MEMBER PROFILE 



Deerfield Gardens 



Your Basic Wholesale Greenhouse 



Since 1994, a wholesale greenhouse operation, 

 Deerfield Gardens, has quietly been in the 

 process of being built. There's no sign out — 

 "more important things have needed to get 

 done" — but there is 25,000 square feet of green- 

 house production space. And more being created. 



There's part-time help in spring, but keeping to 

 basics and using mechanization whenever reason- 

 able has kept this pretty much a two-person enter- 

 prise. 



The two people are co-owners Karin and Eric 

 Schmitt, sister and brother. Their family runs J. Sh- 

 annon and Son, the large greenhouse operation in 

 Woburn, Massachusetts, which evolved from a 

 farm begun by an ancestor in the 1880s. 



Both Eric and Karin worked there and both 

 planned careers in other fields — Eric studied busi- 

 ness at Bryant College; Karin, history at Grove 

 City in western Pennsylvania. 



But the business world and teaching seemed 

 confining. After graduation, Eric returned to work 

 at J. Shannon. When Karin graduated a year later, 

 they began looking for land on which to build 

 their own greenhouse operation. 



They wanted to be within an hour's drive from 

 Boston. They looked at many sites — to the south 

 and the west as well. The Deerfield, New Hamp- 

 shire, site offered a small livable house (some had 

 none or houses in extreme disrepair) and an ap- 

 propriate amount (ten acres) of reasonably level 

 land. All this on an accessible road (Route 43, not 

 far from the fairgrounds). 



THEIR FIST CROP— mums— was produced in the 

 summer of 1994 for sale that fall. That summer 

 was a busy one. The site was prepared ("land that 

 looks level isn't necessarily flat") — ledge was re- 

 moved and a six-foot grade leveled and two 

 30'xl45' houses put up side-by-side, twelve feet 

 apart. And a new well was dug (the old one was 

 steady, but at one gallon per minute). 



The houses are Harnois Ovaltech. Eric sees the 

 oval pipe frame as "stronger; the wider spacing 



(on five-foot centers, rather than four) allows in 

 more light and the straight sides give more pro- 

 duction space." Heat is oil-fired forced hot air. 

 Rollup sides are used in spring. 



1995 saw a spring crop of bedding plants and 

 hangers. That summer, another 30'xl45' house was 

 put up; another was added in 1996, creating a row 

 of four. 



In 1997 — two 30'x70' houses began a second row 

 parallel to the first. A 30'x34' was put up outside 

 this configuration. 



THE OPERATION IS SIMPLE, straight forward. 

 All material is planted in Scotts Bedding Plant 

 Mix. A fork lift is rented ("It would be nice to 

 own this — you could use it for other things — but 

 it's cheaper to rent") to set pallets of mix near the 

 appropriate houses. They do own a Bouldin and 

 Lawson pot filler which is moved from house to 

 house. 



There are no benches: material is grown on 

 weed mat. A Netafim overhead irrigation system is 

 used in all the houses for floor-grown material. 

 Drip irrigation is used on hangers and field-grown 

 crops. A centrally located Dosatron is used to fer- 

 tilize. 



Watering is automatic. In each house, hanger 

 lines are connected to one solenoid which connects 

 to a Nelsen controller, but individual lines can be 

 turned on or off manually. The Netafim system in 

 each house is also connected to the controller — 

 again, each line (each house has two) can be 

 manually operated. "The time saved is enormous," 

 Karin says. "Each house used to take two hours. 

 Now it's just turning a valve." 



Each house has its own monorail system — a 

 three-tiered carrier that moves down the center on 

 an overhead track. The carrier can hold twenty 

 flats. These separate systems will be joined (the 

 track will go outside the houses), allowing material 

 to move from house to house. 



There are two trucks — a twelve- and a fourteen- 

 footer. Delivery is done when needed — usually 

 weekly — to thirty or so businesses on their list. 



THE PL ANTSMAN 



