journey to become
perennial propagators!
4. What I am going to talk about..
Our journey to become perennial
propagators!
This is a great example of working
with new crops and learning from
your mistakes.
8. Background
Metrolina was mainly an annual grower.
We root 90 million cuttings
We germinate 300 million seeds.
We had dabbled in some perennials.
As of July 2013 we were now in the perennial business.
9. What we acquired…
~200 outdoor production
30 acre greenhouse
5 acre Leased greenhouse 45 minutes away for being
used to propagate.
Good team of people but under staffed
10. Growing Procedures
No records of how plants were being produced.
Schedules were very, very loose (compared to what we
were used too).
Most experienced head grower had left the year before
the acquisition.
11. Another Decision
Leased propagation facility.
45 minutes away
5 acre 80 people were working there.
Very inefficient.
Closed the facility and moved all perennial
propagation to Huntersville, NC
12. Starting from scratch
All Metrolina schedules are online using a Microsoft
Sharepoint website to manage.
Over 50 crops we had never produced before.
100’s of genera
19. Perennials
No schedules were kept
Team sat together for 3 days in a tiny windowless room
to rough out how we thought we were growing the
crop.
Team put together on the Sharepoint site few
schedules…
20.
21. So we were feeling pretty good..
We had a plan in place of how we were growing the
crops.
22. Year one the plan did not work so
great…
August 2013- A “little” tall/late
25. Monarda Example
Start with the basics:
Why did this plant get too big?
You need to
understand the plant
to be able to grow it.
26. Monarda Example
Monarda is an obligate long day plant.
Needs long day to flower.
We were growing early season natural photoperiod (ie
short day)
34. Echinacea
Echinacea from seed is a tricky crop.
Short day/long day crop
Sowing to ~4 leaves – Juvenile not responsive to
photoperiod
35. Echinacea
Echinacea from seed is a tricky crop.
Short day/long day crop
Sowing to ~4 leaves – Juvenile not responsive to
photoperiod
4 leaves on- responsive to photo period. Short days to
bulk.
Long days to flower
