Trimming Strategies For Growth Control

The Growers’ Dilemma

Every season, growers face difficult choices about controlling growth in order to produce fuller, higher quality, and uniform crops.  The traditional strategies have involved applying PGR’s and/or some type of manual pinching or trimming.  The need for this kind of growth control is obvious, but raises issues such as:

  1. Cost – Manual trimming/pinching is very labor intensive and therefore costly, while each PGR application has its own set of not insignificant costs.
  2. Speed – Manual pinching is a slow, time consuming process.  Pinching a large crop can often take a number of days and consume a large part of the available labor force during this time
  3. Unpredictable Results – PGR applications can sometimes have unpredictable, and even unintended results.
The Growers’ Opportunity

We recognized that our customers needed a high quality, cost effective trimming solution to perform this critical task.  This solution should give growers more flexibility throughout the growth of the crop because of it’s speed, precision, and low cost per treatment. 

To bring this solution to our market, AgriNomix worked with our European partners, Lanz GmbH and Pack TTI, world leaders in trimming technology.  The results were North American versions of their machines, with some of our innovations, as well as our gift for cost containment.  The two systems are as follows:

Venti_003_Trimmer_large


 

Venti Trimmer Applications – The Venti trimmers are designed to trim plants, in trays or pots, as they are fed through the trimming heads by a conveyor. Plant sizes can range from 1″ to 24″ tall with a maxmimum cut of 5″ per pass. The standard cutting width is up to 16″ wide with an option for up to 20″. The trimmer is on wheels, so it can be easlily moved to the plants inside, or outside, the greenhouse. With two trimming head options and variable speeds, the Veni trimmer can cleanly and precisely trim a wide variety of delicate plants like herbs and Euphorbia, to the tougher, woody plants like evergreen saplings.

main_ezcut

 

EZ Cut Trimmer Applications – The EZ Cut trimmer is designed to trim (or mow) plants on the ground by rolling over them. Cutting height can range from 2″ to 38″ from the ground with a maxmimum cut of 5″ per pass. The standard cutting width is 60″ and the frame can be extended to 11 feet wide for rolling over a 10 ft. beds. One of the most cost effective applications for the EZ Cut is pinching poinsettias, but it can be used to trim a wide variety of plants. There is also an option that allows tables to be moved under the EZ Cut to trim plants.

Benefits of Automated Trimming
    • Significant Labor Savings – The labor savings realized over hand trimming/pinching is difficult to overstate.  We have had direct feedback from our customers that have seen 80% cost savings on pinching poinsettias and over-the-ground mowing with the EZ Cut Trimmer.
    • More Accurate Crop Timing – Because of the speed and the low cost per mowing offered by our trimmers, growers can fine tune their growth management and really dial in the timing of a crop. These trimmers allow growers to respond quickly to different crop conditions in a very timely fashion, with predictable results.
    • Unmatched Uniformity & Predictable Results – Our customers are very satisfied, in some cases surprised, at the uniform and predictable results provided by our trimmers.  But a picture is worth a thousand words. Below is an example of poinsettia pinching using our trimmers.

 

  • Minimize PGR Applications – Growers try to minimize the application of PGR’s in order to save money and avoid the uncertainty sometimes associated with using PGR’s.  Cost effective, high quality automated trimming can be a much better alternative in many situations.
  • Easy Cutting Reclamation – Growers don’t like to waste anything.  Our cutting collections system not only efficiently collects the cuttings, but do it in such a way that they are undamaged and can be re-used.
Customer Quotes About Our Trimmers

“Uniformity doesn’t get any better… I didn’t believe it at first until a saw it for myself… Originally, I thought it was a crazy idea… It just seemed too crude to me until I saw the results.”

— Marc Verdel, Head Grower, Battlefield Farms, VA.  Jan 2011.

“When someone walks into our greenhouse and looks at a crop, we want them to see a putting green in terms of uniformity.  When we first saw our trimmer demonstrated, I watched it mow about 50 feet of crop before I stopped the demo and started writing the check.” 

— Brian Decker, Owner, Decker’s Nursery, Groveport, OH.  Feb. 2011.


“Pinch timing and frequency is very important and PGR’s should not be used as a substitute for a pinch.“

—Steve Zylstra, Owner, Zylstra Greenhouses, Kalamazoo, MI.  Feb. 2011.


“Comparing two crops as they finished, one hand pinched and one mowed with the trimmer, you could not see the difference.” 

— Marc Verdel, Head Grower, Battlefield Farms, VA.  Jan 2011.


“Often our optimal window for pinching is only one or two days, and the call has to be made quickly, based on the condition of the crop.  If it takes two or three days to do a manual pinch, not to mention the time needed to pull together the necessary labor, we can miss our window.   With our trimmer, most of our pinches are done in less than a half a day, with minimal labor, exactly at the right time for the best results.”

— Steve Zylstra, Owner, Zylstra Greenhouses, Kalamazoo, MI.  Feb. 2011.


“Our trimmer takes the hassle factor out of pinching.  We get our pinches done on time; with less labor, allowing us do more pinches than we could before.  We calculated a payback period of one season for our trimmer, accounting for its use in only one greenhouse…and we have 24 greenhouses.”

—Brian Decker, Owner, Decker’s Nursery, Groveport, OH.  Feb. 2011.

Let’s Talk About It

At AgriNomix, we want to fully understand your situation and requirements before we recommend any solution.  We have tried to fully explain the advantages of our trimming solutions, but we want to answer all your questions and discuss your specific situation to make sure we have a good fit.  Please call us at 1-800-354-3750 and say you want to talk about TRIMMERS.  We will be happy to review your trimming requirements, as well as discussing specifics like options and prices.

You can also send us an email at info@agrinomix.com.

Thank you for your time and interest!