S-290 Regional Project

Home
Project Statement
Project Participants
Annual Reports
Meeting Minutes
Resources

Minutes of the Winter Meeting
S-290 Multi-State Project
August 1, 2001
Atlanta, GA

Present at the meeting were Susan Barton, Bridget Behe, John Brooker, Robin Brumfield, D. C. Coston, Joe Eakes, Charlie Hall, Richard Harkess, John Haydu, Alan Hodges, Kathy Kelly, Patricia Knight, Jeff Kuehny, Hannah Mathers, Bob McNiel, Forrest Stegelin, Steve Turner, Wen-fei Uva.
Chairman Behe called the meeting to order at 1:00pm. The minutes of the February meeting and the agenda were approved without objection.

CSREES Adviser Holder was not present. New Administrative advisor Coston expressed his pleasure about this appointment, and complemented the group for its success over time. Some reporting rules that the committee must respond to have changed. The Annual Report is due 60 days after the group's official meeting. Since S290 has two meetings, there was discussion about which would be the official meeting. Hall pointed out that this should occur after required reports have been submitted by individuals and stations, which usually would not have happened 60 days after a February meeting.

Manuscripts Reports:

Container Nursery, and Field Production Nursery - McNeil reported that these are almost ready. A different student now has the assignment to work on both field and container manuscripts. No expected date of completion was given.
Greenhouse - Hall said that this manuscript was submitted to Dr. Emino for review and approval. Coston has not received the material, so Hall will re-submit the document.

Perennial - Behe reported no progress on this work. McNiel reported that he has a student working in perennials.

Pot-in-pot. Tilt was not present, but it was reported that he has a station publication on this topic. He had agreed to lead an effort to collect work from others and merge that into a project publication. Members were not aware of progress, but there was agreement that several pieces of material are available and would be an excellent addition to S-290 if pulled together. Hall is gathering information on this topic, and will lead if Tilt does not.

Progress on current studies:
HRI Landscape project - Behe and Kelley are working on second and third papers from this research and expect that they will be done before next meeting. When finished the document will be sent for co-author reviews with a maximum of 14 days to respond. Behe again asked for landscapers in more states to provide cost estimates for the job.
2. Price history study - Turner and McNiel will use data held at Cornell University in the form of nursery catalogues dating back to the 1800s. Products for study have been chosen, and they are looking at data from other individual nurseries. As a short-term project, they looked at 12 products, and identified 3 major price declines - during the depression, in the 70s, again in the 90s.

3. SERVQUAL in landscaping - Behe. Five cooperators were located, surveys were distributed, and there still are resources available for other states interested in the project. It is preferable to collect information before and after the job, but at least after the job is completed. There were questions about procedure. Landscape contractors should give these to their clients, and the landscapers can get their own information back.
4. Garden center pub revision - Barton. More segments of the publication, new and revised, have been received and it is not to the review stage yet. Hall has revised the financial reports, Hinson revised material on competitive strategies and supply chain management. Others will be submitting material. Return on investment is lower compared to last study. The publication will emphasize mass merchandisers as a force. Behe will contribute on customer preference. The full document will be mailed to co-authors before next meeting. There was discussion of whether an open spreadsheet, providing users the capability to enter their own numbers, would be appropriate. Hall commented on the diversity among garden centers but benchmarks can be provided, and Brumfield commented that her experience is that this is difficult to do. The objective is to provide financial benchmarks for use by the garden center operator. Members decided that the document will not be interactive. Method of publication was discussed. Hard copy printing will be investigated through NRAES (at Cornell) and other outlets, and it will be available electronically. All submissions by co-authors should be received by Barton by Oct 1.

5. Disease resistant dogwood - Brooker. A draft copy was passed out, and this already is available electronically at U. of Tennessee horticulture department, and on Brooker's page.

6. Plant display - Safley. No report.

7. Evaluation of state promotional programs - Knight. A HRI grant proposal to support this work was not funded, so researchers are looking for alternative funding. The research is structured to encourage cooperation by other states.

8. Specialty cut flower budget - Brumfield asked for co-investigators. Kuehny, Uva, and Stegelin expressed interest. Stegelin has developed some budgets on an as-needed basis. No grant application has yet been submitted.

9. Edible flower cost of production budget - Kelley. This publication has been reviewed by Hall and Turner, and will be sent to Dr. Coston. Appropriate material will be submitted to refereed journals.

10. Poinsettia preferences - Kuehny. In this project, poinsettias grown in Louisiana are sent to other states for consumer preference evaluation. A Gloeckner grant application was not funded, but will be resubmitted. It was noted that somewhat similar evaluations have been done here and there, but this broader project would help look at differences across markets. Cornell, Mississippi, and Kentucky were among those who agreed to consider participating in this survey.

11. Terms of trade - Hinson. A graduate student has been assigned this project. He will be looking for input to the survey instrument and the methodology. The producer side was discussed initially. The buyer side also is important. Hodges and Haydu argued that the mass merchandiser buyers would be a small group of people, and that because some of these buyers are former students, it might be possible to capture mass merchandiser behavior. This would make the study more comprehensive. Brumfield and Uva also are interested in this subcommittee.

12. Export markets for US producers - Harkess. Harkess has noted that horticultural products, particularly cut flowers, are broadly used across the world. Why are US producers not competitive? Why are growers so oriented to their local markets? Though brokering exists, the market links do not seem to be there for the grower. Producer diversification between vegetable crops and cut flower crops in New Jersey was discussed. The objective of a study like this would be to identify export markets as possible ways for producers to sell more products. Kuehny expressed interest in this study.

Future Studies
Water gardens - McKnight. Water gardens are a potential market, and an important trend in the industry. What consumers want in such a product has not been established. This was discussed but no commitments were reached, and it will be included in the agenda of the next meeting.

Hispanic labor force - Hannah Mathers. Hispanics account for a major portion of the green industry workforce. They will be (or have been) promoted into positions of more authority, such as production managers. There is a need to know what knowledge they have, what they need to know, how they learn, etc. In Oregon, Hannah Mathers published a newsletter in English and Spanish, found that Hispanics had experience and knowledge, but equivalent workers seem much less trained in Ohio. A small questionnaire to establish level of need was suggested, to be followed by another designed to provide more complete data. Some questions might be included in the trade flows and marketing practices survey. Florida, Texas and others will cooperate in this subcommittee.

Greenhouse business summary/analysis - Uva. This project involves record-keeping, transcription and business analysis. The program is in effect in New York, collecting information on returns and costs. It is labor intensive. By putting data base on the web, extension agents could identify participants and enter information. By increasing the scope of the project, analysis could be addressed to particular groups of greenhouse crops, the most important costs could be identified, and enterprise budget preparation would be easier. The grower gets information about the relative performance of the business, such as benchmarks on critical ratios. There was some discussion to broaden this project to other states. Florida and Texas have similar projects. Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia and Michigan expressed interest in this project.

State Reports:
Hall (Texas): Hall is working on a history of green industry development with an e-commerce focus. The latest economic impact analysis study is completed.
Turner and Segelin (Georgia): Turner has initiated an investigation of state promotion programs. Computerization within the landscape plant industry is being investigated. The Center for Applied Nursery Research is continuing its minigrants programs to provide seed money for research. Stegelin continues to publish articles in Greenhouse Grower, Southeastern Floriculture, American Nurseryman, and Greenhouse Product News. He also has been a speaker at Southeastern Greenhouse Conference and Trade Show, Virginia Tobacco Growers, Virginia Industries Conference, Georgia Green and Grow, and the Gulf Coast Conference. This is in addition to his county extension meetings on financial and business evaluations.

Brooker (Tennessee): The research project on consumer perceptions of the value of disease resistant dogwoods is completed and published. The Tennessee portion of the national trade flows survey data will be analyzed.

McNeil (Kentucky): Cost publications for field and container nurseries are being revised. He also has worked with a cooperative that will evaluate nursery crops such as pot-in-pot production, products for the cut flower market, and other nursery enterprises as alternatives to tobacco.

Haydu and Hodges (Florida): An update of the 1998 economic impact study, using telephone interviews with growers, retailers, home-owners, and institutional and retail buyers, was completed. In the golf industry component, they are conducting interviews with supervisors and are surveying golfers about how much they spend and where, and are investigating the impact on home values. In terms of water use, the capillary mat irrigation system, which stores water for later absorption into the plant media, is being studied. In the container market, the two remaining suppliers have been charged with anti-competitive practices, and an evaluation on the competitive situation is being conducted. In turfgrass, regional market assessments are being conducted - the western region has been completed, and the central and eastern regions are being studied. A marketing manual is being developed from this work.

Hinson (Louisiana): The Louisiana portion of the trade flows survey, in terms of differences in market channel use between the 1988, 1993 and 1998 surveys, has been analyzed. Analysis on landscape preference valuations continues, and work on the terms-of-trade project is being initiated.

Uva (New York): The greenhouse business analysis project has been implemented. In the future, work will be more business management oriented, including marketing, investigating web sites that may be useful for market research conducted by the user (producer), and marketing newsletters.

Brumfield (New Jersey): Risk management has been the major topic. Because crop insurance is not being purchased in New Jersey, an initiative to encourage its use has begun. Risk management items (interactive and non-interactive) and more budgets have been made available electronically. Case studies have been developed to demonstrate appropriate response to risk. A grant targeting new farmer decision aids and marketing tools in alternative agricultural enterprises has been submitted.

Knight, Harkess, and Posadas (Mississippi): Several topics have been studied, including weed control in large containers, chicken litter as greenhouse nutrient source, soil amendments needed when topsoil has been removed during landscaping or construction, variety trials, an IR4 project, and the status of the Mississippi green industry.

Mathers (Ohio): The Hispanic worker research and education project is being evaluated and implemented. Alternative herbicide-treated mulches have been evaluated. The differences in nutrient availability and other environmental factors between retractable roof greenhouses and conventional greenhouses are being studied.

Kuehny (Louisiana): Studies of ginger longevity and the specialty cut flower project continue. The poinsettia consumer preference survey is still active and will be conducted again this year. Large containers are being evaluated in terms of fertilizer and irrigation efficacy.

Behe (Michigan): The landscape valuation paper was completed. The landscape SERVQUAL survey is being conducted in conjunction with a marketing colleague, which will expand the project into the theoretical background for SERVQUAL, and its empirical estimation. Work on forcing outdoor Christmas tree species into small containers as an alternative product continued. Best management practices for some crops have been studied. A project is underway to relate garden center checkout scanner sales data to weather and other factors. Sales of forced perennials have been studied.

Barton (Delaware): For the garden center publication, Barton's contribution to the document was revised, and contributions from co-authors have been received and incorporated into the document. Research was conducted on the landscape SERVQUAL project and the highway right-of-way vegetation projects.

Eakes (Alabama): Work was conducted to evaluate butterfly preferences for flowers, particularly characteristics of the plants they chose to light on. Selected endangered species were propagated to preserve genetic variability and germplasm. Selected nursery crop fertilization practices were studied.

Future meetings:
The next meeting will be held in Miami, FL, Jan 23-26, 2002. A nursery tour will be conducted on Thursday. The technical committee meeting will occur on Friday, Jan. 25, with subcommittee meetings on Saturday, Jan. 26 as needed. Location is the Shelborne Resort. Reservations may be made by calling 1-800-327-8757 or 305-531-1271. The conference rate is available under the S-290 University Conference name. The meeting announcement has been sent by Dr. Coston.
Summer 2002 - several locations were suggested, including Burlington, Vt, Buffalo, New York, in Atlanta with SNA, in Canada with ASHS, in the west (Washington and/or Oregon), or with AAEA in Long Beach, CA. The location will be chosen at the winter meeting.

Winter 2003 - the committee requested that Hinson and Kuehny arrange this meeting in New Orleans.

Chair Behe expressed thanks on behalf of the committee to Stegelin for making the room arrangement. Subcommittees meetings were scheduled. There was no further business, and the meeting adjourned at 4:30pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Roger Hinson
Secretary



Home Project Statement Project Participants Annual Reports Meeting Minutes Resources		Minutes of the Winter Meeting S-290 Multi-State Project August 1, 2001 Atlanta, GA Present at the meeting were Susan Barton, Bridget Behe, John Brooker, Robin Brumfield, D. C. Coston, Joe Eakes, Charlie Hall, Richard Harkess, John Haydu, Alan Hodges, Kathy Kelly, Patricia Knight, Jeff Kuehny, Hannah Mathers, Bob McNiel, Forrest Stegelin, Steve Turner, Wen-fei Uva. Chairman Behe called the meeting to order at 1:00pm. The minutes of the February meeting and the agenda were approved without objection. CSREES Adviser Holder was not present. New Administrative advisor Coston expressed his pleasure about this appointment, and complemented the group for its success over time. Some reporting rules that the committee must respond to have changed. The Annual Report is due 60 days after the group's official meeting. Since S290 has two meetings, there was discussion about which would be the official meeting. Hall pointed out that this should occur after required reports have been submitted by individuals and stations, which usually would not have happened 60 days after a February meeting. Manuscripts Reports: Container Nursery, and Field Production Nursery - McNeil reported that these are almost ready. A different student now has the assignment to work on both field and container manuscripts. No expected date of completion was given. Greenhouse - Hall said that this manuscript was submitted to Dr. Emino for review and approval. Coston has not received the material, so Hall will re-submit the document. Perennial - Behe reported no progress on this work. McNiel reported that he has a student working in perennials. Pot-in-pot. Tilt was not present, but it was reported that he has a station publication on this topic. He had agreed to lead an effort to collect work from others and merge that into a project publication. Members were not aware of progress, but there was agreement that several pieces of material are available and would be an excellent addition to S-290 if pulled together. Hall is gathering information on this topic, and will lead if Tilt does not. Progress on current studies: HRI Landscape project - Behe and Kelley are working on second and third papers from this research and expect that they will be done before next meeting. When finished the document will be sent for co-author reviews with a maximum of 14 days to respond. Behe again asked for landscapers in more states to provide cost estimates for the job. 2. Price history study - Turner and McNiel will use data held at Cornell University in the form of nursery catalogues dating back to the 1800s. Products for study have been chosen, and they are looking at data from other individual nurseries. As a short-term project, they looked at 12 products, and identified 3 major price declines - during the depression, in the 70s, again in the 90s. 3. SERVQUAL in landscaping - Behe. Five cooperators were located, surveys were distributed, and there still are resources available for other states interested in the project. It is preferable to collect information before and after the job, but at least after the job is completed. There were questions about procedure. Landscape contractors should give these to their clients, and the landscapers can get their own information back. 4. Garden center pub revision - Barton. More segments of the publication, new and revised, have been received and it is not to the review stage yet. Hall has revised the financial reports, Hinson revised material on competitive strategies and supply chain management. Others will be submitting material. Return on investment is lower compared to last study. The publication will emphasize mass merchandisers as a force. Behe will contribute on customer preference. The full document will be mailed to co-authors before next meeting. There was discussion of whether an open spreadsheet, providing users the capability to enter their own numbers, would be appropriate. Hall commented on the diversity among garden centers but benchmarks can be provided, and Brumfield commented that her experience is that this is difficult to do. The objective is to provide financial benchmarks for use by the garden center operator. Members decided that the document will not be interactive. Method of publication was discussed. Hard copy printing will be investigated through NRAES (at Cornell) and other outlets, and it will be available electronically. All submissions by co-authors should be received by Barton by Oct 1. 5. Disease resistant dogwood - Brooker. A draft copy was passed out, and this already is available electronically at U. of Tennessee horticulture department, and on Brooker's page. 6. Plant display - Safley. No report. 7. Evaluation of state promotional programs - Knight. A HRI grant proposal to support this work was not funded, so researchers are looking for alternative funding. The research is structured to encourage cooperation by other states. 8. Specialty cut flower budget - Brumfield asked for co-investigators. Kuehny, Uva, and Stegelin expressed interest. Stegelin has developed some budgets on an as-needed basis. No grant application has yet been submitted. 9. Edible flower cost of production budget - Kelley. This publication has been reviewed by Hall and Turner, and will be sent to Dr. Coston. Appropriate material will be submitted to refereed journals. 10. Poinsettia preferences - Kuehny. In this project, poinsettias grown in Louisiana are sent to other states for consumer preference evaluation. A Gloeckner grant application was not funded, but will be resubmitted. It was noted that somewhat similar evaluations have been done here and there, but this broader project would help look at differences across markets. Cornell, Mississippi, and Kentucky were among those who agreed to consider participating in this survey. 11. Terms of trade - Hinson. A graduate student has been assigned this project. He will be looking for input to the survey instrument and the methodology. The producer side was discussed initially. The buyer side also is important. Hodges and Haydu argued that the mass merchandiser buyers would be a small group of people, and that because some of these buyers are former students, it might be possible to capture mass merchandiser behavior. This would make the study more comprehensive. Brumfield and Uva also are interested in this subcommittee. 12. Export markets for US producers - Harkess. Harkess has noted that horticultural products, particularly cut flowers, are broadly used across the world. Why are US producers not competitive? Why are growers so oriented to their local markets? Though brokering exists, the market links do not seem to be there for the grower. Producer diversification between vegetable crops and cut flower crops in New Jersey was discussed. The objective of a study like this would be to identify export markets as possible ways for producers to sell more products. Kuehny expressed interest in this study. Future Studies Water gardens - McKnight. Water gardens are a potential market, and an important trend in the industry. What consumers want in such a product has not been established. This was discussed but no commitments were reached, and it will be included in the agenda of the next meeting. Hispanic labor force - Hannah Mathers. Hispanics account for a major portion of the green industry workforce. They will be (or have been) promoted into positions of more authority, such as production managers. There is a need to know what knowledge they have, what they need to know, how they learn, etc. In Oregon, Hannah Mathers published a newsletter in English and Spanish, found that Hispanics had experience and knowledge, but equivalent workers seem much less trained in Ohio. A small questionnaire to establish level of need was suggested, to be followed by another designed to provide more complete data. Some questions might be included in the trade flows and marketing practices survey. Florida, Texas and others will cooperate in this subcommittee. Greenhouse business summary/analysis - Uva. This project involves record-keeping, transcription and business analysis. The program is in effect in New York, collecting information on returns and costs. It is labor intensive. By putting data base on the web, extension agents could identify participants and enter information. By increasing the scope of the project, analysis could be addressed to particular groups of greenhouse crops, the most important costs could be identified, and enterprise budget preparation would be easier. The grower gets information about the relative performance of the business, such as benchmarks on critical ratios. There was some discussion to broaden this project to other states. Florida and Texas have similar projects. Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia and Michigan expressed interest in this project. State Reports: Hall (Texas): Hall is working on a history of green industry development with an e-commerce focus. The latest economic impact analysis study is completed. Turner and Segelin (Georgia): Turner has initiated an investigation of state promotion programs. Computerization within the landscape plant industry is being investigated. The Center for Applied Nursery Research is continuing its minigrants programs to provide seed money for research. Stegelin continues to publish articles in Greenhouse Grower, Southeastern Floriculture, American Nurseryman, and Greenhouse Product News. He also has been a speaker at Southeastern Greenhouse Conference and Trade Show, Virginia Tobacco Growers, Virginia Industries Conference, Georgia Green and Grow, and the Gulf Coast Conference. This is in addition to his county extension meetings on financial and business evaluations. Brooker (Tennessee): The research project on consumer perceptions of the value of disease resistant dogwoods is completed and published. The Tennessee portion of the national trade flows survey data will be analyzed. McNeil (Kentucky): Cost publications for field and container nurseries are being revised. He also has worked with a cooperative that will evaluate nursery crops such as pot-in-pot production, products for the cut flower market, and other nursery enterprises as alternatives to tobacco. Haydu and Hodges (Florida): An update of the 1998 economic impact study, using telephone interviews with growers, retailers, home-owners, and institutional and retail buyers, was completed. In the golf industry component, they are conducting interviews with supervisors and are surveying golfers about how much they spend and where, and are investigating the impact on home values. In terms of water use, the capillary mat irrigation system, which stores water for later absorption into the plant media, is being studied. In the container market, the two remaining suppliers have been charged with anti-competitive practices, and an evaluation on the competitive situation is being conducted. In turfgrass, regional market assessments are being conducted - the western region has been completed, and the central and eastern regions are being studied. A marketing manual is being developed from this work. Hinson (Louisiana): The Louisiana portion of the trade flows survey, in terms of differences in market channel use between the 1988, 1993 and 1998 surveys, has been analyzed. Analysis on landscape preference valuations continues, and work on the terms-of-trade project is being initiated. Uva (New York): The greenhouse business analysis project has been implemented. In the future, work will be more business management oriented, including marketing, investigating web sites that may be useful for market research conducted by the user (producer), and marketing newsletters. Brumfield (New Jersey): Risk management has been the major topic. Because crop insurance is not being purchased in New Jersey, an initiative to encourage its use has begun. Risk management items (interactive and non-interactive) and more budgets have been made available electronically. Case studies have been developed to demonstrate appropriate response to risk. A grant targeting new farmer decision aids and marketing tools in alternative agricultural enterprises has been submitted. Knight, Harkess, and Posadas (Mississippi): Several topics have been studied, including weed control in large containers, chicken litter as greenhouse nutrient source, soil amendments needed when topsoil has been removed during landscaping or construction, variety trials, an IR4 project, and the status of the Mississippi green industry. Mathers (Ohio): The Hispanic worker research and education project is being evaluated and implemented. Alternative herbicide-treated mulches have been evaluated. The differences in nutrient availability and other environmental factors between retractable roof greenhouses and conventional greenhouses are being studied. Kuehny (Louisiana): Studies of ginger longevity and the specialty cut flower project continue. The poinsettia consumer preference survey is still active and will be conducted again this year. Large containers are being evaluated in terms of fertilizer and irrigation efficacy. Behe (Michigan): The landscape valuation paper was completed. The landscape SERVQUAL survey is being conducted in conjunction with a marketing colleague, which will expand the project into the theoretical background for SERVQUAL, and its empirical estimation. Work on forcing outdoor Christmas tree species into small containers as an alternative product continued. Best management practices for some crops have been studied. A project is underway to relate garden center checkout scanner sales data to weather and other factors. Sales of forced perennials have been studied. Barton (Delaware): For the garden center publication, Barton's contribution to the document was revised, and contributions from co-authors have been received and incorporated into the document. Research was conducted on the landscape SERVQUAL project and the highway right-of-way vegetation projects. Eakes (Alabama): Work was conducted to evaluate butterfly preferences for flowers, particularly characteristics of the plants they chose to light on. Selected endangered species were propagated to preserve genetic variability and germplasm. Selected nursery crop fertilization practices were studied. Future meetings: The next meeting will be held in Miami, FL, Jan 23-26, 2002. A nursery tour will be conducted on Thursday. The technical committee meeting will occur on Friday, Jan. 25, with subcommittee meetings on Saturday, Jan. 26 as needed. Location is the Shelborne Resort. Reservations may be made by calling 1-800-327-8757 or 305-531-1271. The conference rate is available under the S-290 University Conference name. The meeting announcement has been sent by Dr. Coston. Summer 2002 - several locations were suggested, including Burlington, Vt, Buffalo, New York, in Atlanta with SNA, in Canada with ASHS, in the west (Washington and/or Oregon), or with AAEA in Long Beach, CA. The location will be chosen at the winter meeting. Winter 2003 - the committee requested that Hinson and Kuehny arrange this meeting in New Orleans. Chair Behe expressed thanks on behalf of the committee to Stegelin for making the room arrangement. Subcommittees meetings were scheduled. There was no further business, and the meeting adjourned at 4:30pm. Respectfully submitted, Roger Hinson Secretary