Re: Commercial growing of iris - DON'T DO IT!!!
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: Commercial growing of iris - DON'T DO IT!!!
- From: C*@aol.com
- Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 07:37:53 -0700 (MST)
For everyones benefit, I ought to say that my comments apply to bearded
irises, everything from SDBs right up to TBs (mostly the latter).
Linda:
Planter: we use a "Super Prefer" planter - the type that is used for planting
young cabbage and strawberry plants. Sounds similar to the type you describe
(a rubber cup presses the plant into the "gripper" rather than a finger, and
the plants are inserted manually into the gripper). If the plants are
inserted one way round, they all come out the same way - useful for our
technique of planting the rhizome towards the sun. We can get the attachments
for our planter to add water, fertilizer, etc. as we plant. What we really
want is a coffee maker!! (-;
With two experienced people on the planter, we can plant a double row of 450
plants (2 x 225) on 9 inch spacing in about ten to twelve minutes. Of course,
preparing the plants takes a lot longer! Our tractor has a "creep" gear, so
that novice planters can go at a speed to suit them, but they usually learn
in a few hours.
We get around 12000-13000 plants per acre - our 27000 plants this year covers
around two acres.
We use slightly raised beds, with a double row on top of each bed. To lift
the plants, we use an "undercutter", essentially a strong metal "blade" (not
sharp) which is dragged through the ground behind the tractor at about 5-8
miles per hour (depending on soil condition). We control the depth of this
(as we do the depth of planting) so that it trims the roots as it throws the
clumps up on to the surface. If the soil is fairly dry, then it mostly falls
off the roots. All we have to do then is come along and pull the clumps
apart, trim the foliage down and put the plants in crates ready for
replanting. However, if the soil is wet, it sticks, and we have to shake each
clump with a fork to remove soil.
We replant annually and rotate through a three year cycle (one year crop, two
years fallow).
We are currently looking at a device to trim the foliage down before lifting.
However, one of the problems we have found is that any rubbish (e.g. leaf and
stalk trimmings) around the plants jams the undercutter and makes it hard to
pull through the soil. We also want to put vibrating tines on our undercutter
so that it will loosen the soil better when it is wet.
To keep varieties separate, we plant with a large gap between varieties
(about 5 yards) and undercut just one bed at a time (the double rows are the
same variety). That way we can stop the tractor between varieties and clear
any clumps that may be hooked around the undercutter. A few clumps always get
ruined, but that's a fair price to pay for the amount of time saved.
If a variety is in small quantity (say - less than 20 clumps) we dig by hand
- it's quicker than stop-start-stop-start, and if there are fewer plants we
can not afford to ruin many. I think it is fair to say that our lifting
methods are not really applicable where you are growing small numbers of lots
of varieties - for the 150 varieties that we have for sale, few have less
than 40 clumps, and several have more than 400.
There are few people to learn from. We have learnt all our methods by trial
and error, and we keep improving them all the time. Look around auctions of
second hand agricultural kit for ideas, and be prepared to modify machines.
Bearded irises are a funny shape!
Graham
croftway@aol.com
