Crea-Tech International BV in The Netherlands built the planting and spacing machines for Floricultura Pacific. The planting machine includes a revolving table that supplies planting media and delivers empty pots to people around the table. The planters place the plants in pots with the media. From the table, plants move through a computerized camera system that takes photos of each plant as it passes. The machine also sorts plants by size and spins the pots so the leaves all face the same direction. It can plant up to 1,400 plants per hour. All images courtesy of Floricultura Pacific.
The spacing machine has the same camera system as the planting machine, which allows it to sort the pots by size. This machine also adds a collar to each pot that facilitates tighter spacing. It then places the pots on a table for cranes to deliver to the greenhouse.
The Salinas facility has four overhead cranes (two in the working area, two in the growing area), manufactured in Holland by VanZaal. They crawl along metal tracks to bring tables to the working area and deliver them to various locations throughout the greenhouses. The greenhouses were also manufactured in Holland and built by Greenhouse System USA in Watsonville, CA.
A smaller crane also operates in the working area and runs below the larger crane. It does many of the same jobs as the larger crane but has a more limited working area where it can travel. Both cranes are necessary to keep up with all the movements in the greenhouses.
After the cranes set down a bench of plants in the growing area, arms on a bench-pulling system drag the bench to its desired place in the greenhouse.
Construction began in 2016 on 190,000 square feet of additional greenhouse space that will bring Floricultura Pacific to nearly 14½ acres of growing space. The company hopes to complete the new range by mid-September. The expansion will include the latest in automation technology, plus some hardware and software updates.
Floricultura Pacific in Salinas, CA, specializes in delivering stock orchids quickly and cost effectively to growers in North American markets. Completed in 2011, the 10-acre Salinas facility — which serves as the North American base for parent company Floricultura — is the epitome of innovation, with labor-saving cranes, planting and spacing machines, camera-grading machines, and much more.
“The automation we employ maximizes growing space as minimal access is needed in the greenhouse,” says Don Howell, General Manager at Floricultura Pacific. “The only activities performed in the growing areas are maintenance and crop monitoring. We bring the crop to the people and don’t require them to move plants around, which is more efficient and minimizes plant damage. The end result is you need less people to perform the needed tasks and that allows us to employ highly trained people to produce the best quality product we can supply to our customers.” Learn more about Floricultura Pacific at Floricultura.com.
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Janeen Wright is former Editor for Greenhouse Grower.
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