(bright music) (gentle guitar music) - Tom and I were traveling through Hankinson, North Dakota and noticed a greenhouse that was new to us.

I've mentioned before that our car has a mind of its own when we see greenhouses, so it just zipped into the parking lot.

The new greenhouse had very nice plants that were grown at Dan and Jerry's, according to the labels on the plants.

I'm Mary Holm, host of Prairie, Yard, and Garden.

And as Paul Harvey used to say, "Let's find out the rest of the story."

- [Station Narrator] Funding for Prairie, Yard, and Garden is provided by Heartland Motor Company, providing service to Minnesota and the Dakotas for over 30 years.

In the heart of truck country.

Heartland Motor Company, we have your best interest at heart.

Farmer's Mutual Telephone Company and Federated Telephone Cooperative.

Proud to be powering Acira.

Pioneers in bringing state-of-the-art technology to our rural communities.

Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen, in honor of Shalom Hill Farm.

A nonprofit rural education retreat center in a beautiful prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

And by Friends of Prairie, Yard, and Garden.

A community of supporters like you, who engage in the long-term growth of the series.

To become a friend of Prairie, Yard, and Garden, visit pioneer.org/pyg.

(uplifting music) - [Mary] My friend Steve Jones travels to greenhouses all over the upper Midwest as part of his job.

I mentioned to Steve about seeing these plants that had been grown by a supplier named Dan and Jerry's.

He laughed and said, those folks were good friends of his too, and he could arrange a tour at Dan and Jerry's with production and inventory manager Tim Sawatzke, if we would like.

Well, it took about five seconds to say yes, and here we are along with our Prairie, Yard, and Garden viewers, welcome Tim.

- [Tim] Hi Mary, welcome.

- [Mary] Tell me how did Dan and Jerry's get started?

- Dan and Jerry's started back in the mid '70s in Eden Prairie, and they actually started as just vegetable growers, produce growers, that would sell at the local farmer's market.

In about 1979, they built their first greenhouse in Buffalo, Minnesota, because people kept asking for tomato starts.

That's how Dan and Jerry's got their start.

- How did they end up with the facility here at Monticello?

- That was in '93 that this area was built.

They had one in Buffalo prior and built another one just down the road in Monticello.

This facility that we're at today started in '93.

- [Mary] How many total facilities do they have?

- [Tim] We operate in four different states.

And have currently over 60 acres of greenhouse undercover.

So each of our growing facilities in South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and now in Michigan, do grow our full spectrum of products.

We ship everything out of each location close proximity to the greenhouses.

- [Mary] What is your job with Dan and Jerry's?

- [Tim] My job at Dan and Jerry's is production manager and inventory manager.

We schedule the crops to grow for each season.

We purchase all of the inputs.

And get the production done.

Then at time of shipping, we get the product out the door.

- [Mary] Do you do it just for this location?

Or do you do it for all of 'em?

- [Tim] The inventory management side of it is just for this facility here in Minnesota.

The procurement of all the goods and planning of production we do out of this facility, for all of our ranges.

In all four states.

- [Mary] What are the main crops that you produce here?

- [Tim] All of your hanging baskets, bedding annuals, perennials, and vegetable starts.

- [Mary] Wow.

How many greenhouses are just in this complex?

- [Tim] This complex alone that we're at has 97 hoop houses, like we're standing in now.

And five one-acre growing bays.

- [Mary] That's a lot of facility.

- [Tim] That's a lot of space.

- [Mary] How is this whole greenhouse complex heated?

- [Tim] We use forced air heaters running on natural gas.

We do have a 30,000 gallon propane tank, for those cold, cold winter months when everybody's house is trying to heat up, we need to be interruptable here.

So they can shut off our natural gas, and we need a propane backup in the middle of the night.

- What makes Dan and Jerry's special?

- So Dan and Jerry's is one of the leading plant suppliers in the upper Midwest area.

I think our brand, "Farm Fresh Selects" trademark brand is becoming quite popular in the upper Midwest.

It was mainly developed to set us apart from some of the other box retailers that are out there.

Not a lot of our product will be found in box stores.

We do service well over 200 independent and regional chain garden centers, with all of our products throughout many states.

Mainly upper Midwest, in North South Dakota, Montana.

We also ship down into Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin.

We do have a retailer that has a chain out in New York, New Hampshire, and Connecticut that we service out of our Michigan location.

It's a lot of ground to cover.

A lot of miles on those trucks.

A lot of miles on those plants.

- [Mary] Do you sell most of your product retail, or do you wholesale most of it?

- [Tim] We do have two Dan and Jerry's garden centers that we service.

Most all of our product goes through other regional chains and independent garden centers, like the one in North Dakota that you stopped at.

- [Mary] Do you have people actually come here to this complex and shop?

- [Tim] We don't allow the public to walk through.

It's just too vast of an area.

Where we're standing, we're over 20-acres of greenhouse.

It's too much to walk through for one person.

There's just too many flowers to stop and look at.

- [Mary] How long does this stay open?

How long do you keep production going?

- [Tim] So we start production at this facility in around February.

These greenhouses are all full by the end of March.

We will be empty by mid-June.

We also do a a large offering of hanging baskets as you can see.

Company-wide, we produce just over half a million hanging baskets, ranging from 10 inches which is the most common that people see, on up to our nice combination planters that can go up to 16-inch cocoa baskets.

The combination patio pots that we do, around 200,000 of those.

Also from the 10 inch, 12 inch, 14 inch, and 16 inch planters.

- [Mary] Well this is absolutely stunning to look down and see all of these beautiful hanging baskets and plants.

- There's about 1,400 in this house that we're looking at now.

We've got 97 hoop houses here.

Each house is a little bit different.

- [Mary] Well, can you take us and show us how you start the plants too?

- [Tim] Absolutely.

Let's go take a look.

(gentle music) - [Mary] I love nothing more than the delicious taste and crunch of a dill pickle.

Those sharp flavors bring your taste buds alive and compliment nearly any meal you can think of.

On the picnic table in summer or in the spread at Thanksgiving, dill pickles are a year-round favorite.

If you have your own garden, or belong to a CSA, you might find yourself with some extra cucumbers at the end of the year.

So, what to do?

Have you tried making your own dill pickles?

The idea may seem daunting, but it's really quite easy.

And to show you how, I'm joined by Teresa Peterson.

Who for years has preserved vegetables for enjoyment year round.

- Yes Mary, they are really quite easy and they're tasty too.

- [Mary] Where did you get this recipe?

- [Teresa] I got this recipe from my mom and it's really quite easy.

You can get all the ingredients locally grown.

- [Mary] What are the ingredients?

- [Teresa] Eight heads of dill, four cloves of garlic, cucumbers, six cups of water, three cups of white vinegar, three tablespoons of sugar, and three tablespoons of canning salt.

- [Mary] It looks like we have all of the ingredients here.

How do we get started?

- [Teresa] First you just take your jar, make sure it's clean.

You put in four heads of dill, four cloves of garlic, and then you clean your pickles, you clean your cucumbers, you pack your jar, you have your brine going.

Your brine is your vinegar, water, salt, and sugar.

When it comes to a simmer, then you pour it over the cucumbers and then you seal it.

And you leave it on the counter for two days.

After that, you put it in the refrigerator and you enjoy the rest of the year.

- [Mary] That's it?

- [Teresa] That's it.

It's that simple.

- If you want to see this recipe or find a place you can buy locally grown dill, garlic and cucumbers, go to Minnesotagrown.com.

Tim, the size and scale of this is absolutely amazing.

But how do you decide what to grow, and how to figure out how much of everything to grow?

- So with all of our retailers, we have full visibility into what sells every day at those garden centers.

Our garden centers generally close around the 4th of July, so starting then, after the 4th of July holiday, we'll start planning for next year.

We'll look at what's sold at each retailer and decide how many hanging baskets, how many 1204s to plant, and how many four and a half inch.

Then for the next three months it takes us to plan and secure all of those inputs.

By December we start seeding.

- [Mary] So when you're talking about inputs, what do you mean by that?

- [Tim] So all of the seeds, all of the tags, all of the plastic pots.

We purchase all of that out of this facility for all of our growing locations.

- Do you start the crop by seeds or cuttings?

- So a lot of our stuff is from seeds, but we also do have cuttings that we stick in these ellepots, a little paper sock and the soil.

But a lot of the stuff is from seed production, like these peppers here, in these 162 cells.

- When you do seeding like into that, do you hand seed that?

- All of our seeding is done automatically with a drum seeder.

So the plug tray'll go through the flat filler, and get filled up with soil, makes a little indentation.

Then a stainless steel cylinder will actually vacuum up each seed and drop it in each row.

- Wow, then I've heard the term "primed seed."

What does that mean, and do you use some of that?

- So we do use some primed seed.

Mainly what it's used for is to even out germination.

So they actually almost force that seed to germinate prior to us seeding it.

A lot of crops, some crops are uneven to germinate.

So that just helps us.

And then pelleted seed is used quite a bit.

That's for really small seed, like a snap dragon and begonia, are just tiny, tiny seeds.

So they pelletize it to make it bigger.

And actually help with that drum seeder.

Tomatoes have actually a little cup to them, so that pelletizing fills in that cup and makes it easier to be vacuumed up.

- Do you do one crop of seeding?

Or do you seed like the same crop numerous times depending on where it's going to get shipped to?

- So we definitely stage out our sewing into multiple crops.

A lot of the things we do will be weekly, but most of the things are bi-weekly.

They can only hold for so long in this environment before they go out to the retail market.

- [Mary] Then do you have like a germination chamber at all?

- [Tim] We don't use a germination chamber here.

We have where we're standing now, this acre bay that we're in, actually has in-floor heat that we can regulate the temperature in each one of these zones to wherever we need it.

- [Mary] And then how do you water in this area with all of these babies?

- [Tim] So all of these benches that we're looking at, we call them a zone.

So the boom irrigators will come down and we can program them to water each table as needed, for all the different crops that are in.

And only when it gets closer to a finished size will we then water by hand, and spot water, as we call it.

- [Mary] Then when do you start fertilizing?

- [Tim] Generally we do a small fertilizer application right as that plant emerges and gets past the cotyledon stage, which is that first leaf.

Once it gets its first true leaf that's when we'll start the fertilization process.

And not a lot in the plugs.

That's more for the finished side.

- How long do you leave them here, and how do you know when it's time to move them?

- So everything's a little bit different.

Most of our seeded crops and our vegetative crops will be in their smaller cell for only about six weeks, before they make it to production.

We'll put 'em in this warm area where we're at now for only about half of that, maybe three to four weeks.

Then they transition to a cooler area where they strengthen up.

- You mentioned vegetative.

What is the difference between a vegetative and a seed grown plant?

And why two different things?

- So seeded items are generally a little bit less expensive, except some of the vegetables can be very expensive.

Cuttings are more of a patented item.

So we're required to use a vegetative cutting and most of them don't produce seed.

So we'll receive the cutting just like this.

And stick it into its tray here.

- You mentioned patented.

What does what does that mean?

Or what is the limitation on that?

- So a lot of the plant breeders, they own the rights to that plant.

They don't allow us to take that cutting.

We have to purchase that cutting and a license to use it.

We have to buy their tag.

We actually meet with a lot of the plant breeders.

See what's new and exciting for the next season.

- [Mary] How do you decide what new things to add and what old things to drop off?

- [Tim] That's the fun part.

You can see something in a catalog that may be the latest and greatest, but to do it on a massive scale we might not be able to get our hands on enough of it.

Or they'll limit it to a smaller grower.

So we meet with them maybe two years in advance and we have the luxury here of trialing some of the new products for the upcoming season.

To see how they do in our gardens, prior to getting 'em out to the public side.

- So when the plants get big enough here, then where do they go from here?

- Then they transition to our transplanting area, our production room.

- [Mary] Is that transplanting done by hand or a machine again?

- [Tim] Depending on the size, a lot of the familiar 1204 packs, the little cell packs that you buy, those are generally all done by machine.

A lot of the baskets and larger containers are done by hand still.

- [Mary] Tim, what do you use to seed all of these plants into?

- [Tim] So our mix is just a basic peat moss and perlite blend.

You can see some of the little flecks of white and gold in here.

It's just a more fine grind of peat moss and perlite.

It's the same mix we use in our finish side, which is just more coarse.

We'll use a coarser peat and a coarser perlite to add more aeration.

And at that point we'll add more micronutrients to it.

A slow release fertilizer, some different limes and each crop is slightly different.

But generally it's the same mix in both.

- [Mary] How do you know what to add for each crop?

- [Tim] So that's a little bit of experience with our top-notch growers here.

Each plant is a little bit different, but for the most part, a plants a plant.

- [Mary] When you fertilize, do you fertilize through the water system?

- [Tim] Yes, a lot of what we do in the plug side is liquid feed as well as the finish side.

We do at the production line add a slow release granular fertilizer, which is generally just for the consumer side of it.

It's not here long enough to activate.

So that's for when you take it home and put it in the ground or in your planter, that's when it will activate.

So hopefully you have to feed it less.

- [Mary] Would it be possible for us to go see the area where you actually transplant, and get the plants ready for shipping?

- Yeah, let's go see our production and shipping facility.

(piano music) - I have a question.

What are the best apples for a backyard gardener?

- Here in Minnesota, If you're thinking about putting apple trees in your backyard, there are a lot of different varieties that you can choose from.

If you're wanting something that's going to ripen early in the season, like in August, that's really good for fresh eating, I would recommend growing a Zestar.

Harvest your Zestar once the color on the apple is red and yellow.

If it's still green, leave it on the tree for a little longer.

If you want another early harvested apple that's more for baking, I would go for Paula Red.

Or you can also go for Centennial crabapples.

Crabapples are nice because they usually produce a lot of apples per tree.

They're also nice because if you have a kid in your life they're a little apple that a kid can easily eat.

If you're thinking along the lines of a mid-season or late season varieties, you have so many options.

One that's a personal favorite is Regent.

Regent is definitely another one of those older varieties which I think has a wonderful crunch and wonderful flavor.

Haralson is a classic favorite in Minnesota.

Haralson is best known for being a great pie apple.

It's a little more tart, that's why people usually love to use it for pie.

So those are a few of my recommendations for backyard apple varieties.

- [Station Narrator] Ask the Arboretum Experts has been brought to you by the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska.

Dedicated to welcoming, informing, and inspiring all through outstanding displays, protected natural areas, horticultural research, and education.

- Tim, at what stage are the plants transplanted?

- Generally, as soon as they have a good root structure.

Like I said, everything is four to six weeks to eight weeks.

So once they have a good root structure, we go ahead and bump them up.

I brought some of our vegetable sizes here that we offer.

Probably the one everybody's most common with, is just a four pack of annuals.

For commonly maybe red peppers or tomatoes.

Then we, we come up to those that want a single and a little more specialty varieties of peppers and tomatoes will be in our three and a half inch.

Then we do also carry our quart specialty vegetable line.

This is where you'll find your ghost peppers, and the Carolina Reaper, which was what I'm holding now.

I don't know how people can eat those things, (Mary laughing) but there's quite a following.

And then we do a six inch vegetable as well.

Six inch pepper and tomato as well.

Along with some patio tomatoes and peppers.

- Do the plants all get transplanted into the four packs and then get moved up to the bigger sizes?

Or do they get put directly into the bigger sizes?

- Most all of what we saw there with the vegetables, they come directly out of that plug, that small plug, and into their finished four pack or six inch.

When we do our larger combination planters, we'll essentially plant that small cutting into about a three and a half inch size.

Grow that on for just a few more weeks and then put them in their final patio planter.

On our soil line, our custom made soil line, we have the ability to change the amendments that go into it.

Generally it's just a peat-perlite mix.

But that's where we add the controlled release fertilizer, and the lime, and maybe a couple other things depending on the crop.

- [Mary] How about then when you get into the bigger sizes like the hanging baskets, and this beautiful planter that you've got right here?

Does that also have a different mixture then?

- Again, most all are the same.

This size container and larger is where we'll use that bump up step.

We'll put that smaller plug into a larger, and then it'll go into here.

So they play nice, a little quicker for us.

(Mary laughing) - Transplanting, is that done by hand, or do you again have a machine that can help with that?

- So the 1204 production is generally all done by machine.

We can just get so much more done with less people.

You get up to the three and a half inch and larger and that's all actually still done by hand.

- [Mary] When you do all of that, how do you end up putting the tags in?

Do you have a machine that does that?

Or does a person do that?

- [Tim] So I've been here 24 years now, and I have yet to see a machine that can tag.

So that is still a manual process.

- Do you have any issue with bugs or other pests here in the greenhouse?

- So we do have, just like at home.

We just start a little earlier here.

We do have the fungus gnats and the aphids and the shore flies.

We generally can take care of those.

It's the woodchucks and the gophers that'll come in and dig up the plants just after transplant and eat their stems off.

- [Mary] How does that happen?

I mean, you're in a greenhouse.

- [Tim] It is just plastic, remember.

(Mary laughing) Every animal's got a greenhouse key.

(Mary continues laughing) - How do you monitor for insects in a place this huge?

- So each section here has a section grower, and then some helpers underneath them.

It's their job in each section to scout daily for bugs.

We've got our crops that you survey first, and then your secondary crops.

If you find something there, you know you've gotta explore a little bit more.

So we do use a lot of beneficial insects.

I guess the best way to describe them, because I cannot pronounce any of their names, are they're good bugs that eat bad bugs.

And a lot of what we do here is controlled by those beneficial insects to minimize the use of pesticides.

- [Mary] So that is something that you are very conscious of here, at Dan and Jerry's?

- [Tim] Absolutely.

There's still use for pesticides.

And when applied properly they are completely safe.

- When you have so many different sizes of plants how do you water those plants?

- A lot of the larger patio pod containers are on a drip irrigation system.

We'll set them out spaced, and run that drip line right through.

It's just a pinky size line that drips a drip emitter.

But most everything in the greenhouse is watered by hand.

- [Mary] When do you start shipping?

- [Tim] Shipping generally starts week 15 we call it, which is about mid to late April.

Again, we're in the upper Midwest, so it's still not warm enough today to ship.

- [Mary] And how do you determine what goes to which location?

- [Tim] So again, we've got sales history from all the years we've worked with our retailers.

Just years of experience, knowing when to ship the warm product and when to ship the cool product.

- [Mary] Do you have to package the plants at all to take into effect cold, so they don't get damaged?

- [Tim] Oh yes.

All of our trucks, even now.

As we're a week before Mother's Day.

There's heaters in all the trucks.

And at our retail locations, most all of them have a greenhouse with a supplemental heat inside.

- [Mary] Do you use special trucks then?

- [Tim] Yep, we use 30 foot box trucks with heaters in 'em, and most of our product is shipped on semis.

53 foot tractor trailers.

And again, heaters in all those trucks.

- [Mary] Do you ship to the same locations each week, so that as they're running out of product they can get ahold of you and say, "Hey I need more of your beautiful hanging baskets."

- [Tim] So yep, we monitor their daily sales at all locations.

Most all of our stores get every other day shipments.

A lot of the larger stores in more populated areas they will get daily shipments from us, to keep that product fresh.

- This has been so interesting, and I thank you so much for letting us and our Prairie, Yard, and Garden viewers come and see your beautiful place.

- [Tim] Thank you for the opportunity.

I was really happy to show you around.

- [Mary] Thanks again.

- You're welcome.

(gentle music) - [Station Narrator] Funding for Prairie, Yard, and Garden is provided by Heartland Motor Company.

Providing service to Minnesota and the Dakotas for over 30 years.

In the heart of truck country.

Heartland Motor Company, we have your best interest at heart.

Farmer's Mutual Telephone Company and Federated Telephone Cooperative.

Proud to be powering Acira.

Pioneers in bringing state-of-the-art technology to our rural communities.

Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen, in honor of Shalom Hill Farm.

A non-profit rural education retreat center in a beautiful prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

And by Friends of Prairie, Yard, and Garden.

A community of supporters like you who engage in the long-term growth of the series.

To become a friend of Prairie, Yard, and Garden, visit pioneer.org/pyg.

(ambient music)