Need for speed

Photos courtesy of Windmill Nursery

At a wholesale production facility that services one-third of the U.S. like Windmill Nursery, it’s important to turn liners quickly. The Louisiana-based nursery grows brands like Endless Summer, Proven Winners and Garden Debut, among others.

Michael Roe, vice president of production at Windmill, has been using MycoApply® Injector Endo from Mycorrhizal Applications for the last two years after trialing it and quickly deciding that it was worth the investment. MycoApply helps deliver essential nutrients and water to a plant’s roots.

For operations like Windmill Nursery, it’s nice to have mycorrhizae as “another arrow in the quiver,” says Roe. MycoApply Injector Endo is an OMRI-Listed concentrated suspendable powder with propagules of different species of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on a soluble humic carrier. The fungi symbiotically colonize the root systems of plants, expand out beyond the plant roots to acquire nutrients and water, and deliver these resources to the plant’s vascular system.

As a nursery that focuses on neonicotinoid and glyphosate-free growing, Windmill Nursery doesn’t use many conventional chemicals, so mycorrhizae is a perfect tool. Roe says they make good use of it. “Now every time we stick a cutting, this stuff goes on it,” he says. “Every time we fill up a propagation house, we drench it in.” Roe drenches the trays in mycorrhizal fungi before sticking the cuttings, letting the fungi “sit there until it finds a root that it can latch onto,” since Roe considers it to be more labor-efficient. From there, Roe adds that they can apply more products if they need to.

“It’s like killing five birds with one stone,” Roe says.

For each propagation house, Windmill uses 40 grams of MycoApply Injector Endo with each drench application. Together, Windmill’s propagation houses total more than 2,400 square feet.

“It’s fantastic,” Roe says. “[Plants] root quicker, which translates to be able to pot quicker, and then because of the root density and root mass, they grow faster in the final container.”

Windmill’s use of mycorrhizal fungi has tremendously increased rooting speed. Now the plants are growing and leaving the greenhouse so quickly, Roe is struggling to find space for all the liners. That’s not the worst problem for a grower to have.

Roe says that it’s important to consider the increase in profitability that it brings to the nursery. “Yeah, you can look at it as an added expense, but once you realize the quicker turn — which is your profitability — that helped your plants and the less fungicides you will use, it’s an investment.”