Horticulture

Four Star Greenhouses grows plugs (starter plants) and some finish material on about 20 acres. Photo here from Tom Smith's (owner) helicopter.

Here is serendipity: I knew Four Star Greenhouse from a small fungus gnat project many years ago. So I contacted the owner when I wanted to shoot some stock photos of the horticulture industry. I allied with a couple of friends and we shot video at the site, for Getty Images stock footage. Management was looking for an Integrated Pest Management Coordinator; I worked there for a year and a half.

I produced for Andy Sacks in shooting video clips of 4 Star. One of these was immediately picked up for a Republican campaign ad. The greenhouse owner was thrilled.

Plants are grown on traditional benches or on the floor in an ebb and flow system. My job was to evaluate scouting data and to walk through the crop to identify insect and disease issues. The idea of "integrated pest management" is to maintain pests/diseases below the economic threshold, by adjusting growing conditions (e.g., better ventilation = less fungal disease) and spraying when necessary. This is not a very "green" business. We used a lot of pesticides.

• Roots of verbena plugs, healthy vs. pythium infected.
• An example of a tiny bug that would appear and need to be identified — a drain fly.
• We saw an incredible variety of diseases. Failing to ID and treat could be a $10K mistake.
• Joe in spray suit. Joe died a couple of years ago — one of the most insightful and empathetic people I have known.

The job I had at Four Star was valuable professionally but awesome from a relationship standpoint. People worked hard and smart, for little money. I had to ask them to wear cumbersome PPE and work with toxic materials late into the night.

[A few photo sets on this page — the plug roots/drain fly/disease/Joe series, and a closing 3-photo set — use a lightbox widget I couldn't resolve to image files. Re-add manually from Weebly.]