“We purchased our Flood Floor System from TrueLeaf Technologies because they work, our Flood Floors were very cost effective and with just the labor savings the payback for us was four to five years.”
— Jerry Tuinier, Owner of Post Gardens

Post Gardens, a family owned business, was founded in 1937 when it was purchased from Post Cereals of Battle Creek, Michigan. The land had previously been used for producing fresh vegetables for the Post Tavern.

Post Gardens, are growers of various bedding and flowering plants that are grown year round. Post installed 120,000 square feet of Flood Floors in 2003-2004 bringing the total Flood Floor area they have up to 240,000 square feet in the Rockwood location with more expected.
The new Flood Floor project was an addition to the existing east range of 60,000 square feet. TrueLeaf provided a brand new Flood Floor system for the west range of 60,000 square feet complete with a new tank and pump system.

The original building remaining is the house on Michigan Avenue which was used to board the farm hands. Post Gardens erected its first greenhouse to produce cut flowers. However once South America started to import flowers, Post Gardens diversified into potted plants, foliage and bedding. In the late 1940’s to be closer to the Detroit market, Post Gardens bought the Rockwood facility from Phil Breitmeyer, the mayor of Detroit. Both facilities have expanded together to 35 acres or 1,520,000 square feet and is owned and operated by the third generation of the Tuinier family — Jerry, Bill, Jim and Joy.

Post Gardens purchased the Flood Floors from TrueLeaf because of the quality in the design of the system. One of the key benefits of the Flood Floor system for Post Gardens is the huge labor savings they have seen.

Call TrueLeaf now to see how a Flood Floor system can make your life easier and add money to your company’s bottom line.

“With our business becoming more demanding, and greenhouses becoming more and more complex to design and build, we feel that TrueLeaf is on the right track to provide an integrated approach to all the other systems, heat, irrigation, electrical and control.”

- George Lucas

Lucas Greenhouses in south central New Jersey started out in 1981 with a few Quonset structures and a lot of dedication to making them profitable. In 1984 George Lucas purchased his first BioTherm soil heating product and the relationship with BioTherm (now TrueLeaf Technologies) was born. George was growing bit by bit and the business was doing well. Jump ahead twenty years.

George and head grower Joe Moore looked to expand their newest greenhouse range. They had watched over the years as BioTherm changed into TrueLeaf Technologies. Once again they turned to TrueLeaf to provide the core growing systems for two new 110,000 square foot open roof structure expansions.

The responsibility to design the hot water heating system, the Argus Controls, a Flood Floor system (with a twist), irrigation distribution and fertigation and the electrical panels to power all of these up were given to the team at TrueLeaf.

The heating systems for each of the new expansions were designed with optimum efficiency and reliability in mind. There is HDX tubing in the concrete Flood Floor and StarFin aluminum fin tube overhead for supplemental overhead and gutter snow melt heat. At the source there are three 250HP BoilerSmith boilers that use fresh air to burn cleaner and more efficient.

An Argus Control system was designed to take over all the new greenhouse structure (and much of the existing) and mechanical systems automation. Electrical panels were designed and built. The panels included all the load contactors, relays, thermal overloads and transformers required for all the equipment in the facility.

The Flood Floor design in the second phase of expansion has something special. From the ideas of George and Joe, TrueLeaf designed this Flood Floor with a separate draining system in the floor for any overhead irrigation. This “auxiliary” drain system marks the first one of its kind for the TrueLeaf Flood Floor designers. Simply put, when growers use overhead booms to irrigate and they don’t want this water running back to the same tanks that are used for the Flood Floor irrigation, they let the controls know and this parallel drain system takes it back to a separate tank for storage. It’s now easy to filter and then re-use this overhead water. Today with both phases of their expansion completed and in operation, they are one of the top 10 liner producers in the country.

Call TrueLeaf now to see how we can make your life easier and add money to your company’s bottom line.

Bluebird Nursery, in Clarkson, Nebraska had a big problem. A new greenhouse was built for propagation and it was equipped with all the latest technology. Mobile tray benches were selected to reduce labor, a computer control system was applied to make the environment more consistent, and a multi-zone hot water heating system was installed to deliver bottom heat and save heating fuel.

All these components were installed and commissioned, but that’s when the big problems started. The low-mass boilers that were put in just didn’t deliver. They had burners failing and heat exchangers springing leaks and all sorts of control problems – basically, the promised efficiency was not realized and the cost of maintenance and irritation were unacceptable.

A decision was made to install a Raypak boiler to handle the load and leave the other “new” low-mass boilers to handle emergencies only. The Raypak fan-assisted combustion copper boiler was installed along with the Y200 sequencing control (also from Raypak) and since that day, the system has been reliable.

“I hardly ever even go back there anymore, because the Raypak is just so reliable”, says Mike Hamernik, who is in charge of facilities. He continues, “I have had to replace only one small part, an igniter, in two years. I think that the reason it works so well has to do with really smooth control from the sequencer as well as the boiler being a better, more proven design. Also, the engineering around the application provided by Raypak has been superb.”

Raypak boilers have been manufactured since 1947 and have a proven track record of reliable operation – even in harsh greenhouse applications. Raypak’s deep understanding of what it takes to make their boilers operate year in and year out means that when you buy one, you’re getting more than a box with a boiler in it….your are also getting the combined experience of professionals committed to application excellence.

TrueLeaf Technologies is Raypak’s National Representative to the commercial greenhouse industry. We can help you select and apply the best Raypak solution for your needs and help you reduce costs and increase your profits! Call TrueLeaf now to see how an Integrated Systemcan make your life easier and add money to your company’s bottom line.

DeFrancesco & Son is a greenhouse operation that is three generations strong. Joe Sr. started the operations in Northford CT in 1967. Joe Jr. is now running his operation with his three sons, and his fourth will join the business once completed with college.

The DeFrancescos have always been interested in new technologies to make their operation more efficient. They were the first ones in their area to use open roof greenhouses. All of their neighbors came over to see what the heck they were doing and thought they were crazy. Now, years later, open roof structures are an industry standard.

Being in New England, oil is the fuel that everybody uses. Although DeFrancescos do use some hot water heat, they heat most of their houses with forced air. They have been using the common heaters in their area for years. When they heard of a new oil heater technology, they were eager to learn more about it.

After doing their research, they decided to purchase several Sial Mirage-290s and Airflow-400s, both hanging oil fired heaters. That’s right, hanging! They are able to plant another 10+ trays for every heater replaced. Not too much looking at one heater, but look at 60…

One of the main reasons for purchasing these heaters for Joe was the savings they would see in fuel use. The Sial oil fired heaters are the most efficient heaters in the market. They are saving two ways: One way is the better efficiency in oil consumption by the state of the art Italian design. The second is the heater’s very powerful fan. By blowing up to 400% more than the old heaters, the heaters can heat the air in the greenhouse much faster now. Joe Jr. says he “loves these two new (Sial) heaters, they are perfect.”

We finish with telling Joe DeFrancesco the fourth was just born. He will be taking over the farm in 35 years or so. We wish the DeFrancescos success in their family business!

Call TrueLeaf now to see how an Integrated System
can make your life easier and add money to your company’s bottom line.

Kube-Pak, Incorporated, has long been a respected grower – they practically invented the plug industry – and are noted for many innovations and support of groundbreaking industry developments like floor heating and double poly greenhouses.

Company President, Bill Swanekamp, is also widely known and respected for his presentation skills and business acumen. He has presided over sweeping changes in the company and its facilities. Mr. Swanekamp is very attuned to the economic heartbeat of his company….mostly by doing the work of knowing his costs and managing them with appropriate solutions.

One such solution has been to specify Starfin for top heat in new greenhouses. Traditionally, Kube-Pak has installed four 2” pipes in each of the 21’ wide greenhouse bays, but with Starfin, they now only need to install three pipes.

“Starfin puts out more heat than bare pipes, so we were able to reduce the number of lines overhead in a house. The benefits are that we have less labor to install the top heat as there is no welding needed, there is less weight to support overhead, and we have reduced shadowing down on our crop.” says Mr. Swanekamp.

Other benefits of Starfin include not needing to do maintenance painting of the pipes and reduced water volume in the heating system.

Starfin heat-pipes from TrueLeaf Technologies deliver efficient heat quickly and install fast and are easy to maintain. It makes the cut at Kube-Pak, and that says a lot.

Call TrueLeaf now to see how an Integrated System can make your life easier and add money to your company’s bottom line.

The Future in Irrigation Tanks

Village Nurseries has over 700 acres of growing facility in nine locations in California. They are a leader in producing trees and bedding plants for the West Coast for over 30 years. The Sacramento location has been plagued with old irrigation tanks. These are made out of redwood and seem to always be sprouting new leaks. It got to a point where something had to be done.

Mark Marriot, the general manager, has dealt with TrueLeaf Technologies in the past with their heating systems and Argus controls. After talking to Al Zylstra and Morris Brink at TrueLeaf, he was excited to purchase a new Buwatank.

BuwaTec Water Technology has teamed up with TrueLeaf to represent their water storage tanks and liners to the greenhouse industry in the United States. BuwaTec is the European leader in manufacturing water storage tanks. Buwatanks are made out of corrugated steel and are shipped in pieces to be assembled on site. There are three different liners and a variety of covers to choose from.

Shann Marriot from Village Nurseries is the maintenance manager. He says the new 130,000 gallon tank is “pretty cool.” He says it is very practical, easy to install, low maintenance and is built to last. It is working great to keep their outside production irrigated throughout the hot Sacramento summers.

Since their first tank that was installed in the beginning of 2006, they have purchased a second tank. They plan to continue to replace the four remaining wood tanks with Buwatanks over the next several years.

Call TrueLeaf now to see how an Integrated System
can make your life easier and add money to your company’s bottom line.

After more than 30 years in Springfield, Buckley Growers Illinois consolidates operations under a single roof in a facility heated by hot water from a nearby electrical power company.

Featured Grower Profile

Name: Buckley Growers Illinois

Founded: 1880s

Location: Taylorville, Illinois

Main Crops: Potted bedding plants, premium pot plants, chrysanthemums, poinsettias, unrooted cuttings and liners

Market: Select garden centers, florists, landscapers and interiorscape services

Web site: www.buckleygrowers.com

Unique Heat from a Unique Source
The greenhouse heating process at Buckley actually starts at a landfill that creates methane gas, powers the generation plant and creates hot water as a byproduct. That hot water is then channeled to aerial pipes built along hanging basket lines and through floors of the greenhouse. So far, the system has padded the company’s pocketbooks considerably regarding money Buckley used to spend on natural gas.

“They got the system up in February this year, and we’ve saved about 90 percent from last year,” says David Wagner, CFO at BGI. “We figured we would save somewhere around 85 percent.”

According to Al Zylstra, a TrueLeaf Technologies sales manager who designed and managed the BGI project along with Mike Muchow, other greenhouses have attempted to work with neighboring facilities in the past and buy methane gas directly from them to use in their generators or boilers.

But the problem he’s seen with that method of heating is that methane gas is dirty and high in sulfur or other impurities. The gas needs to be cleaned before it can be used appropriately, and that’s a fairly expensive process for any greenhouse operation to take on.

Buckley could have gone that route with Waste Management, Zylstra says. But using hot water as a byproduct for heating needs makes more sense financially for a four-acre greenhouse facility like Buckley Growers Illinois.

“Large corporations like Waste Management do things at what I call a municipal level,” Zylstra says. “That simply means that it deals with government dollars, which are a lot more than what a grower like Buckley Growers or almost anybody in the greenhouse industry has to spend. Their answer to everything might involve a $10,000 piece of equipment when a $1,000 piece of equipment might be able to do the same job just as well.”

To Zylstra, the biggest challenge he met on this job was integrating the needs of Buckley with the demands and needs of Waste Management. The technology integrated was nothing new to TrueLeaf, though.

At the neighboring Five Oaks Disposal Facility, which sits just a few hundred feet from Buckley, TrueLeaf identified the amount of heat energy produced by each of the four generators installed. TrueLeaf then designed a system to filter that heat energy to the greenhouse facility through valves, pipes and heat exchangers before radiators could cool it.

TrueLeaf supplied and installed all of that equipment at both facilities, and its design spans 163,296 square feet of greenhouse and 18,000 square feet of headhouse and office space.

“We put in-concrete floor heat in all of the offices, headhouse area and germination chambers,” Zylstra says. “Then, we put in-slab floor heat in approximately half of the houses. We put in-ground heat in the soil in the other half of the houses.”

This has been excerpted from an article written by Kevin Yank, Assistant Editor of Greenhouse Grower www.greenhousegrower.com

Read the complete article at:

http://www.greenhousegrower.com/grower_tools/200805m_buckley.html