C
Ohio’s Country Journal
May 2009
15
rops
From page 1
Most will be sold wholesale to feed
stores, grocery stores and at the produce
“The hardest part about this is making
auction in Bainbridge, but they also help
sure that the flowers are blooming when
retail sales along with the harvested field
you need them to bloom,” he said. “About
pumpkins, corn shocks, and specialty
the first of May, my customers will start
gourds and pumpkins in the fall.
looking, but we don’t necessarily want
“The pumpkin sales are pretty consis-
things in full-bloom yet. We need our hang-
tent, but the mum sales go up and down
ing baskets in full bloom right before
quite a bit,” Staker said. “But, in terms of
Mother’s Day. We need our other flowers
a single type of plant, we sell as many
blooming around Memorial Day, which
mums as about anything. They really get
can be a big weekend for us.”
going in late August through September.
Once the flowers are looking good for
We try to have everything pretty much
the peak sales season, Staker adds shade
cleared out by Halloween.”
cloth to his greenhouses to slow the
The key to successful flower
progress of the plants and extend the ap-
production is to maintain the quality,
pealing blooms for as long as possible.
Staker said.
Staker sells roughly a quarter of his spring
“I like selling people good quality.
flowers to wholesale markets, but tries to
You’ve got to have quality. Even if you’re
cater to the retail market on site for the bulk
higher priced, people will come back if
of his plants.
you have quality. They won’t come back
The spring sales have always been the
if their plants keep dying,” he said. “And
steadiest part of the greenhouse portion of
quality just comes down to the care you
the business. Once the booming late April
give things. It is like anything else, if you
Ferns have been another popular item for Staker.
and May days of 12- to 14-hours in the
stay on top of things, and keep diseases
greenhouse, making wholesale deliveries
and insects under control, you avoid a lot Staker has a full-time employee and a mulch, retaining wall block, patio stone,
and helping customers are behind him,
of problems. We have to spray for insects part-time employee and gets some help patio furniture and other garden supplies.
Staker turns the bulk of his attention to the
every once in awhile, but we really do from his wife, 13-year-old son, aunt, and We try to price our stuff so we can still
field work on the farm, tending to the
not have too many problems, and I don’t 79-year-old father.He even employs some make a decent profit while competing with
pumpkins, hay baling, cattle, harvesting
like to spray any more than I have to.” cats to control mice in the greenhouses, everybody else. Our prices will have to go
strawberries from the greenhouse and
He applies fungicides and nutrients to though this latter portion of the labor force up some because the prices for the baskets
tobacco. All of the field operations are no-
the plants through the water, so accurate also has been known to eat and knock over we use, fertilizer, propane for heating and
till or minimum-till to prevent erosion
watering is important. Staker’s popular the occasional plant. just about everything else are going up.”
problems on hilly terrain and to minimize
hanging baskets are on drip lines for Staker, along with his labor force, puts a So far, higher prices for the products
labor requirements.
water, and he tries to hand water every- lot of hours into his farm operation, but he have not slowed business. In fact, things
“Sometime in there I have to find a little
thing else as much as possible. enjoys the opportunity to work on the appear to be picking up.
time to get out and plant my corn and soy-
“When I hand water, I can make sure farm and with the customers who buy “With the economy slowing down, I
beans,” he said.
everything is getting the right amount of his products. think a lot of people are staying home and
June tends to slow down in the green-
water and I can see if there are any prob- “Most of our customers are great to planting more flowers and vegetables,”
house, and this year, Staker is hoping to
lems with pests or diseases,” he said. work with. We’re dealing with a lot of peo- Staker said. “In the last year, we’ve seen a
have it mostly cleared out in July before
“The trouble is when you get really busy ple from out in the country and a few from lot of new people starting gardens that
moving in the fall crops, including popu-
with customers and don’t have time to towns around here. I like growing flowers have never had a garden before, or haven’t
lar chrysanthemums. The roughly 5,000
hand water everything, that is when you and dealing with the public,” he said. “We had a garden since they were a kid. And I
chrysanthemums are potted in June.
can miss things.” also sell trees, shrubs, fertilizer, bagged think we’ll see a lot more of that this year.”
Hanging baskets like these, along with wave petunias, are some of the more popular items from the greenhouse.
Staker uses cats to keep mice under control in the greenhouse. This cat, on the left, is also particularly fond of
eating the ornamental grass in the background and has been known to knock over pots of herbs.
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