Tom Estabrook gives a tour of his enormous new greenhouse that has all the latest technology in horticulture.
POWNAL, Maine — Estabrook’s has two garden centers, one in Yarmouth and another in Kennebunk, but the family-owned business recently opened an enormous state-of-the-art greenhouse in Pownal.
“[It’s] 55,000 square feet of new greenhouse,” Tom Estabrook boasted with pride. “The most state-of-the-art greenhouse for horticulture in the state of Maine.”
Estabrook said the greenhouse can hold 150,000 to 200,000 4-inch pots and 9,000 hanging baskets.
All the hanging baskets are suspended from the ceiling on a motorized track system, similar to the kind you’d see at a dry cleaner’s, so they can be rotated around the greenhouse to be weighed for watering and fertilizer.
All the plants grow the same and look identical.
The floor is an engineering marvel.
All the plants in their pots sit on the floor, which is flooded with about 2 inches of fertilized enriched water. When the plants are done being watered, all of the liquid drains back into holding bins and gets recycled, so there is no waste and no runoff.
Heat and shade curtains help save energy, and all-natural venting allows for limited electricity use. Everything is controlled by a computer system.
“We can run it with our phone,” Estabrook revealed as he whipped out his phone.
The greenhouse has a water room where all the magic happens.
Water from rain and snow is captured off the roof of the greenhouse and stored in a 2-million-gallon pond out back. The water is then filtered and enriched with fertilizer. All the water is recycled. All the water is filtered, sanitized, and held in large storage tanks in the room.
“This is all filtering that water. Treating it with ozone,” Estabrook explained. “We’re actually pulling the oxygen out of the greenhouse, releasing carbon monoxide back for the plants to use and injecting that oxygen into the water. What that does is kill the pathogens in the water, so we don’t have to use a lot to keep the plants happy.”
The new technology is exciting, but Estabrook said it will never take away from his employees—it will only give them time to focus on other important tasks.
The greenhouse also holds an automated production line where seedlings are planted into pots with the Estabrook name.
“The transplanter is doing the work,” Estabrook explained. “Now, the beautiful part about the transplanter is that everything is potted exactly at the same depth. We get much more consistent. It takes a lot of the repetitious stuff off the employees.”
This new state-of-the-art greenhouse is just the beginning. Estabrook said there are plans to build three more.
“As a family, this is a big step for us. It’s a big step for the state of Maine,” he said. “It’s something we’re passionate about, so it’s a pretty exciting time.”
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