Today we went Floriade ,Floriade is the world garden expo, with gardens being created from many countries. Floriade is set on 66 hectares with 5 staged areas. The garden show Floriade is on every 10 years in the Netherlands , while the show is on it stay on for 6 months. We all took a ride on the cable cars, that look over the entire expo .
This nursery grow lettuce in pools and in the ground, in the pools they use a dry hydroponic system, so when you harvest you may have a couple dead foliage but not rotting to the lettuce. For the pool lettuce , the lettuce sit in a float which is in water. Summer growing is 3 times better than winter, in winter they need to keep the water warm.
The lettuce gets put in the float at one end, then as you harvest the opposite end, the float moves down the pool. They sell different markets, at the moment the lettuce is selling 26 cents euro ,but should be 35 cents euro.
This morning we went to Metazet demonstration nursery the company Started 11 years ago, the company have a big nursery to show growers on what Machines and how they can be used, that can be used in nurseries ,Machines that go from a pot rail that goes along the ceiling to create floor space, then to ride on machines. A part of the nursery they have tafe students that learn how to research new machines.
All glass house workers need a license to spray chemical, they need to earn points, so they attend the demonstration nursery to keep knowledge up and earn points, so they don't loose there licence.
We went to the grape museum, they had 3 small grass houses with grapes on the side roof,
Grape musium all so had old horticultural tools , and a small garden, we had a walk around, unfortunately i couldn't read information , as it's all in Dutch .
In 2003 two brothers opened up a tomato crop company call Van winden. Van winden produce tomatos to be sold to supermarkets, at the moment the tomato are selling at 65cents (Euro)a kg. Van winden harvest 600kg of tomatoes per hour. Our tour guide showed us the pallet machine, the pallet machine costs 350,000 (euro) to install .
Ronald tour guide .
Naaldwijk Flower auction is the largest in the world. The auction is run by a company called Flora . This factory has been running since 1930. Except the auction situation, started over 100 years, the factory is on 35 hectares and originally started selling just vegetables , now they also have flowers and pot plants. The flowers/pot plants are in a separate factory from vegetables . The minimum you can purchase is 1 box from a 3 level cart,
3 billion flowers and pot plants get sold each year. A total of 5000 staff work in the factory. There are 1500 buyers (trade companies, florists etc).
5 auction rooms 11 clocks all with different range of flowers , The auction is all computer based, sometime auction rooms do not show plant trollies through the room , due to the flowers are in a box, buyers may leave the room to open a box before purchasing,
Buyer. All pot plant and all flowers get sold on the day, the trolley will continue to go around until sold, the trolllies go through the auction room on a rail.
Buyers can purchase then depart .
Every day the auction starts a 6am, in May and June the auction may finish in the afternoon 2-3o'clock, other times they may finish sometime in the morning.
We then went to the section , where you can pick and choose individual flowers, pots and decorations.
This afternoon we went to the New head quarters of Priva . Priva create new technology for the glass houses, to be able to monitor every aspect of the crops from a computer(when to irrigated, Feed , when crops arent well ), they make all machines related such as pumps ,nutrient mixers etc, Priva opened the new head quarters in 2007 , using reusable materials, The Privy building is 6000 square meters and has triple layered glass.
This morning we went to Rijk swaan , they grow trial tomato crops, Rijk swan have glass house 1600 square meters
They have 100 rows of 85 varieties . Rijk szaan glass house is 6 meter high .
High tec modern ventilation, Having to find a balance, sowing in November, no flowers before Christmas it's bad for quality,
Same nutrient program in all rows, can give different amounts of water to rows,
Every 14 days they change recipes for feed, Rijk swzaan have over 2000 visitors come to trial each year. It take 7 years to produce 1 variety to put on the shelf.
SEED
We then went to the seed production facility . Rijk swzaan where they have 25 different crops with 100 varieties, Rijk swzaan have 900 people working at these production ,
The seed production is on 16 hectures . In other areas they also have Open field crops, the open field crops are on 60 hectares.
It Sometimes takes 3 years, can take up over 10 years to produce 1 variety of seed,
Sell seed by piece not wieght.
Valley grown grow Tomoatas, peppers and cucumbers ,
Ppeppers they grow yellow,green, red and orange.
The glasses house they have are Dutch, Valley grown are in the planning process of building a new glass house.
They have a 13 months production,
Vally grown supply to two major supermarkets.
Used to have bees, not anymore due to some bees are so small and to heavy,
12 staff working in the glass houses
Today we met Sandy who gave us a introduction to the company, and some Background,
Ball colegrave are in Market for annual plants ,
They are currently being able to put perennial and shrubs . Perennial Verti garden you will get 3-4 years
With creating a Verti garden (wall) it requires less space, can be accessed easier for the gardeners ,
They have developing a system where it was cost effective use annual plants,
Drippers are pumped up then gravity down in to each individual plant,
Balk colegrave Distribute to , France Holland and Spain,
Each module is 40cm wider59 cm tall 9 cm deep
Ball colegrave are currently in the process of creating
Vertigarden + .Smaller ones, easier and quicker to assemble , easier to plant for instant effectiveness,
Irrigation easy to check and replace ,
Hope to have completed by January
<p>Hillier Nursery tree growing section where we visited is on 6 acres, they grow 20,000 trees in container sizes from 45-1,000 litres <br>
They also supplied 2012 London Olympics with a total of 9,000 trees
This morning at 11.00 with met Dave ,where he then told us some history and information on the Nursery , Hiller Nursery was founded 1864 , in the past 25 year there have been huge changes to the Nurseries , Hillier Nursery and own 400 hectures , Hilliers Nursery is a Container growing nursery, From small pots to Large trees, (pictures below), unlike the past 1980s Hillier Nursery sold directly to the public. Today the whole sale Nursery concentrates on the production of around the two million quality , hardy container growing , for Hillier garden centres, independent garden centers nation wide and multiple
retailer Nursery, Hillier Nursery have different division,..... the division he then took us on around Hillier Nursery ,was a 50 acre site. They have mobile potting machines as it is such a large site, when one is in use, they have mechanics set up the 2nd , so no time wasted for nursery workers,
This growing condition on the Nursery are kept traditional,
They used to get there water from the mains, but have then built a resivor 3.8m gallons , on average they use 300,000 gallons a day, and are able to recycle back 100,000 gallons.
In recent years they have install Spanish tunnels, they protect plants from frost and wind,
Hillier Nursery have 28 fulltime staff, and in spring it doubles in staff to help and be ready for open day. They get students from Eastern Europe and from around the world , Hillier Nursery have student accommodation .
This Afternoon we went to Tangmere air field Nursery which is a pepper production Nursery. Each year they plant 850,000 - 900,000 plants in the glass houses,
The Nursery is on hectares . In totally they have 240,000 running meters of pepper production spreading out over several glass houses. They have 110 people that work in the glass houses.
Stourhead is a world famous garden and woodlands on 2,650 acres
Stourhead Mansion was created in the 80th century by the Hoare banking family,
The gardens and woodlands is surrounding a Lake central of the land.
We met Andrew the director of High speed Water system at Stour heads ,as Himself and his business partners company ,have installed a recycled watering system at that site,
The High speed water system that they installed is underground, it has 3 components, and the water tank is 5000lt. This systems has 1 hose pump and 1 pit
They put enzymes bugs in to the 2nd component to help further break down particals ,
They have filters to catch practical .
The largest water recycle system is in Elarm Park Dublin, with 4 hose pumps and the 2 pits
A recycled watering system with 2 hose pump is going to cost you 15,000 pound, for them to install.
Photo below of the recycling water system in use, cleaning a lawn mower
The Eden project is in Cornwall which is on several hectares , and has 80 hectares surrounding .
We have seen some fantastic plant displays, landscaped over the hills , on slopes and in the Biome.
we climbed to the top of the Biome which gets up to 35 degrees in temperature , pictures below.
At 1pm we met with Alister who provided us with information,.
Alister who has done his Diploma, and PHD in plants,
There are 52 staff at Edan gardens in the Horticultural department,
Staff at the Edan gardens are able to provide information to one another in departments such as science ,Horticultural, agriculture commercial and organic,
By communicating in this way Edan gardens save around 30,000 pound per
The staff over a number of years have worked together to be able run the Biome, on how to keep pest and disease free, getting water (irrigation) to each individual plants, and to be able to grow a number of plants under the one Biome to cater for different climates .
In the Biome they grow 1 million plants , 5-6 thousand different types,
Edan gardens have a nursery where they grow 60,000 plants to bring into the gardens each year.
Tobacco white fly got to Edan gardens several years ago , they manage to clear it out before it spread, now if Tobacco white fly got to Edan Gardens it would impact the staff , and Potential close Edan gardens down , Due to the huge cost , to be able to remove tobacco white fly.
Edan gardens Capture all the Water and they also use it all. There are channels under the Biome underground resivor system , the water flowers up and down into forest , through a dripline and occasionally handwater watering is required . Edan gardens also have a problem if they get to much water it needs to be pumped out.
Education - Edan gardens is partners with Edinburgh Uni in Horticultural , uni students come in and try to resolve problems , or help to improve structure , Edan Garden provides good projects for the uni students
Alister said Edan gardens has the Best team , Edan Gardens provides palaties for the staff as it is Physical work .
Please view photos
Chapel manor collage is a large horticultural collage , offering other subjects in agricultural and animal care .
Chapel manor was originally owned by dutchers in the 15th century , then privately owned ,
After it was privately owned , when the owner passed away ,
Chapel manor became a charity and turned in chapel manor collage to help educate 3500 students a year.
Today Steve the Head Master , and 3 senior gardeners , Julie, Tom, Michael gave us a Tour around the collage,
They have gardens from the chelsea Garden show , capel Manor collage also have sponsored gardens.
The collage have 12 Fulltime staff on at anyone time. People also attend to do volunteer work .
Students that study at the collage general do 50% theory and 50% practical work to get hands on experience .
This afternoon we drove to Cornwall , as we are heading to the Eden Project tomorrow .
