Soil Management

Growing high-quality products starts with healthy soil. That’s why we use non-inversion tillage and sow a cover crop after each growing season. This allows the soil to recover and be ready for the next crop. After the cover crop, we apply site-specific fertilization using task maps and soil scans. This ensures optimal fertilization across the fields, preventing over-fertilization. By focusing on soil health, our plants grow stronger and more uniform, making them less susceptible to disease both on our farm and at our customers' locations.

Propagation

Each year, we produce 2.5 to 3 million plants, approximately 70% of which we propagate ourselves. This allows us to quickly respond to changing customer demands. Propagation is a challenge every year, keeping us motivated. By continuously implementing improvements, we achieve better results each year. Additionally, this enables us to distribute our workload evenly throughout the season.

Quality cuttings start with a high-quality mother stock. That’s why we have established mother stock areas with grass as a cover crop, eliminating the need for chemical herbicides to control weeds. The biggest advantage of this method is the significantly higher quality of the cutting wood, which is reflected in the success rate of the cuttings. Our team carefully selects the best cutting wood and places it into propagation trays.

Once the propagation trays are ready, they are placed in our propagation greenhouse. This greenhouse is equipped with propagation tunnels, a high-pressure misting system, an automatic shading system, and automated ventilation windows. This ensures an optimal climate for the cuttings at all times. The cuttings remain in the greenhouse for 6 to 9 months. After this period, we have fully rooted cuttings ready to be planted in open ground.

Disease and Weed Management

A large part of our crop protection is biological. We do this not just because it is a trend, but because it is our way of working, and we are convinced that it enhances the quality of our plants. We have observed that we can prevent diseases by strengthening our plants with plant enhancers and foliar fertilizers. This increased resilience is noticeable not only on our farm but also for our customers who continue growing the plants. A wonderful side effect of biological crop protection is that it also benefits the biodiversity of the surrounding environment, which is something we, as growers, depend on.

In addition to using biological crop protection, we also implement mechanical weed control. Weather permitting, we hoe our entire nursery every two weeks. This allows us to reduce herbicide use, leading to stronger and more resilient plants.

Uniformity & Personal Preferences

To guarantee a uniform product, we use various machines that make this possible. Our plants are regularly pruned both from the top and the sides to create a well-branched and uniform product. Additionally, we ensure that our plants develop a strong root system, allowing them to establish well with our customers. Combined with all our other strengths, this results in a product that we can confidently call high quality!

We are always open to discussing and accommodating specific customer preferences. For example, we can prune plants to a specific height upon request. We ship our plant stock in steamed boxes, extra-high boxes, ferro pallets, export pallets, or loose in trucks. As a family business with a close-knit team, we understand our customers' needs and take them into account. If you have any questions, our office staff is always available to assist you personally.

Water

As high-quality water becomes increasingly scarce, we strive to use it efficiently. That’s why we use drip irrigation systems on some fields. This not only helps us conserve water but also keeps the roots of our plants cooler on hot days and reduces the time that the leaves remain wet. Since the leaves stay dry for longer, fungi have less time to develop, reducing our need for fungicides to keep our plants healthy.

The "polluted" water that runs off from our paved surfaces is collected in a reed filter (also known as a helophyte filter). This ensures that our "wastewater" is purified to the extent that it can be safely returned to the De Krochten nature reserve. This nature reserve has been struggling with water shortages for years, and our filter helps alleviate this issue. This initiative was the decisive factor in us winning the **Groen Imago Prijs 2023** from the municipality of Zundert at the **Vakbeurs GrootGroenPlus** trade fair. Read the article here