Technology and innovation assume many forms, and good technology doesn’t always have to be complicated to work well. Nowhere is this more evident than at Magnolia Gardens Nursery, a biotechnology business that wields high-tech methods to propagate quality plants in vitro and low-tech methods to finish plants and increase productivity.
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Neil Marek, General Manager of the Tissue Culture division at Magnolia Gardens Nursery, says plenty of good ideas are hiding in any operation. The key is taking the time to ask your employees for ideas, allow them to voice their position, and listen to them. That’s how the nursery came to use an inexpensive, low-tech solution to a problem that has had a big payoff. An employee came up with the idea to use a skateboard attached
to a wooden board to move trays.
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Marek is a drone expert and says there is a lot of potential for using drones to benefit greenhouse operations in the future. He is working to position himself and the company to take advantage of those tools as they become more useful. He currently uses drones to inspect the roofs of the greenhouses, a job that previously presented many safety hazards because an employee had to make as many as 70 trips up and down a ladder, putting himself at the risk of a fall.
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Each drone inspection takes about two hours. With trouble areas pinpointed and recorded through the drone inspection, the maintenance manager makes fewer trips up and down the ladder.
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The drones have also been helpful from a marketing standpoint to make videos of the greenhouse operation. Marek says these videos attract people’s attention at tradeshows and have allowed him to have more interaction with attendees. Heat sensors on drones can also be used to shoot pictures of the greenhouses to find out where heat is escaping, Marek says. On the side, Marek races the drones for fun. As drone technology develops, he plans to use them for scouting and taking plant inventory.
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Around 5 million plugs came out of Magnolia Gardens Nursery’s tissue culture lab in 2017. The operation does a lot of research on tissue culture techniques. Employees are currently working to commercialize a new tissue culture method that uses liquid media in large vessels, which are similar to large aquariums made out of plastic. The method comes with its own set of challenges and advantages. When working with new technology, Marek says you have to keep in mind that it doesn’t always work the first time. If you don’t stick with it and keep trying, you won’t be successful.
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Production Metric Tracking at Magnolia Gardens has doubled productivity, first by metric tracking and then in labor savings. For example, when the team first started metric tracking, it processed around 6¾ flats an hour; now it averages 11 flats an hour. The method is a cost-effective way to laser-focus on employee accountability. The company posts the metrics where everyone can see them, which promotes employee engagement as they take ownership of their numbers. The productivity data also offers an added incentive — it determines who gets a raise.
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Marek says every hour an employee is on the clock is an expensive one. Investing in technology that frees employees up for more valuable tasks can offer good returns in increased efficiency and productivity. A good example is the Harvest Automation robots the nursery uses to do the repetitive job of moving plants.
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One of the most valuable tools used at Magnolia Gardens Nursery that anyone can adopt, no matter the size of their operation, is Production Metric Tracking. All you need in terms of technology is a computer and a spreadsheet program. Magnolia identified 14 key tasks that make up 90% of its labor usage. Supervisors track and record the productivity output of their crews in these areas and meet daily to discuss progress or lack of progress. This allows supervisors to identify and address problems quickly and eliminate barriers that stand in their way to increased productivity. The metric tracking further allows supervisors to make better-informed decisions when budgeting and labor planning because they know exactly how much time it takes their team to get the work done.
Magnolia Gardens Nursery is a family owned tissue culture and container operation that services landscape contractors and independent garden centers in the Houston market from its 180-acre home base in Waller, TX. The business supplies everything from small, 1-gallon perennials to 100-gallon trees.
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Neil Marek is a second-generation family member who runs the Tissue Culture Division at the nursery. Marek has a never-satisfied attitude; he’s always looking to do things better. If there’s a less strenuous, more effective way to do something, he says he’s going to pick apart a process until he finds it.
Marek says big and small opportunities crop up everywhere, both low and high tech, if one only looks for them. He has seen technology ranging from as high-tech as drones and liquid media in large vessels used for tissue culture to as low-tech as an Excel spreadsheet and a skateboard improve efficiency, quality, and productivity at Magnolia Gardens Nursery.
While some of the technology available on the market is expensive and not everyone can afford it, Marek says there are little things everyone can do that will help them be able to afford the expensive things.
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Marek offers four ways that growers can decide where and how to invest in technology and find the opportunities that are theirs for the taking:
1. Take a close look at your operation with your team.
2. Identify processes that are repetitive.
3. Pinpoint areas where you can achieve a quick win.
4. Start with ideas from your team.
“There are many things that can help you be smarter,” Marek says. “The future of our industry is such that we are going to have to be more mechanized. Companies that figure that out quicker are going to be ahead of the game.”
To learn more about Magnolia Gardens, visit MGNLiners.com.
015Magnolia Gardens Nursery Leverages High and Low Technology to Produce More
October 12, 2018 
