Visit to green houses

          There was always a fascination to visit the huge green houses that I had seen over the TV programs and various video clipping off the internet. Finally got the chance to visit few of them in one of the coastal towns of California.

          These green houses are humongous spanning several acres with fully automated setup to irrigate and fertilize.Couple of them were abt 10 acres in size! We talk in square meter or square yard in India when it comes to green houses/polyhouse. I wonder why is it so expensive to set up a green house in India considering the average annual income of a farmer!

          Flowers like Gerbera, Rose, herbs and spices were all grown inside these "weather-proof shelters". Both Gerbera and roses were grown hydroponically in coconut coir-pith medium. Another interesting fact was that the water recycling process. The plants get water about 6-8 times normally and 10-14 times during the summer days and the water that drips through the plant containers are collected and send back to the filtration/recycle system and it gets re-used. One of the farm mangers claimed that the water conservation is about 70%.

         The Gerbera plants are productive for about 3 years and after that the yield starts decreasing and it is time for replanting. All the plants were tissue culture from Europe and they produced about 5-6 stems a month. In India the average price of a Gerbera plant is around Rs. 35 and to fill in a 1000 Sq Meter green house one will need to spend a good Rs 2.5 Lacs (around 7000 plants).Wish if Govt of India had come up with these kinds of plants on a subsidized rate so that small and marginal farmers could benefit.