On 14 November, a fire started near the boiler room. It tore through the warehouse, destroying the heating system, and causing massive damage.
Since 1996, we have expanded twice, bringing our total area under cover to approximately 10 acres. We’re pleased to say that we need to expand again! As we perfect our methods, our niche market of small to mid-size growers continues to increase. Our attempt to be a “one-stop shop” for them has really paid off, as well as our production teams’ efforts to minimize waste.
One year after moving to Canada, Jolly Farmer was building again, adding another 22 greenhouses. Greenhouse Canada’s May 1999 cover featured a photo of our greenhouse complex, with both phases completed, the same year we closed the New Hampshire facility.
Mechanization not only helps with labor costs but can also improve plant quality. When we introduced automatic patching – a process that removes empty cells and replaces them with viable plugs – we were able to reduce the number of seeds per cell. This in turn produces a more uniform and healthy plant, not competing for fertilizer, water, space, and light.
Previously, the thousands of baskets we grew every year hung in the structure above the benches, which made accessing them difficult and unsafe. Eventually, we were able to switch them out for MTZ lines, which move the hangers around on a pulley system, allowing them to be watered by weight, and lowered down for shipping.
We upgraded both the benching and flooring throughout the first 36 greenhouses. The switch from asphalt floors to concrete will make it much easier to clean the floors, as will the benching which moves – with the push of a button – entirely to one side of the house. Aluminum will also prevent rust issues on the benching.
With the available technology, we’ve been able to adapt growing systems to be much more accurate and less labor-intensive. For example, for watering, each grower had a clipboard where they could write the watering and manually enter it into the irrigator. Now, the settings are online and formatted for mobile devices. Once the information is complete, the watering will be synchronized to the irrigator automatically.
In 2018, with our customer base and sales continuing to increase and with orders exceeding the space available, we expanded for the third time, adding 3 more acres of greenhouses. With this new phase of construction, we implemented innovative technology from the start, such as MTZ hanger lines, new benching, concrete floors and LED lighting. Our state-of-the-art complex now covers 13 acres, and we continue to fill it to full capacity each year.