jamesp
Cave Dweller 
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,607
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Post by jamesp on Apr 22, 2017 0:42:53 GMT -5
Stealing cuttings from pots on right to sprig pots on left. Growing on the fly. Pots pre-filled and stored close by as sales empty bench. Korean Water Fern, ready for sale in 3 weeks  Dwarf Variegated Sweet Flag, ready in 2 months  Water Lily micro propagules, ready spring of next year. Propagules started 2 weeks ago. Transferred to flats with 18 three inch pots. Then moved to 8 inch pots June of this year. April 4 2017:  April 22 2017   The above planting will fill this system when moved to 8 inch pots:    Best water lily's on earth LOL  Fertilizer is 50% 10-10-17 Florikan 9 month time releases and 0-0-46 Florikan 3 month time release. Oddly, with water lilies it is the K potassium that makes them bloom =0-0-46=N-P-K instead of the P potash as the case with most plants. Took me 12 years to figure that out. |
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Post by MrMike on Apr 22, 2017 11:23:53 GMT -5
Man, what an operation. Looks like loads of work. You have issues with mosquitoes with all that standing water?
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,607
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Post by jamesp on Apr 25, 2017 3:47:33 GMT -5
Man, what an operation. Looks like loads of work. You have issues with mosquitoes with all that standing water? Tadpoles, minnows, dragonflies and bats work them over Mike. Mainly the dragon flies. Only the potted plants get sprayed with insecticide, 90% of the ponds and water holding containers are plant stock ponds. No insecticide. Shallow earthen ponds full of aquatic plants grow frogs, fish, dragonflies, attract bats and bug eating swallows and martins. Skeeters don't stand a chance. Even the bass grow fast due to the supply of food like tree frogs, aquatic frogs, minnows, crawfish etc. Deep lakes do not create habitat like shallow areas, like shallow Florida wetlands that can grow a bass to 2 pounds in a year. It is not that much work. I have a helper that fills all the pots. I just plant them and deliver them. The whole nursery is on gravity water feed or drip irrigation. Little watering to do. Some weeding. |
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,607
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Post by jamesp on Apr 25, 2017 3:56:58 GMT -5
My buddy is going to shoot for water lily honey. The honey bees are fond of their blooms. Lots of nectar in them. Anxious to see how this works. Honey bees have always swarmed the lily blooms. Latin for lily, nymphea odorata, odorata meaning odor (from nectar). The young dog found the hives a few days ago. Noticed it doing 180's and 360's in midair as it found out the bees do protect their hive lol. A one time lesson.  |
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Post by kk on Apr 25, 2017 4:24:07 GMT -5
Need to win the lottery, buy sufficient land-rights, and then get you over here to set up a system like that.
I could see myself in such a business for the rest of my life......
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grayfingers
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Member since November 2007
Posts: 4,575 
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Post by grayfingers on Apr 25, 2017 7:59:41 GMT -5
Sweet! Nice way to gild the lily. (as it were)
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,607
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Post by jamesp on Apr 25, 2017 8:51:34 GMT -5
Sweet! Nice way to gild the lily. (as it were) Idiom: gild the lily 1. To adorn unnecessarily something already beautiful. 2. To make superfluous additions to what is already complete. I think the bees are flying past the lilies as they are not yet producing nectar(can't smell it) The poplar trees may be their target as of now. Alan will tell me by looking at the dozen layers of hive as the months pass and find which layers are the water lily honey if they pursue and deposit it. Honey bees have always swarmed my water lilies. Tons of nectar in them. He knows they will get the highly desired sour wood(tree) honey in late summer. The honey sources may be complicated on this farm. Tricker's water lily farm has bees up north in his heated greenhouses and he collects water lily honey, sells it online. |
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,607
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Post by jamesp on Apr 25, 2017 8:58:27 GMT -5
Need to win the lottery, buy sufficient land-rights, and then get you over here to set up a system like that. I could see myself in such a business for the rest of my life...... On a small scale is OK Kurt. Back when doing 15,000 pots a year not so easy. I was age 37 to 45 during the hey day of water plants. Good age to work long hard hours. Now at 60, looking for less lol. I even cheated and made the pots smaller; to my surprise my customers preferred them smaller. Moral to story "ask you customers what they prefer". Instead of wasting your efforts. Kicked myself for that 15 years of stupidity. Something about age that makes us smarter. |
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