The Blogging Nurseryman by Trey Pitsenberger

The recent Late Blight attack in the east coast has brought to the forefront concerns about mass merchants and their suppliers. When you have one supplier producing all the vegetable plants for box stores nation wide, when trouble happens it can happen in a big way. Bonnie plants has been in the forefront of this recent episode. Bonnie is the box stores supplier of choice for vegetable plants.

I received a comment that I assume was sent by Bonnie, since it explains their side of the story, yet it is not signed. What I don’t understand is why this is not on their web site? Why take the time to send me a press release but not print it at their website? Whether the infection occurred at the Bonnie greenhouses or not, the press had already made it’s judgement.

Bonnie did what any responsible greenhouse grower would have done. Bonnie is a huge operation with many horticultural experts. The idea that they tried to hide this, or knowingly sent out infected plants doesn’t add up. This is more a story about what happens when large agribusiness controls a huge portion of the consumers choice at retail. When stuff goes bad it can affect many, many people.

Bonnie is not a bad company, nor are the Box Stores. They just operate from a different viewpoint than the smaller, locally owned nursery. The horticultural world has divided into two distinct camps, the mass merchant and the independent. It’s been going on for a while, with the result that many smaller businesses went out of business, when the mass merchant rolled into town. Sometimes the mass merchant increased the choices for a community, when they were not adequately served by an existing independent. I think the tables are starting to turn, with the increase of interest in buying local. The chains are also having a harder time sourcing plants since a few of their suppliers have gone out of business. Interesting times.

For some unknown reason when you try and comment at my posts it say’s “you must be logged in to comment”. I don’t know why the little box that requires it keeps getting checked, but it does. It’s almost like gremlins are running around in the computer driving me nuts. I don’t do this, and why it happens is a mystery.

We are a one man operation here, and this man is not a technophile. I hate diving into the gut’s of these things trying to find out what’s up. I just want to type, and have it show up, and let people comment if they want. Anyway, I have fixed (I hope) the problem. So if you wish to comment, comment away.

When you comment the first time at this blog your comment does not show up until approved by me. That may be after work, so it could be hours before I get to it, but I will.

I find it amazing that so many of us across the country have had the same experiences in our garden centers this year. If you had decent weather you did good business this spring. If you had crummy weather, like the east coast then business was not so good. Besides the weather, which is always the main factor in business, the areas where we did well and not so well are the same. Vegetable plants ruled this year, followed by fruit trees, and fertilizers to keep them growing. Also smaller pot’s of color, 4″ and jumbo packs did quite well. Statuary, one gallon and larger shrubs and trees, as well as any outdoor furniture, not so well. All in all it was a great year for those who the weather gods smiled on. After the dismal Christmas season I didn’t know what to expect. There was nothing but doom and gloom in the retail sector. With the first sales of bare root fruit trees we could see that things had changed, and edibles were going to be in. This carried on right through the vegetable planting season, and now we are selling organic fertilizers and pest controls to keep those gardens humming.

I don’t know what the future holds. I would suspect that sales should be good for pre-booking fruit trees this fall. I would guess that the Christmas season will be slow for us, as we really  don’t have much of an indoor space. I think the Christmas sales season has changed, with people choosing to spend much less on gifts. It actually makes me glad we never really “got into” Christmas as far as nursery sales go. I think a lot of retail garden centers this year will find smaller gifts selling better than high ticket items. People want to celebrate, just not so expensively. Great opportunity to sell an, “old fashioned Christmas” this year. Quality tools for the new vegetable gardener, simple wind chimes, and even gift certificates (if the customer base believes you’ll be around next year.) I wonder what happen’s to any Smith and Hawken gift certificates out there?

As far as next year goes, I believe we will see a continuation of the great sales of edible plants. I expect fruit trees and vegetable sales to carry the day, weather permitting. What with the recent late blight scare, and the realization that it was box store exasperated, the smaller retail garden center that has made a connection with the neighborhood should fare well. The main grower for the box stores has also decided not to grow heirloom tomatoes next year. Another great opportunity for the independent nursery to advertise greater choice.

We should start to see an uptick in people opening or interested in opening a garden center. It’s now a trendy thing, and that’s OK. People can see what businesses did OK during these times, and what businesses actually add value to the community. I am certainly receiving lot’s of e-mails from people interested in opening a nursery. Of course being interested and actually doing it are different things, but never the less being a nursery person is once again fashionable. That of course can be a problem, because like gardening, it can be a serious business. Are people really willing to put in the time and effort that is required to be successful?

One wonders how many people who planted a tomato in a Topsy-Turvy will do that again? I can’t think of any one item this year that so perfectly expresses peoples excitement about gardening, and yet tells of their utter lack of knowledge about gardening. This things just don’t work out here where summer time heat gets in the 90’s and 100 degree F range. They dry out much too quickly,yet I have many customers who bought them (not from us). People still love the idea of a gimmick, whether it works or not. What other gimmicks will be peddled next year to anxious, amateur gardeners? I’ll tell you right now we don’t sell gimmicks here, and no matter how much people plead there will be no Topsy-turvys sold here.

I am quite excited about the possibilities for us in this economic climate. Smaller is better, local is better, and we are about a small and local as you can get. My 25 years plus in the business is paying off as people are looking for information and advice. Sure the internet is great for research, but knowing someone local who has the advice for local gardening is invaluable. Sometimes just wading through all the info available on the internet makes one pine for the friendly nursery person, who can pin point the information you need now. Yes, I do beleive we are seeing a Renaissance in smaller, locally owned nurseries and garden centers. It’s hard work, long hours, and year after year of routine, but for those wishing to pursue a career in this field, I can not think of a better time in the last 25 years to do it.

The recent late blight problem has huge implications for the garden center business, and home gardening. The idea that one supplier can produce all the vegetable starts for all the major box stores is a bit scary. When things go wrong, as they did in this instance, it can affect millions of people. Of course the box stores have gouged and “pay at scanned” all the other players out of business. So we end up with a few, very large suppliers that can deal with the box stores. The choices of where they can get their plants are shrinking. Because of the late blight Bonnie plants has said they will not grow heirloom tomatoes nest year. You choice of vegetable varieties just shrank, if you shop at the box stores.

Web sites should be used for getting information out to the customer. I checked out the web pages for the box stores, and I could not find any mention in their garden pages about the blight. Bonnie plants, where much of the infection occurred just changed a section in their web site this last week to address, “brown spots and yellowing leaves.” The link takes you to a Teaxa A&M “Tomato problem solver”.  No mention of their part in this mess. A huge opportunity to let the gardening public know what Bonnie did, and what it intends to do about this serious problem in the future. Why don’t the box stores want to help their customers solve this problem, that was likely spread through their stores? Where are the press releases?

The New York Times article quoted a  John Mishanec, a pest management specialist at Cornell ,  who said, “agricultural pathogens can easily spread when plants are distributed regionally and sold by big-box retailers. Farms are inspected, greenhouses are inspected, he said, but garden centers aren’t, and the people who work there aren’t trained to spot disease.” Now is he talking about box store garden center employees? If the box store garden center employees are not trained to spot disease, what are they trained to do? Makes you wonder what they would tell you when you bring that little plastic bag in with your problems inside.

I think this whole affair proves that box stores work at reducing the choices for the customer. Less choice means fewer suppliers to deal with. Few suppliers that become bigger, and bigger, and find that less choice (no heirlooms next year), means fewer problems. Of course when something does go wrong, it goes wrong in a big way. A huge potential for smaller garden centers to fill a niche. More choice, expert advice, smaller locally owned business, with numerous smaller suppliers.

We have been talking about the Late Blight attacking tomatoes on the East Coast for a week now. I received a comment from Marie at 66 Square Feet. She say’s, “Have you seen this article, Trey? I wanted to leave a comment to the effect that I read about it here, first, but comments are no longer being accepted.” The article is in The NewYork Times, and low and behold it’s about the tomato blight. Then I head over to Garden Rant and low and behold it’s now news there, too.  

The newspaper of record once again shows why newsprint is sinking fast. They just don’t get the news to you when you really need it. Plus, I love this correction at the bottom of the article. ” An earlier version of this article included Gramoxone in a list of fungicides. It is in fact a herbicide.” Ooops! Fungicide, herbicide, whatever!

I am proud that we got this news out a week before it became “news”. While I don’t have the largest audience around, the audience I do have is made up of the most thoughtful people.

The bottom line is, gardening can be a serious business. When you really need the news, large newspapers are not the place to go. One week can make a huge difference when it comes to disease on our food crops. The future of garden news reporting is niche blogs, that focus on different aspects of gardening. Find those blog’s, bookmark them, and just buy the Sunday edition of The Times!

Something we can expect with the increase of home vegetable gardening, is an increase in frustrated gardeners. Even experts have problems with their vegetable gardening. My friend, farmer Fred Hoffman found out he had Tomato late blight on his ‘Giant Belgium’ Tomato. His blog post has a great synopsis of the problem facing anybody staring down this disease. Since we are so dry here in the summer, the typical high humidity associated with the problem is not prevalent. He eventually traces the problem to…, well read his post to find out.

As more, and more people attempt to grow more of their food, they are going to find out something our industry has been doing it’s best hide. Gardening is hard work, punctuated with disaster. The industry in the past was simply trying to encourage more people to jump into gardening by making it seem all so simple. Install a large screen TV next to the outdoor grill, toss some throw pillows around, and don’t forget to leave the gate unlocked for the garden maintenance crew. My, how things have changed in just a couple of years.

Imagine all the people starting vegetable gardens this year? Do you think most of them grow everything they eat? Not necessary, as we can always fall back on store bought if something goes wrong. Tomato blight? A bummer, but not life threatening. Of course, when problems in commercial fields show up it becomes even more serious. We can always count on food being at the grocery store, right?

So we have legions of families growing their own this year. Do they make sure to visit the garden every day to check on diseases and pests? Even when the temperatures are in the 100degreeF range? Do they perform weed control on a regular basis? How many people know the pH of their soil? How about nutrient deficiencies in the neighborhood? Do they have an expert in the wings to consult? How many have ever been to a real nursery, and talked to a real nursery person? How many are willing to stick to their “organic guns” when blight attacks, and their food supply is in peril?

Horticultural knowledge by the average person is much less these days, than when families actually had to grow their own for survival.  If your survival depended of what you grew, could you do it? Back in Grandpa and Grandmas time, or maybe earlier,  people we’re well acquainted with their soil. They might not have known the science, but they knew you had to “sweeten” the soil with lime for the best results. They knew that in August, when most people are still harvesting the summer crops, was the time to start seed of the fall and winter crops. Get that broccoli seed planted too early or late, and there was no broccoli for fall and winter dishes. It could affect how skinny the family ended up by spring!

Puttering around the flower beds is not serious stuff. Important yes, but serious, no. Vegetable and fruit gardening to supplement or provide your food is a serious business. That’s why towns use to have nurseries or feed stores that provided the knowledge, as well as the goods. There was the man or woman there that you could trust, since often the food you grew might be bartered with that very nursery later on. You both had a stake in your success. Now try and think about where you would go right now if you needed some advice that could affect what you eat this year, and next. The Internet? Home Depot? Wall Mart? Smith and Hawken?

After all these years of supplying people with plants for fun, it’s a bit different to be supplying them with plants and goods that “just have to produce!” Makes guys like me and Farmer Fred realize just how important our jobs are. And just how far we have to go to re-educate the population in self-sufficiency. We are a couple of generations behind. Lot’s to do.

You might wonder how tomato blight on the East Coast will affect your gardening practices? According to The TimesUnion.com Bonnie plants, the wholesale nursery where the blight was first found, has decided that next year, “the company will reduce the risk of blight attacking its plants by shipping only hybrid tomato seedlings, rather than heirloom tomato seedlings…” Yes, If you shop at one of the box stores that carry Bonnie Plants (they all do) your varietal selection was just reduced to hybrids. Can’t blame the company for wanting to do this, but if you like Heirloom tomatoes you had better shop somewhere else (hey nursery owners, did you just hear that? Huge opportunity next year).

According to The Gloucester Daily Times, to combat these types of problems “Bonnie Plants sprays seedlings before shipping them to stores, but that doesn’t happen after the plants arrive.” What are they sprying with? Bonnie advertises they are “going greener”. I don’t think the adevertise being organic? Never the less it would be prudent of the company to tell us what it is they are spraying the vegetable starts with. I don’t have a problem with this, but some people may.

I think these questions should be addressed by Bonnie, and their customers (the box stores) on their web sites. Why no mention of this, or what to do about it? It would help dispel rumors, which can sometimes be more damaging than the original problem.

I believe the recent Late Blight scare on the East Coast has far greater implications than most of us realize. While no one is saying that Bonnie Plants did anything wrong, the fact is their nursery shipped tomatoes infected with the blight. It may have originated in the greenhouses, or after the plants left the greenhouses, it doesn’t matter. Potentially thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people and their gardens could be affected. Bonnie appears to have done the right thing in alerting authorities, and pulling plants from the shelves. The wet weather in the North East has certainly worsened things, providing the right conditions for the spread of the disease. Yet, unlike many regional problems that occur from weather or insects, this could have been a man made or exacerbated problem.

This year, more than ever people planted what might be called “Victory Gardens”. For some it’s a pursuit of pleasure, for others a necessity. Either way we are growing food to eat, and without success some won’t eat as well. Imagine planting your tomato crop, only to have to pull it too late to replant. That’s what’s going on. In addition the disease has spread from home gardens to some commercial farms. This could have far reaching implications on peoples ability to buy locally produced, safe food.

Bonnie is a company with an interesting history, and a good track record, or they wouldn’t have grown to become the main supplier of vegetables to the box stores. This Late Blight concern is not so much a story about Bonnie, but rather what happens when we depend on one supplier for hundreds of stores. When something goes wrong, it goes wrong in a big way. Any grower could find themselves in this situation. We have a grower near here that was suspected of having infected tomatoes, and was told not to ship any tomatoes until the problem was solved. This was quite scary as we we’re in the middle of the tomato selling season, and could affect how our business did this year. Fortunately we have other local suppliers, so we went to them while the problem was worked out. Turns out it was a false alarm. At least we had other growers to fall back on.

The Box stores, due to their shear size have come to depend on suppliers that have the resources to supply them. What with the recent bankruptcy of Hines nursery, Bordiers nursery, and others, the choices of  who they can do business with shrinks. So now we have just a few suppliers, providing much of greenery for a huge chunk of the gardening market. What happens if something gets into the production chain and is spread all through the country? Potentially you could have a serious impact on the homeowners ability to supply food for the family.

These kinds of issues are why it’s important for us to stay smaller, with more local producers who can cover some of the shortages if they occur.  Any other year is might be seen as an inconvenience to be without tomatoes for the season, but with food shortages showing up, and the public’s desire to grow their own, it’s more than an inconvenience. It could affect how, and what we eat this year or next.

It seems to me that this would or should be a bigger story? Bonnie Growers,  supplier of vegetable plants for most of the box and chain stores across the country send out infected plants to millions of people. Yet, at least in the blogging world I have heard hardly a peep. Is this story somehow under the radar, or am I just making too much out if this?

I checked out Bonnies web site, nothing. Home depot, nothing. Lowes, nothing. Wal-mart, nothing. If we knew we had sent out tomatoes plants that we’re infected we would be freaking out. Late blight can cause the tomato plants to die. Thousands of people who bought tomatoes at one of these stores could have infected plants. The disease has also spread from these home gardens to commercial fields.

I can only imagine how my customers, who have waited all winter and spring to plant their tomatoes, would feel if they had to pull them up. I would hear no end of it, and rightly so. One of my local suppliers had to stop shipping their tomatoes, right in the middle of the season, because of suspected problems (they we’re cleared).

Think of the implications of depending on one grower for all you vegetable needs. When something goes wrong it can affect many people. Bonnie say’s they didn’t send out infected plants on purpose. It was a terrible mistake, yet why no mention of this at the companies web site. Shouldn’t all of these companies be warning their customers of this potential problem?

Are their any bloggers on the east coast that have had to deal with this? I heard it could be in Ohio, too? As far as the companies mentioned above, why no mention in your web sites? Shouldn’t the gardening public be warned about this?

According to Home Channel News, “Home gardeners may end their tomato-growing season a little early this year, as a deadly pathogen that attacks tomato plants has been found in retail nurseries from Maine to the Carolinas. Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Wal-Mart have removed tomato plants from their shelves in several northeastern states, although many consumers may already have infected plants growing in their backyards.”

The poor people who wanted to grow their own this year may be without tomatoes. Bonnie Plants, the number one supplier of vegetables plants to the chain stores has found it’s stock affected with “Late Blight”. According to the article, “‘late blight,’ the pathogen is not a new disease, according to Meg McGrath, professor of plant pathology at Cornell University. The Irish potato famine of the 1840s was blamed on the same fungal infection.”

According to Dennis Thomas, general manager of Bonnie Plants, “‘You can’t blame any one vendor,’ Thomas said. This pathogen has been around forever.” Other ‘host’ plants that carry the same pathogen — and can spread it to tomatoes — include potatoes, celery, petunias and a weed called bittersweet nightshade.”

According to Home channel News, “as a precaution, Bonnie Plants has removed all tomato plants from Home Depot, Lowe’s, Wal-Mart and Kmart stores in New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine. The grower operates on a consignment, or pay-by-scan arrangement with its big-box customers, so the company is responsible for the merchandise until it is sold.”

Dennis is right, it could happen to anyone. This is one reason why locally produced vegetable plants are a better choice. With larger operations like Bonnie, when something goes wrong, it goes wrong in a big way. Think of all the problems we have been having with food safety, and how many people it affects when material has been shipped around the country, and some pathogen shows up. Bonnie Plants did the right thing by calling in state inspectors and dealing with the problem head on. Never the less, as companies grow ever larger, the number of people they affect grows larger, too. Another reason why I believe Small is Cool.