Ever-Green Greenhouses

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Ever-Green Greenhouses located East of Red Deer.

We started our tour with the manager of all the greenhouses, Cathy. She started out by showing us the dugout, which is their source of water. They depend on the neighbors not to use chemicals and pollute the water, but even when the water levels are low it can change the pH and other concentrations. Natural erosion was causing it to run out, so they built up the side with rocks and boulders found around the farm; it was a project that cost thousands of dollars. They use a pump to pull the water out and distribute it across the entire greenhouse operation. Before the water is put into the irrigation system it goes through a filtration process. The filter is changed every 2-3 weeks and works extremely well. Ideally one wants a water alkalinity between 500-2600, but Ever-Green is at 5600 so they have to add acid to bring it down.  

There is over 100 000 sq ft. of greenhouses, which they start heating in January for 21 000 6" geraniums. They also start germinating tomatoes early in the year in the greenhouse with the filtration system. All of the wood benches get cleaned twice a year to stop bugs, and they are frozen down in winter. One of the main greenhouses is a little over 10 000 sq ft., and one man re-covered the entire thing in poly on his own. There are also many cold frames used. Over winter they are filled with pots with dirt in them, all ready to go for spring. Once its time to start planting, they turn on the heat, bring in the people, plant on the top bench and move the pots to the short bench. In order to cool the areas they open doors, which are usually on each end.

They only sell wholesale, and their biggest clients are Walmart (they dictate what they grow based on consumer demand) and Canadian Tire. The cold frames are used for spring sales, where there are 5 double layer rows of hanging baskets in each. It takes 6 waterers to water everything. They have very specific jobs for each employee, strict waterers, strict planters, etc. All employees get a lot of training, and those that water get the most due to their continuous interaction with the plants (identifying disease and pests mostly). There are 6 permanent staff, and 60 staff in the spring (sales, waterers, gophers, planters) that are constantly coming and going; because of this they are always interviewing for new people. 

In July and August they gut the place, clean it, bleach it, and cut the grass. September 1st poinsettias come, grow till mid November; all plants are gone by November 15. They also plant tomatoes and peppers in the pots in the cold frames. Seedlings are ready in March, when they put them into small pots, wait for the roots to grow, transplant to a bigger pot, and continue that process until they're sold. The pots are set up so the planters can reach all of them on their knees without having to bend over, then they are placed on a trolly that hangs from the ceiling and can move to both ends of the cold frame. Cathy is in charge of making sure all of those things grow and they have minimal loss.

Business information:
- Busiest season is spring, January till end of June. 10 hour days, 6 days a week.

- Cathy does the spraying so her employees aren't in danger

- Brian is one of the owners. Open 35 years. Alumni from olds in 1974. His son is his partner

- They sell to 31 walmarts in western Canada

- Brian is an owner but also a grower. Started at central  Alberta forests. He walked around making sure people were working efficiently with the right tools

- They set prices a year in advance, so they have to keep input costs as low as possible 

- The A frames they have hold 1000+ baskets. They let the plants dry down so at least 75% need water, then water the whole thing. Can water one cold frame in an hour or so. Fill floor with second round, fill racks with first round. 2-3 weeks on rack they space them then take the ones off the floor, then replace the ones on the floor.

- Cathy mostly works in greenhouse 1. She takes care of the water, fertilizer, and acid.

- Acid injector- $2000. Pumps right out of the barrel. Keeps her from getting burned.

- One week they decided to put fungicides in the injector- works great. After they do it they flush the lines. Before they were doing it by hand, it would take a whole day, now it takes about 3 hours

- You are required to wear hard hats in greenhouse operations that are glass roofed.
- They go through their crops once a week to measure them and put all information in the computer
- There are 7 contract growers that they deal with, 1 of which is in Saskatchewan
- They won the 2013 consumer's choice award for greenhouse growers
- A portion of the profit is always put back into the company for improvements

Safety story: Cathy had poured some acid into what she thought was a steel bucket, but it was actually galvanized. There was a big cloud of orange smoke and acid around her fert, luckily she had steel boots on. Immediately she yelled at everyone to get out of the greenhouse and she dealt with the spill herself with baking soda and water. In the end it destroyed 1 bench of geraniums, everywhere the orange cloud touched it burned the plants. The loss was very little because they allowed the plants to keep groeing and just took off the dead leaves. It made her realize that they need a warning system in place just in case something like that happens again, and it forced them to buy the acid injector regardless of the cost.

Poinsettias have been an issue this year, they lost 900 poinsettia plants in 4 weeks in September. They were still trying to figure it out when we visited. Some plants had stem rot. All they can do is pour a lot of fungicide once a week, and rotate between different fungicides until one works. They were losing 115 plants a day, and that changed to 5 after some fingicide trisl and error. Some were also planted an inch too deep, but either way a fungus net larvae ate the stems. Many of the plants lost were replaced with ones from BC.

Cathy has been growing poinsettias for 6 years. Last 5 have been incredible, this year went bad. In the 10" poinsettias they only lost 150 of the 900. The red ones were more susceptible to the issues than the pink and white ones. When Cathy checks on the plants she takes them out to see how the roots and soil are doing. Also checks for bugs, watering, and general issues. The big 14" plants will go to special orders. Many Christmas crops are sold to fund raisers, and what's left goes to walmart.

Cathy really likes the red infinity cultivar of poinsettia. Second favourite is Christmas Day, but it's slow growing.
Her words of wisdom: "Learn the skill, do it well, do it as fast as possible."

Mountain Sod Farm

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Pete Mountain

The company has been around for 49 years, and it started as a grass seed retailer rather then a sod farm. Currently the main component of their grass seed is Kentucky blue grass at 90% (consistent with most turf grass make up). Fescue is another good grass type they use. It requires less water and nutrients, fares better in drought, and is good for street areas with a salt problem.

The lines of sod

They are licensed to use water out of the river since 1970, but they must use meters to keep track of exactly how much they use (even though they are not being charged by usage yet). Due to this they only water when they need to and don't use pivots. There is always 250-300 acres in different stages of production, each plot with a sod crop (2 years or 16-20 months of growing time) or a cover crop (wheat or barley at least once every 3 years); results in 3 crops in a 10 year period. Before seeding the land has to be worked up- they take a big claw and go down 60cm to rotate the soil. Seeding happens from mid May to mid August, this year it was done mid June to late July. They seed 50 lbs an acre, once in a horizontal direction, then a vertical direction.

The sod making tractor

The truck that hauls the sod

Pete Mountain

Maintenance is a big job with so much sod. They mow every 2.5-3 days, most weeds cant take that (except dandelions which are a huge issue). The mowers they use are rotary, no old fashioned mowers that changed 20+ years ago. When they fertilize very little nitrogen is used, but they do use phosphate, pot ash, ans sulfur. Fertilization happens after the first couple of mowings. In terms of this year, they were only partially affected by the flooding with the heavy spring rain, and they can't do anything for the grass once there has been water sitting.

The sod cube

Sod is sold from Rocky Mountain House to Stetler in big rolls (4ft x 75ft) and small rolls. The large rolls much be laid by a machine because they are so heavy, and all sod should be laid within 24 hours (changes depending on weather). After the sod strips are cut they are rolled and stacked into large cubes 7 layers thick with 10 rolls in each layer (100ft to a layer), which is the standard. They use a palette-less fork system where the sod is laid right on the ground and the forks have a specific shape so they don't pierce the sod. Not using palettes is better, easier, and cheaper, but they switch to palettes when requested by the client. Many clients pick up the sod themselves, in May and summer there is an average of 15 a day. 

In order to keep the business strong they have to keep in mind a few things:

- Don't want to be sold out to the point that they have to sell young sod- which is why they seed as they harvest.

- Their waste factor is at less than 1% (it used to be at 10%, but new equipment means less waste)- waste at the very edges of field, sometimes when elk moose or cattle end up on the grass they leave footprints and that section can't be used, small lines between rows.

- If cattle come, they'll stay till you kick them off.

- Takes several years to get soil clean enough to grow turf on.

- The sod is mature if it can hold together when it's harvested.