|
|
Willoway Nurseries Inc. was originally started out as a small family run landscape and retail business. Since then, Willoway has evolved into a production facility for field and container crops of woody trees, shrubs, and container perennials. Container production of woody trees and shrubs rang from a four-inch pot size on up, depending on the type of plant. Willoway's clientele mostly consists of retail nurseries, garden centers and re-wholesalers. |
|
Willoway Nurseries Inc. is one of the largest production facilities in Ohio, with 800 acres in operation and approximately 160 full time and 350 seasonal workers currently employed, Willoway ranks in the top 40 nurseries across the United States. Willoway supplies to many nurseries in Ohio and surrounding states. Willoway also supplies to nurseries on the East cost, but dose the majority of its business with nurseries that are no more than a single day's travel away. Willoway brings in substantial revenue generating over 14 million dollars in annual sales. Willoway mainly specializes in container crop production and some B&B. Willoway dose produce some of its own liners but mainly ships them in from nurseries on the west coast, specializing in liner production. The liners shipped in are propagated in Willoway's greenhouses and then they eventually end up being potted and placed in hoop houses were they can grow until they reach proper size to be sold. Beside liners Willoway also ships in one-gallon containers from Monrovia Nursery and other nurseries on the West Coast and upgrades them to a three-gallon pot size. Willoway's potting facility consists of a couple of potting machines that are able to pot most of the different varieties of plants. The potting media used for the container crops is a soilless media. The mix that was developed with the help of The Ohio State University, consists of 3 different composted pine bark mixes, municipal sludge, peat moss, and other various ingredients. All of the ingredients are stockpiled and then loaded into a feed grain mixer by a 2.5-yard loader. The feed grain mixer was originally designed for cattle feed, but has seemed to find a new use. From the mixer the soil is put into the potting machines.  Depending on the type of container plant it is either placed in a hoop house or a pot in pot (P&P) field container production facility were they are aloud to root into the larger pot. Willoway has mainly converted its facilities to container production because the plants are easier to handle for the consumer, and in most cases larger trees are easier to handle in container verses B&B. The P&P system is used in the production of deciduous shade trees and flowering trees. P&P also reduce shock to the trees when installed in the landscape. The P&P system also eliminates the need for expensive heavy equipment to dig the plants out of the field like in B&B production.  Irrigation is very important for the container production facilities at Willoway. The irrigation systems provide for reliable and timed watering of trees and shrubs in the nursery. The irrigation system also acts as a fertigation conduit for supplying nutrients to the trees and shrubs growing the hoop houses and P&P fields. Weed control is also another essential part of container production. The sterile soil media used helps to control some of the problem but the irrigation system is also injected with herbicides to control the weeds. Another important issue that Willoway focuses on is the recycling of the irrigation water. After the water filtrates though the crops and hoop houses, it is diverted into ditches and then collected into large reservoirs where it can be used again. Through this process Willoway saves several million gallons of water and also cuts down on pollution through ground water contamination. One of Willoway's main concerns is "Urban Sprawl". Land around Willoway is being developed into housing developments. This may lead to some problems between Willoway and its neighbors in issues over ground water contamination, and herbicide/pesticide contamination in the environment. Willoway has already put up fencing around the perimeter of its remote production fields in order to stop recreation vehicles from entering onto the land. Willoway also tries to maintain good relations with its neighbors to prevent any future problems. Willoway Nurseries Inc. is a very large production facility, it must have outstanding organization in order to produce the amount of plant material to supply its retail nursery, wholesale nursery, and garden center clientele. I feel Willoway's focus on container production is what makes them successful. Container grown trees and shrubs are an excellent commodity for the simple reason that you can buy in cheap liners or 1 gallons, upgrade and then resell them for a large profit. Most of the time the 1 gallons that where upgraded in early spring will root in during the summer and will be ready for shipping by mid fall. One of the most impressive things I find in Willoway or any other production facility, is the ability to figure out what the future demands will be on certain species of plants. I feel it is essential for successful growers to be able to determine the demand for certain trees and shrubs, otherwise there would be a lot of clearance sales on over produced crops. |
