A NUFFIELD SCHOLARS DIARY.

ABOUT NUFFIELD.

Each year the Nuffield Foundation awards between 15 and 20 scholarships to individuals working in the countryside and food chain industries. These scholarships give a once in a lifetime opportunity to carry out an in-depth study on a topic of your choice. Most people use this chance to travel abroad to pursue their particular interest, allowing them to broaden their horizons and look at the 'big picture' within their chosen industry. It also offers a chance to perhaps look at new opportunities and innovations and to see how others have resolved problems similar to your own. I would thoroughly recommend the Nuffield experience to anyone who has a wish to explore their business outside their immediate neighbourhood.

These scholarships are funded by a number of far-sighted individuals or institutions involved in the farming, food-chain, retail and associated industries.

I was extremely fortunate to gain a Nuffield Scholarship in 2001 funded by Marks and Spencers - to whom I am very grateful. I am ¾ of the way through my project and Neil Hutchinson has asked if I will write column for the plant propagators web-site about my trip - this is my first instalment.

My particular interest is vegetable plant propagation, and my scholarship was to enable me to look at this on a global scale. My first task was to set myself a slightly more specific agenda. I honed it down to Florida, Georgia, Arizona and California in the United States, followed by a month throughout Australia, with a passing look at New Zealand en route. I have yet to complete my trip which involves a short hop across to Holland and a few days in Murcia, Spain (followed by a week's family holiday on the Costa del Sol for my long suffering wife and daughters!).

Whilst the overall subject of my project is very general, within the field of vegetable plant propagation my particular objectives are to look at automation in any form, organic module raising and pest control - especially considering the ever-decreasing armoury of chemicals available.

By lucky coincidence the dates of the Plant Propagators AGM happened to fall at the beginning of the first leg of my trip and this event provided the perfect jumping off point. All of you who attended this thoroughly well organised event in Northern Ireland will remember the highly interesting visits to the Gabbie family and to Bullrush Peat (thank you for your warm hospitality); and I am sure you will not have forgotten the trip to the Bushmills Whiskey distillery and the ensuing tasting session by various members (including our distinguished secretary) which turned out to be more like a drinking competition......).

FLORIDA

It was with some trepidation that I set off on September 29th from St Austell station in pouring rain and a howling gale (typically Cornish conditions), to start my trip. Air travel wasn't at the top of my favourite-things-to-do list, so soon after September the 11th and I was almost grateful for the 2 hour delay at Heathrow airport to accommodate the security checks. In fact so many flights had been cancelled that my plane to Miami was overbooked I had to be upgraded to Business Class, not a bad start!

I was to spend my first week in Florida travelling from Naples in the South up to Georgia, taking in various visits on the way. The main reason for visiting the Sunshine State was the hot, humid climate which on the one hand enables year round production of seedlings, providing plant and vegetables for the entire East Coast, but on the other, generates huge disease and pest control problems.

My first impressions of plant raising in Florida is that everything took place in vast 100m long tunnels. One of the main reasons for this being the prevalence of hurricanes in this region, tunnels being cheaper to replace than glass. All the tunnels had T rails to cut down cost of handling the trays ,and because they hold the trays a meter off the ground cause a lot less manual handling (back) problems for staff. All tunnel sides had wind up, wind down mechanisms for ease of loading trays in and out.

The Plant Units I visited had a capacity that ranged from a fairly substantial 80 million plants per year to a massive 350 million plants per year. I was struck by the large amount of labour required to run most of these nurseries. Typically an 80 million plant nursery would require 40 full time employees - this may seem excessive, but standards are very high, for example it is common practice to double seed all the tray edges and then prick out any doubles at a later date, thus ensuring 100% germination. It would take one full time employee to look after the irrigation for just 4 or 5 tunnels, as summer temperatures here could mean almost constant watering.

With these levels of labour it costs more to produce plants than in the UK, however unlike ourselves the Americans are not afraid of charging a realistic price for their plants, thus allowing investment back into their businesses. Typically for 240 cell trays of brassica (or tomato) the cost would be $27 (£18) per 1000. But for small orders (less than 10000 plant) this price could increase to as much as $54 (£36) per 1000. The cheapest price I saw ex-nursery was $15 (£10) per 1000 but this was for 5million cabbages in small cells. All these prices exclude the cost of seed. In Florida and Georgia this pricing level was supported by the whole industry - perhaps there is a lesson to be learnt here!

Most of the labour is Mexican with not a high level of English spoken. Although without exception every nursery manager commended the hard working nature of these employees there was often a problem with the right standard, keeping the workforce drug free could also be a constant problem.

The cost, although rising, is still low at $5.45 (£3.63) per hour; this compares favourably to labour costs over here enabling labour intensive practices. However with the rising minimum wage a number of the larger nurseries are beginning to consider automation such as moving to bulk peat instead of using small bags. Plant raisers in Florida are also suffering from the free trade arrangements with Mexico. Whilst there are still the same number of plant raisers in the region, there is 20% less business than in the previous year as much of the growing especially tomatoes is now being done in Mexico where there is no minimum wage, however I should point out that producers of good quality plants were maintaining their market share at the expense of the poorer quality producers.

Most of Florida's other problems are associated with the hot, wet climate and the occasional hurricane.

Diseases flourish in the humid, heat and producers have to ensure that the treatments are preventative rather than curative, as once a pest or disease gets hold it is very hard to contain. The two most destructive diseases for the vegetable crops here are downy mildew and Xanthamonas in brassicas and Fusarium crown rot in tomatoes, and all producers would be spraying at least twice a week to prevent any infestation. Interestingly, whereas copper had been the most commonly used control for Xanthomonas in the past, growers were now moving over to what they called a phage which is a viral pathogen of bacterial spot. Other bio-controls were also increasingly being used. Not surprisingly organic production was non-existent as the risks of spreading disease to the main non-organic crops would be too great.

Hygiene on all nurseries that I visited was of great importance with sterilisation of all tunnels and equipment between crops. Trays were also sterilised between crops, firstly being washed in 1% chlorine followed by steaming at 175 F for five hours, ensuring that the internal temperature of the tray stacks was at 160 F for a minimum of two hours. All raisers saw this as crucial to the success of their systems.

On the subject of disease I was relieved to leave Florida, which was suffering from an outbreak of Anthrax at that time! Georgia, followed by Arizona were next on my itinerary and they will be the subject of the next instalment of this diary.

If anyone has any questions or comments please don't hesitate to contact me at jeremyhosking@aol.com.