This Farmer is Growing More Plants with Less Work!

By Vicki Parsons

Why would a third-generation Florida strawberry farmer, who learned his craft at the knees of one of the state’s most respected growers, switch from field-grown berries to hydroponics?

It’s the numbers, says Gary Parke – plus it’s a lot less work.

First the numbers:

• He grows 54,000 plants on a half-acre instead of three.
• Each of those plants yields nearly four pounds, compared to an average of about one pound per plant grown in the field.
• Average lifetime cost per plant in labor and fertilizer: about 8 cents compared to 80 cents for a field-grown plant.
• Each plant gets exactly 4.8 ounces of water per day. Field-grown plants need about 250 ounces daily.

The vast majority of his crops are u-pick, even at their prime, so he doesn’t need to worry about paying crews to pick them.

And finally, customers love his berries because you can pick them standing up instead of leaning over so he can sell them at a set price year-round, even when other growers are discounting.

Up to 20 plants – everything from Plant City’s famous winter strawberries to heirloom tomatoes, herbs, peppers, cukes and even a giant nasturtium – grow in rows of five-foot-tall HydroStackers™ that are just four square feet. They’re fed three times a day, rain or shine, with 1.6 ounces of water and a proprietary blend of fertilizer that’s used on all 45 varieties of the 30 plants he grows.

“It’s kind of cheating, but it works,” says the father of four home-schooled children who often help out on the farm. “People talk about what hard work farming is, or how back-breaking it is to pick berries, and I just smile.”
Parke had sketched something similar to the HydroStacker 15 years ago and told his wife that hydroponics would be the wave of the future. When she showed him an article two years ago about Chester Bullock, their inventor, he called as soon as he could the next morning.

Made of tough Stryofoam, HydroStackers are filled with a mixture of perlite and vermiculite and planted in double rows that run north and south to capture as much sun as possible. In commercial operations, they’re watered automatically, but home-growers may water by hand.

Providing a nearly perfect environment for plants means that Parke seldom gets pests – and never uses pesticides – although u-pick customers are asked to use an antibacterial soap before entering the farm. He occasionally sprays an organic fungicide but “sometimes I remember to do it and sometimes I don’t.”

A second half-acre plot, funded partially with a grant from the local water management district, should be completed in a month or so, and he’ll be planting even more varieties, including asparagus, a real treat for Floridians who have always been told it doesn’t grow here.

“I don’t believe it when somebody says you can’t grow something,” Parke said. “Most farmers harvest strawberries from Christmas to Easter, we go from Halloween to the Fourth of July. We’re going to try a summer crop and see if we can’t grow berries year-round.” GG

Vicki Parsons is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years experience as a business, environmental and garden writer, Vicki Parsons is also a fifth-generation farmer who owns Neem Tree Farms in Brandon, Fla. You can visit their website at www.neemtreefarms.com