November 2020 - 9

INDUSTRY NEWS
DÜMMEN ORANGE CONSOLIDATES
MUM URC PRODUCTION
Dümmen Orange has announced it has relocated
all of the company's mum unrooted cutting
production to its greenhouse facilities at the
former Ecke Ranch in Encinitas, California.
GREAT LAKES
FRUIT, VEGETABLE & FARM MARKET
BIOLOGICAL CONTROL
PROGRAMS AND
COVID-RELATED
CHANGES HEADLINE
2020 GREAT LAKES
EXPO SESSIONS
For greenhouse growers, the Great Lakes
" This move helps us to remain very nimble in our
production strategy, so we can ramp up availability
to meet seasonal needs, " said Emily Mason, regional
director of programs at Dümmen Orange. " We can do
very intensive production trials here and we can also
adapt the production to meet environmental needs
or customer needs with timing or with specifics. "
New for 2021, all Dümmen Orange chrysanthemums
for both garden mums and pot crop mums have
moved south from Oxnard down to Encinitas.
This change provides a number of benefits,
including weather, expertise and staff. Southern
California's coastal conditions are ideal for yearround
quality cutting production. Having the
cuttings at the Dümmen Orange facility where
all mum research and development is done on
new varieties provides expertise in successfully
growing and completely understanding the crops
before they go into commercial production.
Dümmen's staff members will be onsite for trialing,
growing, order entry and shipping, which allows
for faster communication and agility for lastminute
customer requests.
Sylwia Vaclavek, farm manager at Dümmen
Orange, will be onsite overseeing all mum URC
production and shipping. Having decades of
stock management experience, she will handle
forecasting, planning and production of the mum
crops at the facility.
GRIMES HORTICULTURE
ANNOUNCES CLOSING
After 95 years in business, Grimes Horticulture
has announced the company is in the process of
closing down.
In a statement to the industry, Gary Grimes said,
" Grimes managed the timing of this carefully and
has paid over 95% of our obligations to vendors. "
Fruit, Vegetable & Farm Market EXPO and
Greenhouse Growers EXPO brings many
educational opportunities each year. And
although the 2020 Great Lakes EXPO is going
completely virtual, this year's educational
opportunities will be just as meaningful.
Raymond Cloyd is a professor in the
department of entomology at Kansas State
University. In his time at Kansas State, he's
mainly focused on everything horticultural
entomology and greenhouse nursery -
including focusing specifically on greenhouse
and nursery pests as an Extension researcher.
Cloyd will be contributing to two sessions
at this year's EXPO - the first, dealing with
common problems encountered by growers
when implementing biological control products.
Tying into the first session, the second session
will then focus on the factors that influence a
successful biological control program, focusing
specifically on quality assessment.
" We'll discuss the problems that greenhouses
may encounter, including not developing sound
scouting programs and not assessing the
quality of purchased biological control agents, "
Cloyd said. " It's a very complex strategy - it's
not the same as just picking up a container of
Safari, spraying it and you're done. You have to
take the right steps. "
He continued, " We are extremely proud of
our exceptional employees who have been as
dedicated and productive as any company could
possibly ask for. "
Owners Gary Grimes and Rod LeDrew will assist
employees seeking new positions of employment.
In the meantime, Grimes will see that plant
orders, already placed for the current season, will
Although the session is targeted specifically
toward greenhouse growers, Cloyd says
the information can go " well beyond " the
greenhouse - benefitting some outdoor
production and hemp growers, specifically.
Bridget Behe, a professor in the horticulture
department at Michigan State University, has
been studying ornamental and edible crops
for over 23 years. In the " Keep the Plant
Demand Growing " session, Behe will share
data that's been collected over recent months
to help greenhouse growers and retailers
understand plant purchasing behavior -
and how to implement changes made due to
COVID-19 in a more long-term way.
" Because of (COVID-19), earlier this year,
retailers had to make big shifts for the safety
of both their customers and employees, " Behe
said. " In this session, what I want to do is
help people understand what mechanics have
seemed to work well, and what will probably
be staying with us (beyond the pandemic). "
From early- to mid-2020, Behe said the
university collected data from a nationwide
survey examining consumer behavior,
specifically as it relates to plant purchases. In
the survey, they asked about all of the different
motivations for purchasing plants during the
pandemic, how the purchasing broke down by
demographic and understanding why demand
in plants seemed to rise.
" The goal is to put those two pieces of
information together to help retailers and
greenhouses have a comprehensive strategy
for next spring, " Behe said. " Safety is the new
luxury ... I don't think many of the COVIDinduced
changes are going away. And that
takes some communication by the retailer. "
For the first time, the 2020 Great Lakes
EXPO is going virtual! Aside from the health
and safety benefits, shifting the 2020 EXPO
to a virtual platform also means that the
educational sessions will have a wider
variety of content and speakers, no limits in
attendance size and easier Q&A capabilities
with growers.
For information on the 2020 Great Lakes
EXPO, registration and educational session
details and more, visit www.glexpo.com.
be fulfilled. They will
also follow up to assist
with seed orders that
have been placed
with Grimes.
Questions should be
directed to Bill Steen, president,
at bsteen@grimes-hort.com.
GREENHOUSE PRODUCT NEWS 9
http://www.glexpo.com
November 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of November 2020
