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Old August 1, 2017   #41
Cole_Robbie
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Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
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You're right that it is a lot of work for little money. I think my retail potential is fairly limited as far as volume goes, unfortunately, especially in the summer. I would like to someday have acres of land covered in greenhouses. I have (access to) the land right now, but I have to find a profitable model before I can duplicate anything.

Watering is actually going quite well for me now, by rotating the pots in and out of shallow bins of water. They are fine when I am lazy and leave them in the water for a day or so at a time. I'm really sold on this method of watering, and I think I could use it on a large scale, with big flood and drain tables. Since I'm using Osmocote mixed into the media, I don't really have to fertigate. My sunflowers are a little pale, and I'm sure could use more nitrogen, but they sell anyway. I always have the option of mixing in soluble fertilizer in the water I use to flood the pots, but I want to avoid doing so if possible. It's messy and grows algae.

Pest control, especially without killing my bees, is the biggest challenge right now. I had leaf miners, even in my marigolds, which I thought didn't get bugs. I have some pyrethrin spray. I'll have to spray after the bees go to bed. They are still loving my sunflowers in the greenhouse.
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