Soil production equipment
Our decision for each store to produce retail potting soil requires that we purchase the production equipment. We believe, after looking at the long term profitability, that every moderate to large garden store should produce their own retail bagged soils
The equipment and tools required for this production are:
A commercial soil mixer
A Bobcat or similar loader with a large bucket
Bins for storing and displaying the bags of soil
A stationary mounted hog ring machine
Clear heavy duty plastic bags (so the customer can see the mix)
Descriptive and pricing labels
The process is quite simple. The amendments are loaded into the mixing hopper. When the amendments are thoroughly mixed, the material is retrieved from the hopper of the mixer into several sized bags. The bags are closed with a hog ring, labeled properly and stacked in the white bins for transport and display. It takes a crew of three employees to produce the bags. Two can do it but it is not as smooth an operation.
The secret is to get a seamless production line going with total efficiency in human movement. This production can look like a modern auto plant assembly line of it can end up being something out of a Dickens novel. (Remember that the filled bags have a shelf life. They may start to get moldy before they are purchased. Plan on producing this soil as needed. Don't stockpile a lot ahead of time)
One garden store owner in
Each store contacts the local Agricultural Extension Service for a recommendation of a mix that is suitable for the geographical area. An example of the ingredients for a full hopper load of soil mix may be:
2 loader buckets of pine bark
3 3.8 cu feet bags of peat moss
1 bucket of small expanded clay
14 pounds of Osmocote 18-6-12 fertilizer
2 ½ pounds of Micromax
6 pounds of Dolomite Lime
2 pounds of 0-46-0 fertilizer
2 pounds of Nitroform
2 bags of a form of Humus
Since there is fertilizer in the soil mix, the product will have to be certified by each state and labeled accordingly. Failure to certify will most certainly result in a “stop sell” by authorities until this certification is complete.
Often, owners will produce and sell two sizes of bags for the customer, a 30 quart bag weighing about 30 pounds and a 15 quart bag that weighs about 15 pounds. (older gardeners prefer the small size as it is easier for them to transport and use)
We have purchased earlier the loader, bucket, and the bins. Our labeling will be produced from our signing and label printers.
Commercial Mixer
We have purchased an Ellis soil Mixer for each of our stores. It is a simple machine that is economical and durable for our uses. We have also purchased spare parts for the machine in the event of a breakdown in the middle of the spring. We have also purchased the Hog Ring stationary fastener from this same company.
Plastic Bags
The size of the bags for the larger potting soil is 15” by 32”. It is a heavy mill plastic and can be purchased in groups of 300 from a national or local supplier.
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Pots
Our goal with pots used in processing, as in our discussion of plastic bedding plant flats, is to eventually never purchase a new smaller plastic pot for processing for our stores. We believe, that after two seasons, each location can accumulate enough re-cycled pots for their total processing and production. However, the very larger plastic pots (15 gallon and above) are the problem. We have to purchase a supply of the larger sized pots each spring. The huge pots for display will be a one time purchase and occasional purchase to increase the available stock. (We retain these pots and pull the trees out when they are sold)
The first season of each store will call for purchasing new pots of assorted sizes. For the smaller sizes up to 15 gallon, we will buy “blow pots”, a thinner walled pot but quite suitable for our retail needs. The larger pots will be the much more pricey “extruded” pots that are thicker and heavier to handle the weight of the soil and the plant.
A word about stockpiling plastic pots…..As any garden store owner knows, the public will flood the store with their used pots, especially the one and two gallon sizes. First thing you know the back yard is chucked full of these stacks of old one gallon pots. We have contacted plastic recyclers in store area in order to get rid of the smaller plastic pots on a regular schedule. Some state nursery associations have developed a program for the public to recycle pots and we will take advantage of that retrieval when we locate in that state.
There are several pot manufacturers that sell huge plastic pots, 50 and 100 gallon capacity, that we will use for display of balled and burlapped trees and shrubs. Those large sizes are extruded, heavy and durable, able to be moved with a forklift, and quite costly.
We like two companies that produce these huge pots for display and processing nursery stock. The first is Lerio. They make a large heavy duty round extruded plastic pot that has forklift entrance points molded into the bottom of the pot. They are a classic design, black and wonderful for display. They have a capacity up to 100 gallons. The company markets to nurseries and contractors who install ponds. We have purchased 20 of these pots for each store; fifteen 50 gallon and five 100 gallon
The second container is from a company called Amaroo. These are flat plastic panels that assemble and disassemble easily to form a large square tapered tree or large shrub box. They also have forklift notches at the bases. They come in different colors and are attractive for display in the retail nursery. (The only pain in the ass with these boxes is that there are a number of screws and bolts you have to keep track of when they are disassembled.) We have purchased for each store, 40 of the amaroo pots of assorted sizes to for each store to get us started..
amarootreeboxes.com
There is another option other than plastic pots. They are called pulp pots or Westpots. They come in assorted sizes from small to huge and they have been a staple in the nursery industry for years.
They are made of pressed newspaper and in the case of the huge pots; the bottoms are coated with oil to prevent the bottoms from rotting when in contact with wet ground. They tout these pots as “biodegradable”, but we are skeptical of this as it is pressed newspaper and we know how long newspapers stay around before they degrade. Although they are a fine product as plant containers, they look unsightly after a while, and the bottoms tend to rot out fast in wet humid weather conditions. We have chosen not to use any pulp pots at green garden gates.
There are two ways to get those used pots for your store.
The first is to make a deal with the local landfill in the community. The dump workers sort through pots all day long from the garbage trucks. We have made arrangements in each landfill near our stores to retrieve and put aside certain usable sizes of pots. We will pay the landfill 10 cents to 50 cents for each pot and pick them up with our vehicle on a regular basis.
The second method is to get them from all the gardeners and landscapers. We set up recycling bins for pots. Many of those pots are the small sizes but it is worth the effort to get the large pots that are expensive to purchase new.
Some garden store owners charge a deposit for the larger pots at the checkout in addition to the plant purchase. The charge is refunded when the customer brings back the pot. We have adopted this practice with the larger pots only. With the smaller pots, we build in the cost of those small pots into the price of the plant. (We sticker the pot with the deposit price and the customer receives that same amount when it is returned
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