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MEMBER PROFILE 



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a week; in winter, it may take a 

 month.) 



Seed is germinated on 70 F 

 heating mats with mist operating 

 on a timer. After germination (5-7 

 days), they're removed from the 

 heat and hand-watered for 2-3 

 weeks until planting. 



Seedlings are densely planted 

 in either ground beds or soil-filled 

 benches. One house has ten 3 1/ 

 2x45 raised ground beds going the 

 length of the structure. The 

 frames are made of treated wood 

 (in good condition after seven 

 years). The media — their own soil 

 amended with manure and sewage 

 sludge — is only eight inches deep, 

 but the beds are open-bottomed, 

 opening onto the two feet of sand 

 and gravel on which the greenhouse sits. 



Benches in the other houses (4x10 pressure- 

 treated frames set on concrete blocks in a peninsula 

 arrangement) are also filled with the same amended 

 soil — but only six inches of it. 



Yuda uses drip irrigation (he likes to use tem- 

 pered water in colder weather and has a 1000-gallon 

 storage tank from which he can water the entire 

 range), feeds with a Dosmatic proportioner (one per 

 house) on a timer (he constant-feeds the snaps, be- 

 ginning one or two weeks after planting; with freesia, 

 he waits until the plants are 4-6 inches high); the 

 only insect problem is aphids. 



Cutting begins at 5:30 in the morning four days a 

 week. Each plant produces one stem. In peak sea- 

 son, 400 bunches (10 stems per bunch) are produced 

 each week. 



Nationwide, 60% of all snaps sold are white; a half 

 of what's left is pink; the rest are assorted colors. 

 Yuda tries to grow a variety of colors — "The only way 

 to sell large quantities is to offer a large selection of 

 colors," he says. 



FREESIA is difficult to grow in summer — it won't 

 set bud if the soil temperature is above 60 F. In 

 winter, the temperatures are right and the plant can 

 tolerate the lower light — it's adaptable and meshes 

 nicely with snapdragon production. (Although freesia 

 is seen as a cold weather crop (some manuals sug- 

 gest keeping the temperature no higher than 50 F), 

 Yuda has found a tolerance for a wide range of tem- 

 perature. When he was growing poinsettias in the 

 same house with freesia, he found they did well in 

 the temperatures poinsettias require.) So five 

 plantings — three to four weeks apart — begin in Au- 

 gust and last into December. The corms are closely 

 planted in both ground beds and benches. (Freesia 

 have traditionally been grown in flats 2 inches deep.) 

 They grow high — up to four feet — two levels of 

 netting are used as support;. Each plant produces 2- 



December 1993 / lanuary 1994 



3 blossoms; serious harvesting be- 

 gins in January. 



Freesia are sorted by color, 

 ten to a bunch. Five bunches make 

 a "master." Several colors go into 

 a master, which is then sleeved. 

 Stem length ranges from 11 to 20 

 inches; the number of florets per 

 stem ranges from four to 14. 



Blue Bell now has one local 

 florist supply route and sells the 

 rest to a wholesaler at the Boston 

 market. 



Freesia seem particularly sus- 

 ceptible to fusarium (snaps planted 

 on a bench immediately after a 

 crop of freesia will not be affected) 

 and there has always been a slight 

 loss, but last year nearly 20% of 

 the corms were infected. So this 

 year Yuda bought a portable steam generator, large 

 enough to thoroughly steam a shallow 50x5 bed in 

 two hours, and all the beds and benches in the range 

 have been steamed. The long beds are steamed by 

 a canvas hose connected to the steamer, laid on the 

 soil surface, and covered with plastic; the peninsula 

 benches are steamed four at a time using a copper 

 pipe with four openings that is connected to the 

 streamer. The benches are covered with plastic, and 

 are shallow and short enough to need nothing more 

 complicated. 



Experiments continue: Freesia corms are not cheap 

 and Yuda's replanted some to see if they will produce 

 a healthy second crop. And he's looking at several 

 types of sunflowers for cutting. Sunflowers can be di- 

 rect-seeded and grown close together and will pro- 

 duce a flower in two months — but they're tall — too tall 

 for the greenhouse — and after this year, will be grown 

 only outside in the summer. 



There are four outside beds — the equivalent of an- 

 other house — in which cut flowers are planted. Sun- 

 flowers and snapdragons predominate. The Daskals 

 have experimented with a variety of field-grown cut 

 flower crops and have found some that grow well and 

 bloom profusely, but for many of these, the cutting 

 took long hours and the price offered was minimal. 

 So they've chosen one-blossom crops (sunflower, 

 snapdragon) that sell for good prices. 



THE BEDDING PLANT retail trade is a 

 fast-growing aspect of Blue Bell's business. This year 

 2 1/2 of the three houses were filled with bedding 

 plants at the height of the spring retail season and 

 snap production had to be cut to accommodate this 

 growth. So during the spring, Yuda rents a 48x27 

 house in Portsmouth to keep snap production con- 

 stant. "The market gets used to a product and it 

 wants it on a continuous basis with no interruptions.") 

 'Bedding plants' at Blue Bell is a term used to 

 cover a wide range of material. It includes 2000 flats 

 and 400 hangers; it includes 1000 bare root perenni- 



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