The Greenhouse Report: Meet the Staff

on Jul 13 by Adam Howard in General, Greenhouse, Hazelnuts, Trees tagged Arbor Day Farm, greenhouse, tree nursery, tree seedling with 1 comment

It takes a dedicated team to grow hundreds of thousands of tree seedlings every year, as we do here in the greenhouse operations at Arbor Day Farm.  

Granted, we’re a small team of just three individuals, but it’s inspiring to think about the future forests that literally pass right through our hands every season.  It’s rewarding work.  We share ideas, we listen to one another, we solve new challenges, and everyone’s opinion is regarded  in the decision making process. This team approach is ingrained in the culture of our unique nursery setting.   

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Greenhouse Report: The Upcoming Growing Season

on Mar 19 by Adam Howard in General, Greenhouse tagged Arbor Day Farm with no comments

Tomorrow marks the official first day of spring, and the greenhouse staff at Arbor Day Farm is busy getting ready for another production season. It’s true that we grow year round, but during the spring and summer we take advantage of nature’s kind gifts – sunlight and longer days – and grow an outdoor crop as well.

All plants grown at Arbor Day Farm’s greenhouses are propagated from seed. During the month of May, we will sow over 250,000 seeds – Colorado Blue Spruce, White Pine, Norway Spruce, and Bald Cypress. As you might imagine, sowing a quarter of a million seeds by hand would take an enormous amount of time. So we embrace another gift – the gift of mechanization and technology – to help us keep up with the demand.

Here’s how we get growing at Arbor Day Farm…

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The Greenhouse Report: Hybrid Hazelnuts

on Feb 04 by Adam Howard in General, Greenhouse tagged Arbor Day Farm, hazelnuts with 2 comments

For many of us, the hazelnut is a delicious snack, or maybe a favorite flavoring for a morning latte. But here at the Arbor Day Foundation, hazelnuts represent a sustainable crop with the potential to change the world.

A number of years ago, the Arbor Day Foundation wanted to produce a sustainable crop that would not only be a bio-fuel and a food source, but also an economical, high-yielding, widely-adaptable species that required relatively low input. That’s a pretty tall order, but after years of research, testing, and collaboration with invaluable partners, the Arbor Day Foundation established a nine-acre hazelnut orchard at Arbor Day Farm. What has grown out of this original planting in 1996 is a fascinating example of how a small idea can become reality and how that reality will continue to evolve into a sustainable program.

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