Summary: Jason Twaddell, Territory Manager with Ball FloraPlant and Selecta One, joins STEM to talk about everything you need to consider from planning to shipping a crop of annuals so you hit critical dates. Maybe that’s a retail order or your own promotional or advertising calendar – or it could be having plants ready for an important landscape customer who needs to beautify a golf course for a tournament. Whatever the desired outcome is, starting production with the goal in mind will keep you on track throughout the manufacturing process, as Jason reminds us during the interview. Jason brings a ton of advice to the table, from propagation and liner stages to the importance of timing as it relates to transplanting and pinching. Throughout this episode, you’ll realize how important timeliness is as it relates to reducing shrink at all stages and maximizing profitability. He touches on optimizing labor and motivating crews, as well as the critical nature of following timelines but also paying attention to the specific needs of a crop during all phases of the game. Jason ends with some tips and tricks for sending a top quality crop to retail – including but not limited to toning a crop and proper watering at shipping time. You may have built a thousand production plans in your career but there’s always more to learn and ways to evolve the process to improve quality and reduce shrink. And it all starts with a plan and the execution of that plan. Here are links to the fantastic resources Jason mentioned toward the end of the podcast. Ball FloraPlant certainly leads the pack when it comes to producing and sharing cultural and technical knowledge in user-friendly formats! Find these resources and more at www.ballfloraplant.com. Culture & Trial Reports: http://www.ballfloraplant.com/Culture/Default.aspx Growing a Better Liner Report: http://www.ballfloraplant.com/PDF/BallFloraPlant-GrowABetterLiner-Guide-2015.pdf Growing a Better Liner Video Series (Four Parts): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbUnKHXk07I&list=PLCj41LTtDwjOKNMRV1lYdFX2aiunzG73J Selecta One Website: http://selectanorthamerica.com/ Connect Four Content from this episode is related to the measurable Health and Economic benefits of plants – including Health & Wellness; Habitats & Environments; Reduced Crime & Violence and Economics & Home Values. Health & Wellness: Plants clean the air https://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/garden/7-plants-purify-indoor-air https://greatist.com/connect/houseplants-that-clean-air https://lifehacker.com/this-graphic-shows-the-best-air-cleaning-plants-accord-1705307836 Habitats & Environment: Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Program information: http://millionpollinatorgardens.org/ Register your garden: http://pollinator.org/mpgcmap/register#form Reduced Crime & Violence: Property AND Violent Crime https://www.citylab.com/solutions/2016/04/vacant-lots-green-space-crime-research-statistics/476040/ https://www.planning.org/cityparks/briefingpapers/saferneighborhoods.htm http://newsstand.clemson.edu/clemson-research-suggests-parks-and-green-spaces-can-reduce-crime/ Economics & Home Values: Landscapes Pay Back Landscape value from realtors: https://realtytimes.com/consumeradvice/sellersadvice/item/47622-20160923-how-landscaping-increases-your-homes-value Virginia Tech study on home landscape value: https://pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/426/426-721/426-721_pdf.pdf Additional Resources: Plants are More than Pretty Videos from America in Bloom (WARNING: These are hilarious!): http://americainbloom.org/resources/Plants-Are-More-than-Just-Pretty.aspx Bench Cards to Promote the Health & Economic Benefits of Plants: https://www.ballseed.com/DownloadABenchCard/PromoteGardening/ Email Guest Jason Twaddell: jtwaddell@ballhort.com Email Host Bill Calkins: bcalkins@ballhort.com Tweet Host Bill Calkins: @billcalkins Connect with Ball Seed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ball-seed-co/ Follow The Gardens at Ball on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GardensAtBall/ See Ball Seed Videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BallSeedVideo Ball Seed Website & WebTrack Access: https://www.ballseed.com/ “It takes real planning to organize this kind of chaos.” – Mel Odom, Author
