KB Mother’s Day Greenhouse BBQ

The sales have been analyzed, costs have been studied, the market dissected, and we believe we had a good Mother’s Day.  Yeah!!  Our current obsession is greenhouse events.  

What better event than a company BBQ in the greenhouse!

Juana and Rich bought the meat and other goodies.  Rich cooked and Kiyoshi showed up for the pictures.  We borrowed the grill from Dick Piexoto who is a tenant and the organic produce King. 

Rich and Kiyoshi

Serving was Jimmy, Stuart, Carol, Maria, Linda and Karen.  It was delicious chicken and steak from La Comena.  We finally have figured out the correct amount of beans, rice, salad, salsa and tortillas.        

We finished with ice cream bars which was the reward from a sales challenge. 

Thanks everyone for the hard work this past holiday, Jimmy thought it was one of the most challenging…

RHK

Thoughtful Flowers

As a flower grower since 1948, Kitayama Brothers have had many opportunities to donate our beautiful flowers to different causes, events, shows and organizations throughout the years.

It feels good to do good, even more so, when the donation was to a worthy cause right here in our hometown. Below are a couple of pictures from Second Harvest Food Bank Santa Cruz County at their recent Volunteer Lunch.

www.kitayamabrothers.com

www.thefoodbank.org

~ Linda Nguyen

What About Water?

Over the past year when we give a tour at KB Farms, the first question we are asked is, “what about water?”  You can’t open the paper without an article about the California drought and the future of water in the state.  Flower growers like the rest of agriculture depends on water, therefore, we are very concerned about its quality and quantity now and in the future.  We are taking major steps to reduce our water usage without compromising quality.

DRIP IRRIGATION:

Kitayama Brothers instituted the most basic method of water savings over 15 years ago when we converted all our crops to drip irrigation away from sprinklers or nozzle spray irrigation. 

WATER RECYCLING SYSTEM:

This year Kitayama Brothers completed our gerbera water recycling system.  

The system is beneficial for two reasons; one is to use the recycled water but also to use the recycled fertilizer.  

We collect the water from the hydroponic gerbera system with white PVC pipe collectors.  

The recycled water is then sent to collecting tanks where the water and fertilizer are filtered and reused on our field crops.  

Here is a picture of the recycle tanks and recycle system next to a new collection pond for greenhouse roof runoff.







TENSIOMETERS:

My sister-in-law, Carol Kitayama graduated in horticulture and does projects for KB.  One of her current projects is to experiment with tensiometers to measure our water usage versus the actual water needs of the plant.  Conventional wisdom was that over-watering was better than under-watering especially in our sandy soil.  However, with data from the tensiometers we believe we could cut our water use by 10-20%.  

Tensiometers are commonly used in the fields with produce; we believe KB is the first to experiment with tensiometers in the greenhouse.

Next year is supposed to be an El Nino year in California which could result in a lot of rain.  That would be great, but that won’t solve our long term problem.  Just like every other problem in life, it will require thinking and hard work to overcome this threat.

~ RHK

Kitayama Brothers - CA Flower Growers since 1948

Re-imagining Greenhouses

Would you like to meet here?

A week ago we held a meeting in our greenhouse.  It was in a section of one of the ranges that held old and unproductive stephanotis.  So, instead of planting more gerberas or other flowers, we are trying to figure out: are there other uses that would return more value than flowers? 

The stephanotis was not very profitable, we were only making about $600 net profit per year on a 5,000 sq ft. section.  Gerbera daisies would probably return approximately $2500 net profit for the same amount of sq ft. This does not count the costs to plant the gerbera daisies.  Since we don’t need more production for the next 8 months, we are thinking of other uses that could bring as much value as flowers back to KB.  

It might be an exercise in futility, but it will be fun trying.

The meeting was fine, but it did get a little hot during the middle of the day.  It would be easy to add more cooling via ventilation or fans.  We have discussed holding other types of events such as greenhouse dinners, cocktail receptions, corporate events, etc., to take advantage of the amazing views inside and outside.  Long term we toy with the ideas of greenhouse tours with retail space like the winery model.  

Who knows if anything will develop, but it doesn’t cost us much to try.  

We will not quit growing flowers since that is what we do.  

However, there isn’t a more beautiful greenhouse location in the United States, 

and taking advantage of the views - Pajaro Valley and Monterey Bay - should not be overlooked.

~ RHK

PROM IS A BIG DEAL

Anyone who thinks that high school kids are jaded, and don’t get excited about anything; have not witnessed the modern day prom.  Last weekend was prom at Palo Alto High School.  My daughter Maya and her friends have been planning this day for about 6 months!

Maybe a wedding includes more dress shopping and Facebook posting than prom, but maybe not.  A new development is asking which one is the new category of performance art, where one-upmanship is taken to a whole new level.  As long as it is fun and no one gets hurt, I guess it is OK, not that it matters what parents think. As for prom flowers, here are a few examples of what I saw:

Bowen’s boutonnière was done by one of KB’s salesmen, John Bagnall, who is very creative and can dress up a white mini calla nicely.

One of Maya’s good friends received a light up corsage; I thought that was a cute touch.

As much as I prefer the flower corsage, I have to give the duct tape corsage its due.

These are all great kids and they will be off to college and the rest of their life next year.  It is nice to be able to watch them have that last bit of High School fun before the next big step.

~ Robert Kitayama

 

KB Gardenias Galore

We are on a campaign to give KB gardenias a better home.  

This is a sad picture from our gardenia foreman Artemio Garcia who spends a lot of time growing the finest gardenias. He is standing next to a dumpster of his “babies.”  

 

A BETTER HOME!

This is a the time of year that gardenias flourish, and you can call your KB Salesperson and get a deal on stemmed gards, select gards, sem-gards or work gardenias.  We have increased our gardenia production because we are often asked about “fragrant” flowers, and nothing is more fragrant than gardenias.  

If you believe that gardenias do not last, try our stemmed gardenias. They are cut in the bud stage and shipped with a 8-10 inch stem. You can put them in vases and they will open within 2-3 days and last another 3-4 days.  They are a great value and we can pack many in a box.  Go ahead and tell your sales person you read about stemmed gards from this blog and he or she will give you 10 cents off per stem.  Offer good through April 18^th.

 

~ Robert Kitayama