(both propane) back-up heating systems. Here, irom 

 November through mid-February, plants are grown to 

 produce seed for the next year's crop. 'If s hard for other 

 growers to realize how self-contained we are," Gary notes. 

 "If we don't produce seed, we don't have a crop." In this 

 house, Gary also does hybridizing. The natural colors of 

 anemones are primary — red, blue, white...and his crosses 

 aim toward pastels — peach, rose, white touched with light 

 lavender. Seed from promising individual blossoms are 

 tried in the production houses. Right now thirty trials are in 

 progress. 



The fourteen-month crop cycle begins in the 

 small house in the spring, when the plants are pulled out 

 and seed theyVe been producing since November is sown. 



In the three main houses, plants are pulled out in June. 

 Fresh peat moss and manure, along with lime and triple 

 phosphate, is added to the top layer of media and rototilled 

 in. 



Each bed is sanitized by using methyl bromide applied 

 under plastic that seals it off from the rest of the house. 

 After letting the methyl bromide work for two days, Gary — 

 wearing an airpac borrowed from the local fire 

 department — pulls back the plastic. 



The house then airs out for ten days. Then the media is 

 wet down, leaching out remaining fertilizer residue. 

 AquaGro, a wetting agent, is added to the water and Gary 

 feels that by using it, the media's more thoroughly moist- 

 ened and less compacted. 



Six people can plant one house in two days. Two people 

 dig seedlings in the propagation house and bring them in 

 bunches wrapped in wet newsp^jer to the production 

 house; two people drop the plants at appropriate intervals 

 (the planting pattern is set up beforehand using a multiple 

 dibble); Gary and Sabrina plant 



After the seedlings are watered in, two Agritech 

 foggers — one at the inlet end, one in the middle — are turned 

 on in each house; the moisture is sucked forward by the fan 

 at the exhaust end. They each use forty gallons of water an 

 hour and are operated through August These foggers also 

 work as a cooling device and can maintain a temperature up 

 to 15 degrees below that outside. 



Economics require a lot of flowers per square foot: the 

 beds are tightly planted — which creates an interesting 

 problem; the ideal conditions for botrytis are the conditions 

 anemones like best Humidity's important and thick bottom 

 foliage is needed to protect the developing buds from 

 sunlight, thus allowing them to mature to their full size. 



Standard fungicides are applied, either using a backpack 

 sprayer or through one of the water systems. The only 

 insect problem is spider mites: Temik used to take care of 

 them; Gary now uses Avid. 



By September, blossoming starts, although in warm 

 weather, it may not be of particularly high quality. The real 

 production season begins in October and lasts through May. 



Day length is not a concern, but light intensity is. Too 

 much light can distort or create a short stem by causing a 

 bud to mature too quickly. So on bright days of intense 

 sunlight, a 60% mesh shade cloth fastened to high-tensile 

 fencing wire strung above the benches is pulled. If s pulled 

 by hand and stays over the crop through mid-day. 



Anemones open in sunlight — they are cut in low light 



because a closed flower is less easily hurt In spring, this 

 may mean getting up at 3:30. 



On a good day, there may be 4000 blossoms to harvest — 

 about SK hours work. Using a knife that fits in the palm of 

 the hand, they cut for three hours, have breakfast, then 

 finish up by noon. They cut every other day. During a 

 season, a good plant will produce ten blossoms. 



The blossoms are sorted into five categories according to 

 stem length — the longer lengths being the more valuable. 

 (Thicker stems are better as well — they have more water 

 retention capacity — anemones like water.) 



After that, Gary and Sabrina look at the blossoms and cull 

 any that are too small, too mature, or that have any blemish 

 or distortion — "Quality is good economics." 



The flowers are then graded into four categories and are 

 priced according to grade. Should adverse growing 

 conditions — unexpected hot weather, for example — produce 

 poorer blooms, use of this system assures buyers they will 

 receive the quality they pay for. 



The final selections are put into bunches — ten blossoms 

 per bunch, eight bunches per plastic bucket — and stored in 

 a cooler. They're sold to wholesalers in other cities — west to 

 Albany, south to Washington; in order to maintan fi^sh- 

 ness, Gary and Sabrina will sell no further than a day's trip 

 by bus. 



Everything else goes to the Boston Flower Market Gary 

 doesn't sell; he consigns production to two wholesalers: one 

 deals with "oddball flowers of a very high quality^ the other 

 deals in flowers of a more general nature. The two can 

 cover everything he produces. 



Profit is reinvested in labor-saving devices. One invest- 

 ment has been a Priva Zone Maximizer, a computer-operat- 

 ed environmental-control system capable of monitoring four 

 zones. It is used to monitor temperature, sunlight, and 

 humidity in the three flower production houses and the seed 

 production house. The humidity control is particularly 

 crucial because in cooler temperatures, less change is 

 needed to cause increased humidity. (Higher air tempera- 

 tures have more water absorption capacity.) The system 

 works well because it has what Gary calls learning c^jabil- 

 ity" — if it needs to turn on the heat for one minute for every 

 ten to maintain a certain temperature level, then one minute 

 for every nine, then one for every eight, it learns' the 

 pattern, and will continue following it to maintain correct 

 levels, without over- or under-heating. 



Prior to getting this system, fans were connected to 

 timers — the timers might be set to turn on the fans five 

 minutes for every half hour — but the timers had to be set by 

 hand and changed whenever the situation warranted it 

 This not only required that someone always be around to 

 keep an eye on things, but it also created extreme fluctua- 

 tions in humidity levels. The new system creates more even 

 humidity levels and allows Gary and Sabrina to lead more 

 flexible lives. Both things are probably crucial to long-term 

 quality. 



JjGBVmg', one turns back and sees a plain stone wall 

 and, beyond it, the neutral plastic houses; beyond these are 

 the clean contours of brown hayed hills. If s good to pause 

 and realize how easy it is to notice only the bright brief 

 product and to miss the steady long-term beauty of the 

 process itself. (B.P.) 



The Plantsman 

 28 



