According to Tim Cunniff, executive vice president of sales for Little Leaf Farms, the Massachusetts-based operation is still in its growth phase and sales are up this year over last. But that doesn’t mean doing business amid the ongoing pandemic has been easy.

“I would not want to be introducing a new item during this time frame,” he says. “The retailers have a lot on their plate with managing day-to-day operations. We’re very fortunate that we are on the shelf so we can keep moving.”

Produce Grower: What does doing business look like in the current climate?

Tim Cunniff: What was very erratic to begin with is starting to get a little more rhythm to it in the marketplace. It’s been rough. We’re in Massachusetts, so we’re a little bit ahead in the trend [as far as coronavirus cases go] than most other states. But when we were in the midst of it all, it was chaotic, and everyone was dealing with their own separate issues. It was, and is, about adjusting to the best of your ability. We’re also definitely lucky that we have really good customers.

TC: They were dealing with their own internal issues. It was constant news updates with what was going on with the stores, what the new protocols were, what are the new rules in the state, what’s going on with your employees? And we sell within a bunch of different states — Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut. We were getting updates there as much as we could so we could forecast. In quote-un-quote normal time frames, our buyers are very good about how much they need and anticipating surges. Now, it is flattened out because there was no weekend surge — it just went away for a while.

PG: From your point of view, has anything, gone back to at least resembling pre-coronavirus times?

TC: It’s definitely not as crazy as it was back in March and April. It’s getting to be a little more of a rhythm to it. There are little blips and we do have things in weird spots. We have a food service business, we do sell to universities and we don’t know what’s going on with them. Those are the things that are still question marks. And we have a seasonal business out on the cape and the southeast coast of Maine, and we are trying to figure that out, trying to figure out if people are going on vacation or not. One of the things we used to be big on, too, for promotion was doing events and sponsorships. None of that stuff is happening. So how we talk to consumers — we have to rethink that because we used to do local bike rides and 5K runs, and hand out coupons and put tents out in front of stores to do sampling. That’s nonexistent.

With more than 20 years in the food industry, Sara Hagen has helped many clients with brand development and marketing. As president of Foodmix, a full-service branding agency that has assisted with food advertising and marketing campaigns for more than 30 years, Hagen knows a thing or two about positioning produce for the consumer eye.

Branding vs. marketing

While these terms are often paired, branding and marketing are not interchangeable. Their functions are different, and they achieve separate objectives.

“The simplest way to define branding is, it’s telling your story. It’s who you are and what your promise is,” Hagen says. “On the other side of that is marketing, which is going out to the world and telling that story.”

According to Hagen, everyone has a brand. From social media posts to wardrobe choice and so forth, self-expression allows people to showcase their personal brands. For businesses, however, brand maintenance is much more important.

“Ultimately, what we’re all trying to seek is brand advocacy and if you don’t have a brand voice and you’re not participating in the conversation, how can you ever achieve that point of advocacy?”

While the role of marketing is typically seen as a sales support function, Hagen says branding is equally important and that it too, helps with selling.

“The brand promise is the magic middle section of what your truths are, what your competition cannot own and what your customer or consumer want. If a company can triangulate those, the message will be powerful.”

What does marketing and branding look like for produce?

While branding is no “one size fits all answer,” Hagen says a company’s story will lead to what the aesthetic looks like and the way it’s marketed. The tone and manner are largely dependent on a company’s heritage, history, ideal customer and product. In the produce industry specifically, the biggest value that should be highlighted is where the produce comes from, Hagen says.

“In produce, I believe the time now more than ever has been focused on roots, farm to table and so forth,” she says. “The trends are plant-forward diets, healthy snacking and nutritious eating for kids. People want to know, ‘Where does my food come from?’ Food safety and security are important and the unique story that the produce industry can drive is where the food comes from.”

Along with its origins, Hagen says transparency and authenticity should be expressed as well.

“Consumers are savvy and they’re more engaged than ever. Conveying that true authentic message is important. We did a brand love study with consumers a few years ago and they weren’t seeking a bunch of claims thrown at them. They were seeking that true, authentic story.”

Social strategy

Hagen says social media is where consumers seek inspiration, from meal ideas on Pinterest to fashion insight on Instagram. That said, the preferred channel may change based on the product a company is selling, but social engagement is essential.

“Social media has created a buzz in the marketplace,” Hagen says. “There has been a shift in how companies use social media. Rewind years ago, and it was like, ‘Oh, I have a free way to do marketing. I can reach the consumer.’ Now, companies are taking strides to make sure they are investing in social media, the way the brand or product is represented and adjusting based on their approach.”

Hagen adds that it’s imperative to create a balanced social strategy to reflect the company voice, but also match the specific marketing objectives you're trying to accomplish.

“Are you looking for engagement in number growth? Are you looking to turn your engaged followers into brand advocates? You want to make sure you have a content strategy and are not just posting willy nilly, but actually posting content that aligns to your brand, tone and manner.”

Selling sensory

According to Hagen, people “eat with their eyes.” This said, she believes it’s good to play with color to highlight a “powerful flavor punch.”

When photographing produce, leafy greens and other vegetables alongside the typical brown protein brightens the plate. Since food is visual, this can convey taste. The textual experience is equally important, according to Hagen, and should be stated to express taste, spice, crunch and flavor.

Digital vs. print

There’s a constant conversation about digital, but Hagen says print is still in.

“Being able to display produce through print media or physical marketing is still relevant and should be part of the consideration,” she says. In fact, Foodmix has a client who is using direct mail programs because people are “inundated with digital.”

Influencer marketing

While most social media influencers are celebrities or public figures, Hagen says there is another option: micro-influencers. Micro-influencers are relatively small accounts with follower ranges from 1,000 to a couple hundred thousand. That influencer should have a niche or voice that aligns with the company. In produce’s case, Hagen suggests working with local chefs or plant-based enthusiasts, to help boost your message to their followers, for example.

The takeaway

All in all, Hagen believes many produce companies underestimate the importance of branding and raising awareness around a product. The first step, however, is outlining an engagement plan, defining goals, specifying the brand promise, telling an authentic story and deciding what’s right from an investment standpoint.

“What’s cool is we have so many tools now, so we can really figure out where the consumers are, what a day in life looks like for them and how we can help put the brand in front of them wherever they are on their journey.”

High-quality vegetable transplants for high-wire production are defined as having thick and straight stems, compact growth with short internodes, well-developed and deep-green leaves and shortened production times. A minimum daily light integral (DLI) of 13 mol·m^–2·d^–1 or greater is required to achieve these desirable morphological traits. However, in greenhouses located in northern latitudes, the DLI can average between 1 to 5 mol·m^–2·d^–1 during winter months. Under these low light intensities, plants have weak stems and large leaves, are leggy, flowers are aborted, and subsequently, fruit abortion can occur leading to economic losses (Fig. 1). Supplemental lighting is commonly used to increase the DLI within vegetable transplant greenhouses during light limited times of the year. High-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps have been the industry standard for greenhouse supplemental lighting. However, the availability of energy-efficient light-emitting diode (LED) fixtures for horticultural applications are a promising alternative.

Previous supplemental lighting studies conducted on vegetable transplants have primarily used fixtures containing blue (B) and red (R) LEDs. However, LED technology has evolved and fixtures that provide green (G) and far-red (FR) radiation among many others within and outside of the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) range are now available. Additionally, the availability of LED fixtures with the ability for spectral quality manipulation, have created the opportunity to create “light recipes” for specific crops, which could be used to manipulate height, leaf area, foliage color and nutritional content of crops. Therefore, our objective was to quantify the influence of supplemental lighting radiation quality on high-wire tomato, pepper and cucumber transplant growth and development.

The study

Seeds of hybrid greenhouse cucumber ‘Elsie’, tomato ‘Climstar’ and pepper ‘Kathia’ were sown into 120-cell plug trays and covered with a thin layer of vermiculite. The trays were placed into a dark growth chamber until radicle emergence. Trays were then moved to one of five glass-glazed greenhouse compartments with an air average daily temperature set point of 77 ºF (Fig. 2). After 10 and 14 days, cucumber and tomato and pepper seedlings, respectively, were transplanted into rockwool cubes (Fig. 3). Plants were irrigated once per day with a hydroponic ebb and flow system, using reverse osmosis water supplemented with a 12N-4P-16K water-soluble fertilizer and magnesium sulfate.

Four supplemental lighting treatments were delivered for 16 h·d^–1 based on an instantaneous threshold (on from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. when the outside light intensity was ˜440 µmol·m^–2·s^–1). HPS lamps or LED fixtures, provided a total photosynthetic photon flux density (TPFD; 400 to 800 nm) of 120 µmol·m^–2·s^–1. A photoperiodic lighting treatment (control; HPS₂₅) provided a TPFD of 25 µmol·m^–2·s^–1. The subscript number following each color waveband (B, G, R, FR), and for treatments labeled HPS indicate its photon flux density in µmol·m^-2·s^-1 at plant height. The treatments were:

• HPS₂₅ (HPS photoperiodic lighting; control)
• HPS₁₂₀ (HPS supplemental lighting)
• B₂₀G₁₀R₇₅FR₁₅ (LED supplemental lighting)
• B₂₅R₉₅ (LED supplemental lighting)
• B₃₀G₃₀R₆₀ (LED supplemental lighting)

What we learned

Not surprisingly, increasing the natural DLI from ˜5.8 to ˜11.8 mol·m^–2·d^–1 with supplemental lighting increased the shoot dry weight and stem diameter of tomato, pepper and cucumber transplants; indicating that plants were larger and sturdier. For tomato, shoot dry weight increased by 107 to 183% depending on the radiation quality provided by supplemental lighting (Fig. 4).

Plant responses to radiation quality were found to be genera-specific:

• Leaf area, and fresh and dry weight of tomato was greatest under LED supplemental lighting providing B₃₀G₃₀R₆₀ radiation.
• When G radiation replaced R or B radiation (B₃₀G₃₀R₆₀ vs B₂₅R₉₅), leaf area and fresh weight of tomato, pepper and cucumber was significantly greater (Figures 4 and 5).
• For example, leaf area and fresh weight of tomato, pepper and cucumber increased by 49, 22 and 33% and 56, 14 and 35%, respectively, for plants under LED supplemental lighting providing B₃₀G₃₀R₆₀ radiation compared to plants under B₂₅R₉₅ radiation.
• Stem diameter of cucumber, tomato and pepper was generally greatest when transplants were grown under either supplemental lighting providing B₃₀G₃₀R₆₀ radiation or HPS₁₂₀ compared to the other treatments.
• Generally, B₂₅R₉₅ radiation was the most effective at reducing internode length of all three species (Figures 4 and 5).
• The tallest tomato transplants were those grown under LED supplemental lighting providing B₃₀G₃₀R₆₀, B₂₀G₁₀R₇₅FR₁₅ radiation, or HPS¹²⁰ (Fig. 4).
• Stem elongation of cucumber was promoted under the low intensity control, while it was reduced for tomato transplants under the low intensity control (Figures 4 and 5).
• The inclusion of FR radiation reduced the incidence of tomato leaf necrosis.
• The lowest percentage of visible buds for tomato, pepper and cucumber was under the control, control and B²⁵R⁹⁵ radiation, respectively.

Take-home message

Beyond reducing the time to produce a high-quality vegetable transplant, the radiation quality (color) of LED supplemental lighting influenced the morphology and physiology of high-wire vegetable transplants when the natural DLI was low (=7 mol·m^–2·d^–1). From previous MSU research we have concluded that LED supplemental lighting must contribute to greater than 40% of the total DLI to elicit morphological responses. Given this, supplemental lighting radiation quality could be used to elicit desired high-wire vegetable transplant morphological features as they can differ depending on the intended use. For instance, seedlings can be used as rootstocks, scions, or as non-grafted transplants. Grafted seedlings benefit from an extended hypocotyl [the part of the stem beneath the seed leaves (cotyledons) and directly above the root] length, since it helps to increase grafting success and hence survival rate, and reduce rooting from the scion after transplant. However, elongated hypocotyls are not desired for non-grafted seedlings, as it can lead to weak transplants and logistical challenges for shipping. Thus, a grower producing non-grafted transplants might utilize supplemental lighting providing B₂₅R₉₅ radiation as tomatoes, peppers and cucumber were the most compact under this treatment. However, they should also consider that parameters such as leaf area and fresh weight were negatively impacted under B₂₅R₉₅ radiation. Lastly, we have also determined that LED supplemental lighting providing B₃₀G₃₀R₆₀ radiation produces comparable quality high-wire transplants to those grown under HPS lamps. Therefore, we can conclude that LED supplemental lighting is an alternative to the current industry standard for high-wire transplant production.

Charlie Garcia is a former M.S. student and Roberto Lopez is Associate Professor and Controlled Environment/Floriculture Extension Specialist in the Department of Horticulture at Michigan State University (MSU). The authors gratefully acknowledge Nate DuRussel for assistance, Heliospectra for LEDs, JR Peters for fertilizer, Grodan for substrate, Syngenta for seeds and MSU AgBioResearch for support.

One of the most frequent comments to hear from hydroponic producers is how they could use more space in order to produce and sell more product. Undertaking a greenhouse expansion is not trivial and is a significant capital investment. Instead of expanding the growing space, lettuce, leafy green and culinary herb producers can look to altering their planting schedule and space allocation for crops. This article is going to cover how to use nursery channels and rafts in nutrient-film technique (NFT) and deep-water culture (DWC) hydroponic systems, respectively.

Nursery channels

In a traditional production plan for leafy greens and culinary herbs, there are typically two phases in production: propagation/transplant production and finishing. In these two phases there are also typically two different planting densities or spacings: 1) the high-density, close spacing used during propagation; and 2) a low-density, moderate spacing used during finishing. However, when seedlings are first transplanted into systems for finishing, they do not require all the space they are allotted at their initial planting. Nursery channels (for NFT systems) or rafts (for DWC systems) are areas with a greater planting density than the final plant spacing (Fig. 1). For example, while a common final spacing is 8 inches on center, whether within and between NFT channels or on DWC rafts, spacing in a nursery would be 4 inches (or some other spacing closer than the final spacing). Using nurseries is a more dynamic use of growing space, providing plants with less growing area when it is not utilized and more when it can be.

Benefits of nurseries

The primary benefit to using nursery channels is improving space use efficiency in production systems. By growing plants in nurseries after propagation, but before plants are placed into their final spacing, the space required to produce the crop is reduced. Let’s look at an example using butterhead lettuce.

We will start by looking at the space requirement for a five-week butterhead lettuce crop. First, let’s calculate space use for lettuce transplanted into hydroponic systems on 8-inch centers for the entire five weeks. For the purposes of this example and space use, it doesn’t matter what the hydroponic system is- NFT or DWC- but the plant spacing is important. Plants will be using 64 in2 or 0.44 ft2 during each of the five weeks for a total of 2.22 ft2 for each plant over the entire production cycle.

Now, let’s use the same example, but look at how space use is reduced through the use of a nursery channel. Taking the same butterhead lettuce seedlings, except transplant them into nurseries on 4-inch centers for two weeks, then transplant them onto 8-inch centers for the last three weeks of production. With plants now using 16 in2 (0.11 ft2) for each of the first two weeks, followed by three weeks at 64 in2 (0.44 ft2) per for a total of 1.56 ft2 required for the entire production cycle- a 30% savings in space.

The results are the same even when the growing environment is conducive to growth and growing schedules are faster or slower. If we look at a four-week lettuce crop grown on 8-inch centers for the entire four weeks (1.78 ft2), there is a 38% reduction in the total space requirement when a 4-inch nursery spacing is used for the first two weeks followed by two weeks finishing at 8 inches (1.12 ft2 total). Alternatively, 25% (0.67 ft2) is saved for a six-week crop when the first two weeks are in nursery channels.

Regardless of the production scenario, using nursery spacing reduces space requirements. This efficient use of space ultimately expands production capacity by freeing up more space in the production area for finishing more plants using the space savings.

Drawbacks of nurseries

The space savings using nurseries is a clear benefit. However, there are two drawbacks when using nursery channels in NFT and DFT systems. The first is the labor involved in transplanting plants from nursery channels or boards into their spacing for finishing. Since plants are transplanted by hand, this adds an extra “touch” for each plant and therefore, increases labor costs. Estimating the labor costs associated with using nursery channels or boards can be difficult, since it varies widely between facilities, production systems, and individuals. Regardless, the time involved in transplanting is going to be adding to production costs.

The second drawback, and a hopefully lesser one, is the potential for damaging root systems. When plants are removed from nursery channels or boards, then transplanted into their finished systems, there is potential for damaging root systems. This damage can occur after root systems have developed in nurseries then need to be removed and placed into other systems. This root damage can also be exacerbated when employees are trying to transplant plants from nurseries into final spacing quickly, and lack of attention can lead to damaged plants. Damaged roots can temporarily slow growth and increase susceptibility to pathogens.

Take-home message

If space is tight and you are looking for ways to improve your productivity with expanding your footprint, consider using nursery spacing in your NFT and DWC systems. Even with the additional labor costs associated with an extra transplanting, nurseries can pay off with the capacity added to facilities.

The author is an associate professor in the Department of Horticulture at Iowa State University. ccurrey@iastate.edu