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Grab Some Bench
Laurie Scullin
Think of greenhouse benches like you do when it comes to your teeth&#;you have to take care of them, they&#;re sometimes a pain to maintain, but they&#;re pretty much a necessity. Even if most of your bays consist of ebb and flood floors, many growers need benching during the propagation stage.
&#;A high quality and efficient benching system is essential to all greenhouse growers and must be uniquely tailored to meet the crop and workflow requirements of the business,&#; said Leigh Coulter, President of GGS Structures Inc., a manufacturer of greenhouse structures and benches based in Vineland Station, Ontario, Canada.
Benches also are critically important to plant quality and labor costs. Let&#;s look at the choices:
1| Stationary benches. Typically, I see these as wood frame with some type of mesh tabletop, or steel and aluminum benches with expanded metal tops. Wood can be slightly less expensive than metal benches, although there&#;s a cost for upkeep and they can be hard to disinfect at year-end. Stationary benches are the right choice if you have a retail house, but stationary benches don&#;t use floor efficiency well&#;often with only 50% to 60% floor covering.
Pros: Gets crop up where you can more easily work. Mesh tops and expanded metal tops improve airflow and improve plant quality, allowing heat to go under the bench.
Cons: Too many aisles reduce crop efficiency.
2| Rolling benches. Usually, these are metal benches using an expanded metal mesh top. Rolling benches allow a house to reduce down to one aisle and still allow you to reach across any bench to water or load/pick your crop.
Pros: Improve crop efficiency with typically 80%+ bench coverage. Metal benches are low maintenance. Expanded metal allows good airflow and allows you to put heat under the bench.
Cons: One aisle means no retail&#;this is a wholesale-only configuration. You must learn new labor techniques to stay efficient, as it can be a long walk to one plant. It&#;s more costly to install.
3| Traveling benches. Here the benches move toward you with a bench system designed to fill a house. You move the small, often 8 ft. x 15-ft. benches, on a series of rollers and conveyors to your planting area, then move the bench to your growing area. When shipping, you pull a whole bench out of the greenhouse to pick and pack the orders. While this might be the most expensive system to install, there&#;s real labor savings and utilization payback. Depending on the greenhouse and crop, these systems approach 95% bench utilization.
Pros: Dramatic improvement in labor efficiency and can automate them by using robots for a number of tasks. The best use of floor space.
Cons: Difficult to pick small orders. More expensive to install and requires the greenhouse to be configured to take advantage of product flow.
4| Flood benches. These benches are designed to sub-irrigate crops. I&#;ve seen all sorts of flood benches, from simple poly-lined to fiberglass troughs to more sophisticated benches with hard plastic liners. This type of bench can be stationary, rolling or a traveling-type depending on your underframe. The key here is that your watering labor is reduced, as well as crop uniformity improved, and all runoff water collected. Combining your bench system with your irrigation system does have a few extra problems to solve&#;including making sure your benching system can handle not only the weight of your crop, but also the added weight of the water. But the benefits of having a flood bench system should outweigh any engineering hurdles.
Pros: Highest-quality crop with uniform watering through the entire bench. Reduced labor costs and allows the water to be collected and reused.
Cons: Adding an irrigation system to a bench system is the most expensive option. Not a good retail setup (although better at retail than drip tubes).
5| Tiered bench displays. This is a retail configuration with the goal of making it easier for shoppers to see and reach your products. I find most benches are poor for consumers, as we expect a shopper to bend over and reach. Compared to how typical clothing stores are set up&#;where I see narrow shelves no deeper than 18 in.&#;a 5 ft. or 6 ft.-wide greenhouse bench is just not consumer friendly. Most tiered displays use narrow-width tops and then stack a few shelves at easy-to-reach heights. Many have a bar for hanging baskets. While you might not be able to put as many plants on a tiered display, they will sell more quickly and give the shopper a more pleasant experience.
Pros: A better visual display. Faster turns at retail.
Cons: Hold fewer plants than large, wide benches. Extra cost.
So how do you decide what is best? Can you evolve from one system to another as your business changes? Your bench decisions should be driven by where you want the business to go. Clearly, if you&#;re a retail grower versus a wholesale grower, there are logical paths.
For the retail grower: Here, you need a bench system set up for your customers&#;not for production. The questions to ask will be: do you install permanent benches or do you have a concrete floor and benches that can be moved to fit the season or display? Recognize here that concrete floors are not a low-cost option, but may create a better shopping experience. As you think about benches, think about customer flow&#;what will be most comfortable for them and effective for you to set up displays?
For the wholesale grower: Again, based on your business plan, will your business be large enough to later install traveling benches&#;and if so, would you set up your product and material flow a certain way now to avoid making massive production changes later? We often see growers keep crops on the ground for a few years then leap right into a traveling bench system.
My suggestion is that you work with a manufacturer who understands your business needs and can adapt a bench system to impact your plant quality, your labor and your overall success with customers.
GT
Laurie Scullin is the owner of a product, idea and business development company&#;The New Product Group. Laurie has spent the last 20 years offering marketing support to some of the industry&#;s top firms and has developed programs in use at independent garden centers, big-box chains and supermarkets across the United States and Canada.
This article was edited from the Today&#;s Grower blog, which can be found at
Think of greenhouse benches like you do when it comes to your teeth&#;you have to take care of them, they&#;re sometimes a pain to maintain, but they&#;re pretty much a necessity. Even if most of your bays consist of ebb and flood floors, many growers need benching during the propagation stage.&#;A high quality and efficient benching system is essential to all greenhouse growers and must be uniquely tailored to meet the crop and workflow requirements of the business,&#; said Leigh Coulter, President of GGS Structures Inc., a manufacturer of greenhouse structures and benches based in Vineland Station, Ontario, Canada.Benches also are critically important to plant quality and labor costs. Let&#;s look at the choices:Typically, I see these as wood frame with some type of mesh tabletop, or steel and aluminum benches with expanded metal tops. Wood can be slightly less expensive than metal benches, although there&#;s a cost for upkeep and they can be hard to disinfect at year-end. Stationary benches are the right choice if you have a retail house, but stationary benches don&#;t use floor efficiency well&#;often with only 50% to 60% floor covering.Usually, these are metal benches using an expanded metal mesh top. Rolling benches allow a house to reduce down to one aisle and still allow you to reach across any bench to water or load/pick your crop.Here the benches move toward you with a bench system designed to fill a house. You move the small, often 8 ft. x 15-ft. benches, on a series of rollers and conveyors to your planting area, then move the bench to your growing area. When shipping, you pull a whole bench out of the greenhouse to pick and pack the orders. While this might be the most expensive system to install, there&#;s real labor savings and utilization payback. Depending on the greenhouse and crop, these systems approach 95% bench utilization.These benches are designed to sub-irrigate crops. I&#;ve seen all sorts of flood benches, from simple poly-lined to fiberglass troughs to more sophisticated benches with hard plastic liners. This type of bench can be stationary, rolling or a traveling-type depending on your underframe. The key here is that your watering labor is reduced, as well as crop uniformity improved, and all runoff water collected. Combining your bench system with your irrigation system does have a few extra problems to solve&#;including making sure your benching system can handle not only the weight of your crop, but also the added weight of the water. But the benefits of having a flood bench system should outweigh any engineering hurdles.This is a retail configuration with the goal of making it easier for shoppers to see and reach your products. I find most benches are poor for consumers, as we expect a shopper to bend over and reach. Compared to how typical clothing stores are set up&#;where I see narrow shelves no deeper than 18 in.&#;a 5 ft. or 6 ft.-wide greenhouse bench is just not consumer friendly. Most tiered displays use narrow-width tops and then stack a few shelves at easy-to-reach heights. Many have a bar for hanging baskets. While you might not be able to put as many plants on a tiered display, they will sell more quickly and give the shopper a more pleasant experience.So how do you decide what is best? Can you evolve from one system to another as your business changes? Your bench decisions should be driven by where you want the business to go. Clearly, if you&#;re a retail grower versus a wholesale grower, there are logical paths.Here, you need a bench system set up for your customers&#;not for production. The questions to ask will be: do you install permanent benches or do you have a concrete floor and benches that can be moved to fit the season or display? Recognize here that concrete floors are not a low-cost option, but may create a better shopping experience. As you think about benches, think about customer flow&#;what will be most comfortable for them and effective for you to set up displays?Again, based on your business plan, will your business be large enough to later install traveling benches&#;and if so, would you set up your product and material flow a certain way now to avoid making massive production changes later? We often see growers keep crops on the ground for a few years then leap right into a traveling bench system.My suggestion is that you work with a manufacturer who understands your business needs and can adapt a bench system to impact your plant quality, your labor and your overall success with customers.This article was edited from the Today&#;s Grower blog, which can be found at ggs-greenhouse.com/blog
Benches are useful accessories to organise plants in greenhouses. They can help maximise space in this structure. Aside from that, they add some decorative touch to greenhouse interior. With their ergonomic height, they usually provide convenience to most gardeners and improve WHS in horticultural and nursery workplace.
Greenhouse benches come in different types. To know which one suits for growing your plants, five types of benches are described below. Read on below to learn more.
1. Slatted Benches
This is the traditional form of benches. Most slatted benches are elevated for at least 2 and a half ft. above the ground. This type of bench provides good aeration to the plants.
Good air circulation is relatively important to plant growth. It minimises the risk of root rot and other foliar diseases especially during winter. On top of that, good aeration dries the plant rapidly after watering.
Slatted type of bench is often made from metal slats or wood. Learn the differences between wood and metal benches below.
Generally, wood benches are more popular not only for slatted but also for other types of benches. They are chosen by most people for their aesthetics and affordability.
Treated lumber is the best option when it comes to wood. Other wood alternatives are locust, cedar, redwood and cypress. These woods are durable. They are also high-resistant to humid environment.
However, wooden benches are more susceptible to insect infestations. They also swell, decay and crack when exposed to humidity, daily watering, and sunlight.
To prolong the lifespan of wooden benches, paint them with copper naphthenate. It can protect wooden benches from decay, fungi and insects.
Metal benches are ideal when growing weighty plants like large ferns and potted trees. But they are more expensive compared to other benches. Even though they are costly, it is more practical to use them. This is because of their low maintenance costs and longevity.
The two common metal materials used for benches are aluminium and steel.
a. Aluminium - Most aluminium staging is durable, lightweight and slatted. They are also maintenance-free and rust-resistant. Apart from that, they provide plants with drainage and good air circulation.
b. Galvanized steel - Since benches that are solely made from aluminium are not suited for large and heavy pots, manufacturers improved their design with galvanized steel. This type of material is resistant to rot and decay. Moreover, it is known for its durability. It is expensive to install but it&#;s a one-time cost only.
2. Netted Benches
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These are benches that usually have a wire top. Aside from wire, they can be made from plastic materials. Among these two materials, netted benches with wire top are most preferred by gardeners since they are is easy to disinfect.
Like the slatted type, netted benches allow good air circulation to the plants. Even though air can circulate well on these benches, they still have some drawbacks. Both are not suited for automatic watering. Moreover, they are not ideal as a workstation for potting plants.
Another disadvantage of using this type of bench is that it sags because of its pot&#;s weight. They also tend to corrode over time. So it is suggested to paint a netted bench with rustproof paint to protect them from rust.
3. Solid Benches
This type of bench typically has a corrugated or flat sheet of metal on top. It can also be made of wood and plastic.
Solid benches that are made from plastic materials are lightweight, portable, durable and won&#;t rust. These benches are also easy to work with and require low maintenance.
Furthermore, solid benches have the ability to conserve heat during winter. Hence, they are ideal to hold compost for potting plants.
However, solid plastic benches are usually hard to disinfect. Another disadvantage is that they are not fireproof. It is also worth noting that potting plants can&#;t be kept on solid benches for a long time. This is because its metal top can&#;t allow air circulation.
4. Rolling benches
Rolling benches are moveable benches. It helps workers move plants to any sections in the greenhouse. Using rolling benches can reduce the risk of plant diseases since it allows good airflow.
The primary advantage of using rolling benches is that they eliminate walkways. This can help gain additional production space in greenhouses. In fact, they can give about 24%-33% more production space on a typical greenhouse layout. Additionally, rolling benches improve crop efficiency.
5. Flood benches
This type of bench can help control irrigation. Apart from that, diseases on plants can be minimised since it keeps the leaves dry.
Fertilizer consumption can also be lessened when using flood benches. This can be done by re-circulating the water in it.
To bring more comfort for workers, selecting the best size of greenhouse benches is necessary. Consider these two factors below when choosing.
Commercial houses mostly require more people working with plants. Therefore, the height and width of benches should be on average size. This means that the bench size must be suited to all workers.
Generally, a convenient bench height for workers is about 32-36 inches tall. As for the width, it should be 42-48 inches wide if the gardener can work from both sides. But if they are only accessible from one side, about 30-36 inches wide is the ideal one.
Tall flowering plants must be grown on lower benches. This is to allow workers to reach their stems and flowers easily. Contrarily, small plants can be grown on higher benches. This is to reduce injuries to workers since they don&#;t need to stoop or bend while working.
Conclusion
In order to grow plants inside a greenhouse, gardeners must use benches to provide enough surface area for storing plants and seedlings. Aside from maximising space, using benches can provide plants with good aeration that is necessary for their growth. They can even help gardeners and workers to work comfortably in greenhouses.
For those who are looking for quality greenhouse benches, check out a leading and trusted nursery equipment manufacturer in your local area. They have been in the market for over 50 years.
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