Greenhouses near Hangzhou by Jake

Today, we visited a couple different greenhouses that were located an hour and a half out of the city of Hanghzou. The first greenhouse was Zhejiang Development Park Co. This greenhouse was subsidized by the government and mostly produced bedding plants (Begonia, Petunias, Pansy, Salvia) for the outside plantings by a government landscaping company. The greenhouse had a few neat characteristics. Sticky traps so covered in insects they were more black than yellow seemed standard in all the houses. I think they were using them as a control measure than a management tool. They rented out six foot Money Trees to large companies and hotels. A company bus went 40 km away to pick up employees. But, the neatest thing about this operation is that it lacked a complete foundation. This meant that a few plants would grow in the soil under the benches, and maybe even flower. We were told that they didn’t install a complete foundation because they wanted to be able to remove the structure at any time and convert it back to farmland. We toured the non subsidized greenhouse next. The facilities weren’t as modern as the first greenhouse. Instead of a completely automatic seeder, they used a wand seeder. Workers here received 33 RMB (about 5 bucks) a day and college graduates received 2000 RMB/ month.

While on the tour of the hoop houses, we saw the farmers’ houses. These large houses looked very different from the houses we are used to seeing in the city and had a unique style.

The last greenhouse of the day was Senhe seed. They were a large orchid producer. They use tissue culture to start the orchids. After a month and a half, the orchids are placed in sphagnum moss to continue to grow. They used clear plastic containers for the orchids so they could manage growth better.

They also had a large outdoor nursery. They had trees planted in felt containers. These containers are more expensive than normal containers, but are easier to move. Within the rows of trees, we saw a familiar face – the Norway maple. Although the company didn’t know who would by it, they had quite a few trees.

After a hot tour of the greenhouses, the air-conditioned conference room at Hong Yue was a welcome site. Here, we talked to employees at Hongyue seed about the future of the industry, issues of sustainability, plant nutrition, and what how gas prices affect greenhouses and agriculture in the United States and China.

P.S. It is my birthday today.