The Data-Driven Nursery
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With over 1,000 acres and in-house advanced research capabilities, not much at Walters Gardens happens by accident. And that, says Mackenzie Lift, Field Integrated Pest Management Supervisor, is at least part of the secret to becoming one of the nation’s top wholesale perennial producers.
“We have over 1,200 acres that we farm and use for crop rotations,” she says. “Within that 1,200 acres, we use about 400 to 600 acres each year for production. At our main campus, we have about 13 acres of greenhouse space and our virus lab. We have an offsite tissue culture lab nearby, too. Then we just expanded a couple of years ago and built another four acres of greenhouse space that we call our Cedar Break facility. So we have a ton of room for expansion.”
All that has helped push Walters Gardens to the top of its field. In business for over 70 years, Walters now produces over 1,000 different perennial varieties; Walters also partners with Proven Winners® to produce plants for their herbaceous perennials collection.
“We’re definitely leading the industry in herbaceous perennials and in bare root production as well,” Lift says.
A Quest for Quality
It’s a position that Lift has helped Walters Gardens maintain and advance, through her enthusiasm for, and data-driven approach to, experimentation and trials – habits she’s nurtured since joining Walters Gardens as a field technician.
“When I joined Walters Gardens,” she says, “I started the program that we now call ‘quality walks,’ which are really like in-depth scouting. It's a good way for us to look back over the years and answer questions like, ‘Is this plant smaller than last year,’ or ‘Did the aphids come earlier this year,’ that kind of thing. We can check ourselves and compare from year to year how we're doing as managers, then make any adjustments like putting out preventative applications a couple weeks earlier.”
Lift takes the same approach to trying different chemistry to help deal with their unique conditions. High humidity can accelerate and exacerbate disease pressure, while morning fog and lakeshore winds can thwart application efforts.
“It’s a challenge,” she says, “but that’s why chemical trials and resistance trials are so important for us; we have to know what chemicals work best for our specific operation, location, and plants.”
Having a solid, dependable preemerge herbicide program, for example, is critical for Lift and her crew; as with any other crop, stopping weeds in a nursery or greenhouse environment is easier and less expensive than dealing with weeds after they become established.
“As soon as the planting crew is leaving the field,” she says, “we're going in and spraying with a preemerge that’s safe for that specific crop. Gallery® specialty herbicide happens to be safe for a lot of our crops, which really helps when it’s time to make those applications.”
Ease of use helps influence Lift’s choice of disease treatment as well.
“I really like using Eagle® 20EW Specialty Fungicide,” she says, “especially in the field. It works well for us on rust, and for leaf spots like Cercospora or Alternaria.”
Caring from Start to Finish
Ultimately, Lift says, it’s that intensive management approach throughout the plant’s entire life cycle that helps Walters Gardens deliver market-leading products.
“I think Walters is successful and unique because we can care for the plant through all its different life stages from beginning to end,” she says. “We can take the plant from the smallest cutting in the tissue culture lab, to the greenhouse where we take cuttings and multiply the plant, to the field where we grow them to full size, then to bare root processing.
“It really offers us a unique opportunity to just focus on giving our customers the best plant we possibly can.”
State restrictions on the sale and use of Eagle® 20EW apply. Consult the label before purchase or use for full details. Always read and follow label directions.
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