Issue 11
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Table of Contents:
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1. I've included this article because it gives an good picture of today's hydroponics industry. Bear in mind, however, that most of this article is about large commercial operations. There are a lot of small operations who are doing quite well, as this newsletter has testified in the past. The Hydroponic Society of America has given me permission to include this reprint from their latest bi-monthly issue. Normally, this newsletter just paraphrases other news items, but this article hits too many spots.
The Dirt Stops Here!
Hydroponics in Florida
by Jerry Jackson, Orlando Sentinel
From a distance, the greenhouses at Hydro Age Farms might be mistaken for some of the hundreds of foliage houses scattered across Central Florida like mushrooms along county roads. But at Hydro Age, you'll find none of the flowers and potted plants grown by Florida's well-established foliage industry, second only to California's in size and success.
Inside, it's clear the green and red of this company's crop are from the tomatoes - the big beefsteak type that people love to slice and slap on burgers or eat plain with a fork and a dash of salt. This food is produced inside, in a clean, controlled environment.
Hydro Age is among a small group of cutting-edge farms throughout the state producing greenhouse vegetables. In Florida, for example, the estimated 80 acres of hydroponic crops are dwarfed by the nearly 300,000 acres of field-grown veggies. But the hardy group of hydroponic advocates thinks the trickle will turn into a flood in the foreseeable future - though not without a few droughts along the way.
"It's a continual learning process," said Roy Powell, one of the partners in the Brevard County greenhouse-tomato venture. "If you knew too much about this, you'd be afraid to go into the business."
Powell concedes that Hydro Age's ambitious plan to expand from 1.5 acres to 12 acres within five years - adding hydroponic cucumbers and lettuce along the way - is risky. But it is a calculated risk, he said, and the odds of succeeding appear to improve each day.
"We plan on being here for the long haul," Powell said. The company recently began harvesting its first crop of tomatoes for sale to area restaurants, health food stores and a grocery chain in South Carolina.
Events seem to be converging in Florida and elsewhere to boost hydroponics. The long-promised food production system of the future, featured for the last 16 years in The Land Pavilion at Disney's Epcot in Orlando, may be in the verge of taking root in the real world.
University of Florida agriculture researchers and crop specialists say the hydroponic industry is maturing thanks to, among other things, technological advances and a rising consumer demand for high-quality vegetables.
Larger commercial operators are now getting into the business and they have more staying power than the hobbyists who paved the way in the 1970's and '80s. Some already have successful track records that others hope to duplicate.
Burnac Inc, the state's largest hydroponic grower with about 35 acres of production in the Fort Pierce area, has been operating for more than a decade.
"It's safe to say it has advanced beyond the novelty stage, throughout the country," said Robert Hochmuth, a multicounty extension agent at UF's Sewanee Valley Research and Education Center in Live Oak.
The industry in Florida has expanded its acreage by 30 to 40 percent during the past three years - faster than at any time in the past three decades, Hochmuth said.
A strong U.S. economy has helped. For starters, consumers with high take-home pay are willing to spend more for produce they think is better-looking, tastier or produced with fewer chemicals. Secondly, individuals and companies have more cash or credit to start or expand a hydroponic operation.
The upfront cost to launch such an operation, now about $250,000 an acre, has always been a barrier to large-scale production of greenhouse vegetables, Hochmuth said. The other hurdle has been a lack of familiarity with hydroponic growing techniques.
But fear of the unfamiliar hydroponic growing systems is largely unfounded and rapidly fading, according to independent industry observers.
"Growing is probably the easy part of hydroponics." said Richard Tyson, vegetable specialist with the Florida Cooperative Extension Service in Seminole County.
Finding and sustaining markets and maintaining profitability are the more formidable problems, Tyson said.
Major produce buyers, for example, shun the small-scale orders that hydroponic growers have typically been able to produce. Such large buyers want to pay volume, discount rates. That has helped limit hydroponics to a small corner of the produce shelf.
Comparing field-grown crops to hydroponic crops is difficult. While hydroponic tomato producers, for example, can grow four times and more tomatoes per acre in a greenhouse than in the field - and can command prices perhaps three times higher - higher costs eat up much of the difference.
Major buyers are also more likely to order 10,000 pounds of field-grown tomatoes for 35 cents a pound, for example, and take 100 pounds of greenhouse tomatoes for $1 a pound. In such an example, the field grower would gross $3500 and net $500. The greenhouse grower would gross $100 and net $30.
"Without volume, your overall profit is low," said Tyson, who advises both conventional farmers and hydroponic growers.
Risks are also higher for hydroponic growers. If a plant disease or pest breaks out in the close quarters of a greenhouse, the entire crop can be quickly devastated. Fewer pesticides are allowed for worker safety reasons.
Storms are also feared because they can shred both the crop and the fragile greenhouse.
But in recent years, computer prices have plunged, more producers of hydroponic systems have entered the marketplace and domestic producers have been energized by competition from Europe. It has been a recipe for growth.
Growers in Holland, for example, have shaken up the stodgy market for bell peppers, one of Florida's top field crops, by enticing customers with colorful yellow, red and orange peppers. Although the colored peppers sell for more than regular green peppers, consumers have snapped them up.
Now Florida's hydroponic growers are gearing up to claim the market. "The fall of 1999, colored peppers will be the big (greenhouse) crop in Florida," predicted Hochmuth, with possibly 20 to 30 acres devoted to that crop. "Six or seven years ago, there was zero acreage."
Researchers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture have recently shown that strawberries, another major Florida crop, can be produced hydroponically at volumes that should be profitable.
Scientists at the Appalachian Fruit Research Station said hydroponics may help farmers and meet demand for strawberries after a key soil fumigant, methyl bromide, is phased out for environmental reasons in a few years.
At Hydro Age Farms near Cocoa, the sealed greenhouse environment keeps out most pests. Any bugs that do find their way in are hunted down and killed by tiny wasps and other beneficial predator insects. Workers don disposable slippers when they pass through an outer door into an enclosed area. Then they pass through another door into the growing area.
There, said Hydro Age grower Leo Calligaro, they confront the future of farming. "We are going to help show the way," he said.
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Comments on the above by H L Saffell:
The high entrance costs mentioned in this article can be cut down to a very low figure - if you follow the examples given in my book on hydroponics.
Again, I go into detail on how to get and hold onto a market - in my book on hydroponics.
First of all, why grow tomatoes - at this time? Why grow the obvious and fight the crowd? Grow niche market items such as those described in my book, where you can also find many ways to avoid major buyers by attacking and holding onto the niche markets. Niche markets are too difficult for large companies to exploit.
And, with niche markets, you can establish loyal customers and earn much higher profits than with the old tomato routine.
Frankly, I don't think the risks are that much greater than with regular field-grown crops. The same storm can flush your profits down the drain there too. Another thing to remember is greenhouse insurance which is also available.
As far as devastation of a crop by pests I think the next to the last paragraph of the above article says it best.
One last word: Eco-Corp in East Brunswick, NJ is probably the country's largest hydroponic tomato producer - 190 acres of greenhouses! And they expect an increase within five years of nearly 50%! Does that tell you something? If you want to grow big, you can. It's just a lot easier being small and being your own boss.
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2. Got too many ladybugs?
When winter starts heading your way, maybe a lot of ladybugs will also. The imported Asian variety "jumped ship" years ago in New Orleans and have since infested the entire nation. This Asian strain has a more voracious appetite for insects pests, such as aphids, than the native variety.
Not only that, the Asian variety will dine on a wider menu than the native ladybug and breed more prolifically. The larvae will eat 300 aphids - of more than 50 species which infest just about everything, including roses and trees.
Pecan growers love this Asian beetle because it dramatically cuts down the need for insecticides.
But, I hear you say, who cares? I want them out of my house! Well, aside from caulking up the windows and clearing out the dead, there's not much else you can do. You don't want to use insecticide because the then dead ladybugs will attract roaches. And the problem gets worse.
But wait. Hold on there. Mayhap there's a solution to this dreaded problem. It seems that W. Louis Tedders, late of the USDA, has come up with an answer. He has invented a trap which is used indoors and has a black light to lure the ladybugs.
It's a plastic trap - 12 x 24 inches - which is easily assembled. The trap is meant to catch all your little beetles alive so that they can be released later into your garden in the spring and save your plants from a fate worse than death.
You're going to love this one. How do you hold them over until Spring? Why in the refrigerator, of course! Not the freezer, but in the warmer section outside the freezer. Perhaps not next to the milk, but close by anyway.
Now doesn't that make you glow all over? Look for the trap on the market. And, oh yes, let me know how you make out.
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3. There's something about ions
Ionizers are used everywhere, in offices and homes. Why? They're supposed to be healthy for you. Makes the air easier to breathe and so forth. Because ions (molecules with too many electrons) can be good and bad. The negative ions quickly lose their electrons to the various surfaces and contacts around them. Positive ions linger on for a while.
In short, ions make our air fresher, which is good news to plants too. Plants love fresh air.
Ion generators built for use in air will give a great boost to your plants. You can use either negative or positive ion generators for plants. Animals and ourselves mostly benefit from the negative ion generators. But since you have people working among the plants, the negative ion generators are to be preferred.
One thing more: artificial lighting increases positive ions in the air inside the grow room or greenhouse. You will need a negative ion generator to counteract this problem.
Just bear in mind that any living thing which has to endure an ion deficient environment will not endure for long.
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WE HAVE THREE BOOKS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST TO YOU.
They are as follows:
"How to Start on a Shoestring and Make a Profit with Hydroponics"
"Big Dollars Growing Gourmet Salad Greens"
"Beneficial Insects - How to Mass Rear and Make a Profit"
If you would like a copy or copies of your own,
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