US (NJ): Flower grower adds 4.4 ha retractable roof greenhouse

George likens his choices in growing structures to a carpenter’s tool bag where they might have a big hammer, a finishing hammer, and a sledge hammer, etc. He says, different greenhouse structure designs are basically a variety of job specific tools. "When we started those tools were influenced by cost, so we chose inexpensive poly houses. As the company grew we added more tools to the point where that included high light glasshouses with heated flood floors, lighting and other high tech growing systems. When outdoor production reached 40 acres (16ha) we needed a new tool so we chose retractable roof structures to protect from cold & rain and they’ve done a really terrific job for us."

"As a group, we decided in spring of 2016 to build Cravo A-Frames but in the area where we had existing outdoor production so the window to build had to be after the fall crop in mid-October with a finish date of end of February. So as steel arrived, our team went to work with assembling the trusses and they all felt that soup to nuts the entire process went very very well."

Scott says one of the biggest obstacles was weather (2 ft of mud) and not material. "Tech support was great and any issues on installation instructions or drawings were answered almost immediately. The first posts went in November 8th and we finished with plants in the house by March 8th, that is including grading, drainage, electrical, plumbing, flooring, systems, 2 retention basins, everything!" Nate shared that he ran the crews. The first 4 weeks had a total of 20 workers and by the end of the job 55 men had been involved supporting the greenhouse, but that included also all the systems and other farm projects. "Had the mud not been there we could have saved 2 weeks."