On January 26th, we visited Strader’s Garden Center in Dublin. Don, the manager gave a tour and explained wholesale greenhouses. Don has worked at the greenhouse for about 30 years, and has even come up with his own tool, seen below! This facility produces 850,000 4.5″ pots and 80,000 hanging baskets per year.
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- This is Don.
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- Don demonstrating the flower pot hanging tool he created out of electrical conduit – pots weigh 3-10lbs
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- Workers prepare cuttings from planting – manually removing leaves
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- Multiple layers of fabric on heated table assists with heat distribution for the seeds
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- Each pot receives a plastic disc to assist with water drainage
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- Automixer creates soil with mixture of compost, peat moss, styrofoam
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- A worker levels the soil in the pot after it is filled by the machine
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- Filled pots are loaded onto and transported on a multi-level cart.
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- One of the greenhouse rooms with flats of plants, overhead automatic irrigation system
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- A worker manually waters some the flats of plants.
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- Irrigation tubes for the hanging plots
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- Rolling benches for plant storage in a large greenhouse room.
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- Workstation for manual planting of delicate plants.
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- A worker washes and rinses empty seed trays for reuse.
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- Thousands of pots are unstacked by hand every day.
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- A full cart of pots is transported out to the greenhouse and redistributed by hand.
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- Workers sanitize hands and shoes before entering some of the greenhouses.