….but they wouldn’t stay in the containers.
PRT is delighted to be involved in an exciting new opportunity, in conjunction with a customer in BC’s Lower Mainland.

Cranberries.

Yes, you read correctly. While not even remotely resembling  the forest seedlings for which we are renowned, PRT is turning its experience and skill in container growing, to the cultivation of cranberry starter plants.  For those of you unfamiliar with these berries in anything but the can, they are a lucrative crop which, like grapevines, has to get its start somewhere. Usually cranberry cuttings are spread and pressed onto a prospective cranberry patch, but if you want to plant new fields, it helps to get a head start.

Like the forest seedlings we produce for you, we are growing cranberry plants in horticultural trays for planting in the field in the spring.  The newer varieties of cranberries have a higher than average yield of fruit and our customer believes this method of propagation will give them the volume of material needed to produce an abundance of berries in a reduced time frame.

Marilyn Curtis, CSR, says, “We’ve taken standard horticulture trays and planted some container stock for them;  some of the plants will go to the field and some will be used to produce mother plants to repeat the rotation ….we’ll be delivering a test run of approximately 1.3 million cranberry seedlings in the spring, just in time for planting.”

Herb Markgraf, VP Marketing, comments, “Expanding our growing services allows us to keep facilities operating more fully despite the reduction in forestry business. This opportunity also allows us to learn new growing techniques.”

We’re very excited and optimistic about this new crop and will be exploring other opportunities in the areas where we currently operate.

As many of you no doubt know, PRT has decided to stop growing bareroot seedlings altogether.  Last year we launched a pilot project to encourage customers to try out our mini to large cavity containerized growing instead.  Tom Harvie, Customer Support Representative for the Pacific Northwest, says, “During the 2009 sowing year we grew approximately 100 thousand trees using this new format. We’ve also had more interest from other customers for 2010 and have at least five customers actively looking into this option.”

Harvie says the decision was made to get out of bareroot for a number of reasons:  we are enjoying great success in growing these crops as a two-year old container seedling that have the same size as the bareroot products; it takes less time to produce, the planning horizons are less significant because we don’t have to sow until July of the order year. For customers you have more time to make up your minds – up to four or five months later than would have been normal for bareroot production. This system also provides the opportunity for you to make up for extra seedling requirements if your surveys are completed late and you have underestimated your seedling needs vis a vis your planting plans.

And, there are also seed cost savings because seeds are essentially single sown into mini-plug containers, grown from July through to March when they are transplanted into bigger containers for delivery in spring or fall of the following year.

Harvie notes that the new system reduces risks to seedling losses from overwintering damage outdoors, resulting in more consistent numbers of seedlings delivered.

“Customers see the opportunity to grow seedlings in a shorter time frame, with greater flexibility, and, with the use of fumigants in bareroot nurseries becoming more and more restricted, this system allows us to get trees of a size and vigour required for successful plantation establishment.”

Just in time for the Holiday Season, PRT is pleased to distribute the gift of opportunity, specifically cost reduction opportunities.

Dan Livingston, Customer Support Representative for southern BC, says PRT has identified 5 solid strategies that will help customers either save money, or find operational efficiencies. With our industry in its current state, every dollar counts and we at PRT take our partnership with you very seriously.

Here are “five golden rings” for you to consider:

1. The first is using alternative stock types, specifically 309s and 411Bs. 411Bs are replacements for 410s and have 28 percent more cavities in a block.  In nurseries it’s all about block space so those trees are going to cost significantly less than a 410 and the growing specifications are almost identical. With 411B you can pretty much grow any species. This is a tactic that is being used by more and more of our customers.
   
   Another replacement to consider is using 309 rather than the traditional 310B stock type. This switch will net you about a 12 percent increase in output by simply switching the container systems around. There is a little bit more of a difference in specifications but it is still minor. Currently we are only growing spruce and pine in this styroblock. Again, substantial savings can be had by switching.
    
2. The next opportunity is adjusting to block run or extractable plug contract specifications. We grow trees to the same target heights and caliper measurements as normal, but when we lift there is no minimum height or RCD so we package more trees. Obviously the trees that are packaged have to meet the normal morphological requirements and plug integrity must stay intact. In the past, we would have to throw away good, well balanced trees which were just slightly off the contract specs. By moving to this method it allows us to amend our oversows. Any reduction in oversows results in a price reduction and seed savings for you.
   
   This tactic can be used along with option #1 to increase your savings.
    
3. Consider going to 2+0 stock types. This tactic is about getting best value rather than an actual cost savings opportunity because 2+0 stock can be grown to higher specifications than an equivalent 1+0 stock and is available for summer, fall and spring programs. It’s a much bigger seedling for basically the same price, and in some cases, even less than a 1+0 stock type seedling.
   
   We recommend that 2+0 stock types are best suited for larger 412A and larger stock types, particularly for spring. For summer we can go down to a 412B or 410.
    
4. Optimized sowing. Often referred to as, “single seed sowing” but it’s not really that.  This opportunity allows for a more efficient and a better use of resources than traditional sowing which requires several seeds per cavity. High cost A class seed or seed orchard seed will show the most dramatic cost savings. When seed is in short supply, or extremely expensive, and you have to stretch it, optimized sowing uses about 75 percent of the seed normally calculated for a request. We do this by sowing each cavity with far less seed than we would use following normal nursery sowing rules.
   
   Optimized sowing is available in two types of growing regimes:  1) mini-plugs mostly used for Spruce but also Douglas Fir and Larch to a lesser extent; and  2) conventional growing regimes where most of our work has been done with Lodgepole Pine. We are currently working to perfect optimized sowing for Spruce and other species.
    
5. Packaging. How you request your seedling packaging can have a significant impact on your resulting cost. For example, horizontal packaging of seedlings in boxes gives you 25 percent more seedlings in a box. Most customers have gone to this packaging method already but not all. We recommend you consider this packaging to achieve a 10 to 20 percent reduction in packaging costs, depending on stock types involved. The cost savings associated with packaging affect other downstream costs as well such as cold storage, shipping and delivery of trees to the field.

So there you have it – please our wish to you for a Merry Christmas and a more prosperous New Year in your industry and ours. We hope these cost savings opportunities bring you joy!