Hoffman Nursery in Rougemont, NC, is a wholesale producer specializing in ornamental and native grasses, providing liners to landscapers and finished growers nationwide and into Canada. The operation, owned and operated by John and Jill Hoffman, is situated on 45 acres of land in Durham County, and includes more than 100,000 square feet of covered greenhouse space, primarily made up of hoophouses for production of young plants from more than 160 varieties of grasses the operation offers.
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Completed in January 2016, the new 17,000 square feet of greenhouses at Hoffman Nursery includes in-floor heating, which is ideal for growing plugs through the winter and ready for spring shipping, says Hoffman President and co-owner John Hoffman. While the open roof greenhouses are similar to Cabrio due to the roof-vented style, the cost of these structures was lower due to better light and ventilation, according to James Parris of Rough Brothers.
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Another 17,000 square feet of growing space is staged and ready to be built within the coming year, and there is room for another 17,000 square feet of greenhouses for future expansion.
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Grasses used to be cut by hand, but the SuperCut 1600 trimming machine has provided a streamlined solution, so growers can do the task quickly and uniformly, Hoffman says.
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The Navigator Boom from Cherry Creek Systems provides precise watering, while allowing growers to hop onto the platform and scout plants for problems throughout the greenhouse — reducing difficulty and improving efficiency, uniformity, and consistency for two jobs that were previously more labor-intensive.
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Hoffman Nursery invested in a new planting line from AgriNomix, including an Urbinati RW1000 transplanter, and a new KV-XL Filler. The design of the filler places the soil hopper directly over the filling belt, ensuring even side-to-side container filling in a wide format, and minimizing floor space.
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The independent finger movement and pinching spade gripper design in the Urbinati RW1000 is ideal for handling grasses, says President and co-owner John Hoffman.
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David Hoffman, the next generation of Hoffman Nursery, is applying what he has learned through internships in Europe, to move the operation forward with automation. He says the integration of equipment has provided a learning curve for the team to adapt and operate effectively and efficiently.
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Small tweaks, like situating the plant splitters next to the conveyor, are part of Hoffman Nursery’s mission to be more efficient, says Production Supervisor David Hoffman. The idea is to get plants in and out as quickly as possible. This spring, the nursery’s output was 10,000 plants per day, but the goal is to reach 80,000 per day with the help of automation and implementing new ideas, Hoffman says.
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Even the small things make a tremendous difference, Hoffman says. A pallet wrapper, purchased at an auction, has made shipping simpler and easier, and tremendously improved the lives of Hoffman’s employees, who previously would get dizzy from wrapping shipments in plastic.
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Automating repetitive tasks like wrapping pallets allows the operation, which employs 44 people full time and 20 more in peak season, to redirect workers to other areas that are more critical.
Now in its 30th year of operation, Hoffman Nursery completed Zone One of its new greenhouse facilities with a 17,064-square-foot, state-of-the-art Rough Brothers greenhouse range, which was actually repurposed from a landscape supply center.
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Another 17,000-square-foot area (Zone 2) is prepped and waiting to be built for the second phase of construction within the next year. President and Co-owner John Hoffman says the area has room for another 17,000 square feet of greenhouse space, which will eventually be built out in the third phase of the expansion plan, depending on sales.
015How Hoffman Nursery Invests In Technology In Response To Increased Demand
September 30, 2016 
