Chip Koblegard, Mascot Farms
Okeechobee, Florida

I represent Mascot Farms, a partnership owned by Richard Mattson and myself. At present, we have nine acres of double poly greenhouses, and by July will have eleven. We grow European cucumbers and colored pepper. The houses are fan cooled with an air exchange at about two minutes. We do not have pads, but vent openings are finely screened to keep out insects. We heat with propane fired heaters. Propane may not be as good as steam, but for our climate the propane heaters are more than adequate. All heat and cooling is controlled with Wadsworth controllers.

We run injectors for fertigation, and time clocks turn water on and off to our specification. I will mention, however, we add and delete cycles at our discretion depending on weather. I started growing or learning to grow at Burnac in 1977. My partner had already been open-field farming for several years. In 1980, I left Burnac and we built our first acre and a half. Irrigating was crude fertilization by eye. All plants were grown in soil, in fact, we stayed in the soil until two years ago and have just made the total transition to perlite bag culture as of this year. Until recently, most of our guideline for fertilizer and temperature have come from Canada or Holland. Having a totally different climate, we have adjusted our programs dramatically over the years. We very seldom adjust our fertilizer program now, however, we do sometimes supplement with nutritional spray. As for temperature and humidity, I have my own opinion. We cannot control the Florida heat or 95% humidity, economically at least. Warm water and intense radiant heat allow us to run cooler nights with no ill effects.

We feel the cooler nights help us to some degree with our fungal and insect problems. Some other items of importance are to be clean of debris inside, keep all outside plant varieties which host virus removed, and scout outside weeds and grassed for other pests. Our worst insect problem is thrips "palmi", sprays are necessary. Screens are out best defense barrier. Of course, in the cukes, powdery mildew is a constant battle.

Now the important part, marketing. Because we grow specialty items, we target chain stores who have the clientele for top dollar sales. Many chains use our products, but only in certain areas. Orders of 20-50 boxes are not uncommon. A good product consistently assures repeat business and a good price. Our sales organization has done an excellent job and our customer base expands every year. It’s very difficult to expand without added customers, thus 1-1/2 acre expansions have allowed us to maintain premium prices for our product.

As in any business, every year we face new problems and learn more. Just when you think you know what you’re doing, a new strain of virus, or another insect pops up. In conclusion, in greenhouses, we can better manage our water usage and fertilizer run off, not to mention the tremendous yields per acre. With pesticides reduced and a quality vegetable, our products are quickly becoming more attractive to the American public. I believe the greenhouse industry will expand tremendously in years to come, as open field farming slowly diminishes.

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