Trials Time

Kristy J. O'Hara

Later this month our team will pack our bags and leave cold – and possibly snowy – Cleveland to board a plane and land in Northern California for one of our industry’s biggest events – California Spring Trials. We know how important it is to you every year, so we’ve dug in, made a lot of phone calls and created an extended, comprehensive supplement to guide you.

Maybe you’ll be heading out there yourself, and if so, be sure to read through our previews, where we talked to more than 35 companies to discover the new and exciting displays each will present. If you’ll be traveling with others, be sure to read our story on how to survive Spring Trials for some tips to make your (often stressful) travels more enjoyable.

Or maybe you’re far too busy to pull yourself away for a week to attend, and if that’s the case, be sure to read our feature on Todd Swift, who felt the same way but wanted to go, so he found a workable solution – trials for a weekend. We talked to him about how he does it and why it’s good to head out even for a couple days.

And while we’re pretty excited because Spring Trials will be a new experience for our editorial staff, we’re not the only ones making our first trek out. Some international companies have previously displayed their products but are actually attending this year for the first time, and you can read about why in our supplement.

While we’re in a California state of mind with Spring Trials on our brain, we’ve got more for you in the other pages of the magazine as well. For our case study feature, we talked to a grower in Michigan who implemented rice hulls and has seen two major benefits as a result. And in this age of social media, Google+ is a new but growing player, so we explore why it’s important to stake your greenhouse’s claim in this space as well. We also talked to the architect behind the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s multimillion dollar greenhouse expansion about how to plan for expansions and the technology behind these new facilities.

As always, we want to hear from you, so be sure to drop us a line and let us know how we’re doing, and we look forward to seeing you as we trek the California coast together.

kohara@gie.net
Twitter: @GMmagEditor