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John Schmitz
The Capital Press,
August 16, 2002
WOODBURN, Ore. – It would be no exaggeration to say
that Woodburn Nursery is really sold on pot-in-pot production.
By the end of September the wholesale grower will have
close to 70 acres of pots in the ground, making it by far the largest
user of the technology in the state.
Large scale pot-in-pot production is not for the faint of heart nor weak
of funds. But the dividends are well worth it, said Tom Fessler, operations
manager and son of Woodburn Nursery's founder Bob Fessler.
Not only do the protected plants withstand winter feezes
and chilling winds that can severely damage above-ground container stock,
digging crews no longer have to contend with wet, sloppy weather and can
effortlessly extract the plant pots any time of the year.
Pot-in-pot is not what you'd call high-tech, but it
is an extremely clever idea that makes you wonder why no one discovered
it sooner.
Essentially, pot-in-pot is a hybrid of sorts between
above-ground container production and B&B field production. Containerized
plants to be grown out in soilless media are placed inside socket pots
of the same size, the latter having been imbedded in the field.
Spacers made of the some high-UV resistant, poly-vinyl
material the pots are made of are placed at the bottom of socket pots
to keep the socket pot and planter pot from wedging together.
When it comes time for harvest, workers simply grasp
the pot with the plant in it by the lip and effortlessly pop it free of
the socket pot.
Woodburn Nursery is such a big fan of pot-in-pot production
that it recently invested in a brand new John Deere 7410 tractor and outfitted
it with a GPS guidance system and a nursery-built planting platform.You
won't find any county mounties in patrol cars hanging around Woodburn
Nursery when socket pots are being imbedded in the ground. The auto-piloted
tractor travels at a speed of four-tenths of one mile an hour. The operation
moves along so slowly that the guidance system manufacturer, Auto Farm
of California, had to engineer a unit that would work at that speed.
A five-man work crew can place about 6,000 socket pots
a day, Fessler said. The company opted to use GPS technology to help in
placing the pots because uniform spacing between in-row pots and pot rows
is a primary requirement not met by a manually operated tractor traveling
at such a slow speed, production manager Craig Hopkins said. "You're
going so slow it was real hard to stay straight," Hopkins said.
At first, workers were guided to place pots in the trench
by small marks on a very thin cable that stretched the length of the row.
Eventually, the tractor will be programmed to give a sound or visual cue
when to drop the pot into the soil.
So that no dirt from the field falls into the socket
pot before the plant pot is placed inside, Woodburn Nursery had to make
hundreds of metal covers, each weighing about seven pounds, that are placed
on top of the socket pot as soon as it's sunk in the ground. A vertical
handle hooked at the top allows for easy han-dling of the covers.
An important part of Woodburn Nursery's pot-in-pot program
is underground, 1" drip irrigation tubing that runs alongside the
socket pots. The irrigation tubing is laid into the main socket pot trench
made by the tractor.
Just before the dirt is shoveled back in place, workers
punch tiny holes, one per pot, along the drip line and insert the emitter
line. The emitter line is then crooked up and over the rim of the inside
container and connected to the spray stake.
Spray volume on six-gallon containers is five gallons
per hour and seven gallons per hour on the 10-gallon pots.
Because fields can sometimes flood, 3" tile is
also laid into the trench directly below the socket pot line.
Fessler estimates that the drip line along will save
him 75% on water usage.
Rhodies earmarked for pot-in-pot production are micropropa-gated
by means of tissue culture, a fast-track propagation technique contracted
out to Briggs Nursery of Olympia, Wash.
The process starts when 2" liners arriving at the
nursery are transplanted into one galIon containers in February and put
in the greenhouse. In June the plants go into the can yard. Later in the
summer the plants are put in either six- or 10-gallon containers and then
placed in the socket pots in the field. The plants are then grown for
about two years before being dug for shipment all over the country.
Fessler said that the Cal-Pro socket pots, which have
been treated by the manufacturer to withstand the damaging effects of
ultraviolet light longer, should be good for 15 to 20 years or more. "The
only damage that might happen is at the tops, where the sun hits and they
might degrade a little," Fessler said.
Just about every plant that Woodburn Nursery grows in
above ground containers is also being planted pot-in-pot, including boxwoods,
maples, and laurels.
Pretty much anything we produce in the can above ground
we're experimenting with out here," Fessler said, including a small
mother block of day lilies, which are propagated by root division. 'Somewhat
ironically, the crop Woodburn Nursery is best-known for, azaleas, is a
greenhouse only plant.
Fessler said that his pot-in-pot program has not only
brought him new business but has enhanced sales to longtime customers
as well.
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