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Container Division

DEVELOPMENT OF THE GROWING FACILITY
Development of our Container Facility in Allentown began in the Fall of 1994 with the construction of fifty 18 foot greenhouses. Construction of the PrinceTree® (the name given to our line of premium quality container trees) growing area began in the Spring of 1995 with production on that area beginning the same spring. Further development of acreage continued through 1997 and 1998, for the growth of our #3 and #5 gallon PrinceShrubs™.  In 1998, we once again expanded the PrinceTree® area to accommodate an additional 6,000 trees.
 		 
As demand increased, we developed a PrincessPerennial™ line to sell through the late spring and summer months. This line has continued to expand and is now coupled with a new #2 gallon PrinceShrub™ line. Of course, this increase in production has meant a need for more growing space. This past year we constructed another 15 eighteen foot greenhouses and developed an additional acre of growing space.

Future plans include the development of an additional 10 acres.
 

CURRENT PRODUCTION VOLUME

Our current production is 260,000 units on 30 acres.

• 20,000 PrinceTrees®
• 105,000 #3 and #5 gallon
   PrinceShrubs™
• 120,000 #2 PrincessPerennials™
• 15,000 #3 can liners for specimen
   production

 

IRRIGATION SYSTEM

In the Fall of 1994, a 3.5 million gallon pond was dug between the Shipping Yard and the Container Yard as a reservoir for irrigation. This pond is maintained by two separate pumping systems. The first system pumps water from Crosswicks Creek to maintain the water level. The second system is a 150-hp turbine pump which provides the irrigation to the Wholesale Yard, Shipping Yard, and the Container Yard. A chlorination and filtration system has been installed to maintain the water quality for the drip irrigation. All systems are radio-signal controlled from three remote stations.
 

PRINCETREE® TRELLIS AND EVAPORATIVE COOLING

All PrinceTrees® are grown under an evaporative cooling system. This system is managed by a thermostat which maintains a cooler canopy through the summer months, and promotes continuous growth when most tree growth shuts down. This provides the customer with a larger canopy size on a smaller caliper tree than what is commonly available on the same size B&B tree.

Our trellis system for growing PrinceTrees® was created in 1996 during a very windy growing season. We needed a system to hold the trees in place to stop them from blowing over. We were unable to use a pot-in-pot growing system, due to the limitation of heavy soil conditions. A steel cord is fastened between two poles and stretched over a 25-ft area. Along the cord are approximately 6 padded clips which fasten the trunk of the tree to the trellis and holds the tree securely in place. This arrangement not only saves labor and decreases damage to the trees, but also provides an opportunity for early root development for better plant growth.

 

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Last Updated:  August 16, 2007 03:47 PM