Lucas Greenhouse | Lucas GREEN

Our plants are Grown Right. Here. By growing plants here, we avoid the transportation costs and fuel consumption necessary to bring in finished plants from somewhere else. Many garden centers do not grow all of their products, they are trucked in from a wholesale grower from as far away as California or Canada.

Biodegradable containers. We have been packing many of our annual six-packs in fiber trays for several years. These trays will degrade naturally in a few years' time, so unlike plastic packs, when you throw them away they will actually help landfill sites. In addition, we are continuing to research more ecologically-friendly containers. You should expect to see even more green choices for pots and packs in 2008!

Using recycled materials. Many of the plastic flats, packs and pots we use are made from recycled plastic. In many cases we re-use larger pots if we can clean and sterilize them to our standards.

Recycling used pots. We will gladly take back any plastic pots, packs or flats you purchased from us. If we can clean and re-use them, fine. If not we make sure we recycle them appropriately.

Integrated Pest Management. We practice Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Some greenhouses simply apply pesticides to their entire operation on a regular basis, whether necessary or not. We intelligently and regularly scout for insects and other damaging pests at their earliest stages in order to avoid large outbreaks later. IPM allows us to more proactively treat infected areas in the greenhouse which means we use fewer pesticides. Fewer pesticides in the greenhouse means less ecological impact and a safer environment for our employees and customers.

Biological Pest Controls. We are currently planning to implement biological pest controls in addition to IPM practices. Biological Controls, which you will hear much more about soon, uses a greenhouse pest's natural enemies to control them. This allows us to significantly reduce or eliminate the use of chemical pesticides. This will help protect our environment, ensure the health of our employees and customers, reduce the development of tolerance to chemicals by those insects and even produce healthier plants! We are one of three greenhouses in New York State working with Cornell University to deploy these controls through a federal grant program.

Energy Efficiency. We are currently evaluating several sources of renewable energy, including solar and geo-thermal energy. While a longer-term project, we believe it is crucial to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Over time this will help the environment as well as keep our costs down, which means lower prices for our customers.

Organic fertilizer. We are exploring the use of 100% organic fertilizers for 2008 and beyond. While we will be experimenting on a few crops in 2008 (see if you can guess which ones!) we expect to become more and more organic in future years. We also hope to be able to provide more organic fertilizers for home use as well.

If you have any questions or comments about Lucas GREEN or sustainable floriculture in general, please e-mail tom@lucasgh.com

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Our page is currently under construction and some pages may not be complete. Any feedback can be sent to tom@lucasgh.com. Thank You!