Glass over Grass

It used to be that a greenhouse was constructed on good soil, so that the plants could flourish under the warmer conditions during the winter.  I can remember these greenhouses - Niagara had many floral crops under glass - you could see and smell roses  and lilies in the middle of winter and buy a bouquet. There's no soil in a commercial greenhouse today. Everything is sterile to reduce issues like fungus and insects.  Biological controls are used - no chemical sprays anymore.   So Niagara soil is often covered with hundreds of acres of greenhouses on cement floors.  It is up to thousands of acres under glass - peppers, cucumbers and tomato production represents 3,000 acres of greenhouse growing. (This would include the Windsor corridor.) There were 223 vegetables and 400 flower greenhouse operations in Ontario in 2015. The greenhouse produce industry in Canada is worth $1.3 billion. I was able to see in to some of them because of an open house on the weekend in support of charity. Seven in the Jordan area were on the tour.  Included was CosMic the phalanopsis orchid grower and Jeffrey's where I buy overflowed pot plants in the summer.  Jeffery's is particularly large. It also grows other seasonal pot plants, such as Chrysanthemums for autumn and Poinsettias for the Christmas market. There were floral greenhouses on the tour that I hadn't seen before.  Below is a picture of  statice - one of the bouquet flowers.  They also grow amaryllis for the floral trade and peonies outside for the June market, to keep their staff employed. The number one cost of greenhouse operations is labour - around 30-40%. And that is with migrant workers who are below minimum wage.   There is some automation - little robots space the plants perfectly for maximum efficiency.  Automation supports moving plants up to the next pot size - filling pots with soil. There are a few other areas applications.  But all the pinching is done by hand, and there's a fair amount of it.    We didn't get to see a tomato production house. I ran out of time to see St. David's Pepper production.  Here is a wonderful Financial Post article HERE covering the largest tomato greenhouse producer in Canada - located in the Windsor area.  There are great pictures and video.  What I was interested in was that the article covers the Vineland Research Station's new 1 acre test greenhouse.  It has a greenhouse tomato breeding program.  They are hybridizing like crazy in there - cross-pollinating commercial and heirloom tomatoes to get the supreme tomato of great flavour and great durability. It is just a matter of time... We see what the industrial floral landscape looks like. Our first picture shows a typical migrant worker - they come from Mexico and South America.  In the second image is the water reclamation pond.  Little irrigation hoses go to every pot.   Our third picture shows the work at hand - pinching, etc. There are some flowers to see - but mostly a vast landscape of green all around. There were some pretty pot plants in Jeffery's showing colour.  They will likely get shipped out this week to their major customer Costco.