Bert's BloomersThe Official Blog of the Ten Minute Garden!

In the mid 1990’s when I moved to chemical free growing methods in our retail and wholesale greenhouse operation, the so called experts of the time, told me I was crazy. They insisted that green plants of quality simply could not be grown without the use of chemicals. I didn’t listen to then. Instead I forged ahead with my dream of turning our operation into a chemical free establishment. And, eventually, we succeeded at growing all of our crops without harming the environment (see the article about this challenge under “Chemical Free” in the Petals, Plants, etc on the sidebar). We even switched to an organic based disinfectant to clean the greenhouses and benches.

A decade later, the horticultural industry has jumped on the band wagon and there is great excitement within the trade about green growing. And there should be. Any grower who is attempting to go chemical free will not have any easy time of it. There will be many set backs, many disappointments. But, in the end, they will be thrilled with the results and wonder why they didn’t switch sooner.

When I shop garden centres (I can’t grow everything I want to) I try to find one that advertises their chemical free growing environment. It is not easy finding a “green” retail garden centre. That’s about to change! The way the trades magazines are talking, within a decade, the chemically dependant growers will be a minority. Good news for everyone.

First to go were the growth regulators. Instead, we learned to control plant height and width by judicious pruning. This is a very labour intensive undertaking in a large scale greenhouse operation, but much safer for the greenhouse workers. (Discounting the increase in nipped fingers of course.) I cannot count the number of experts who told me it was impossible to grow plants, poinsettias in particular, without using growth regulators. They were wrong! Our poinsettias were the best looking in three counties, and no, that is not an exaggeration. We applied the same pruning principles to our spring bedding plants and fall mums, and they too did exceptionally well.

Next to go were the disinfectants used to sterilize the greenhouses and benches. We switched to an organic based cleaner, which worked just as well. The brand we used was safe enough for use even when the greenhouses were full of plants.

The most difficult part of the switch to green growing was eliminating the pesticides. We had many problems during this phase. Our ultimate goal was to introduce beneficial insects into the greenhouses to control the bad bugs. This meant going a full year without any insecticides until the greenhouses were completely clear of residual chemicals that could harm the beneficial insects. It also meant sterilizing each greenhouse from top to bottom, all thirty thousand square feet.

Throughout this transitional period, I worked closely with the specialists we would be purchasing the beneficials from. Without their assistance, not to mention moral support, we could not have made the change over. When the time finally came to introduce beneficial insects into the greenhouses, relief was the main emotion, followed by excitement. We knew what insects we had to control – whitefly, aphids, thrips, spider mite, and mealy bug, and had on hand (in the flower cooler of all places) the predator insects that would keep the nasties in check. On the big day, we ceremoniously released the beneficials into the greenhouses. In less than a month, the crops were virtually clear of the bad bugs.

IPM is an on-going thing, not a one shot deal. It is not meant to eliminate every single bad bug, but rather keep them at a manageable level. Every day we would monitor the pest situation and apply beneficials as necessary as part of our daily routine. The final results were healthy plants, and a healthy environment in which to shop and to work. You could tell the difference as soon as you walked into the building. There wasn’t any chemical smell, just fragrant plants and clean air. Employees and customers alike appreciated the effort, the work and the time taken to rid the greenhouses of chemicals, which in my mind were the biggest pests of all.