Can you perfect plant production?

Meet Greenhouse Grower's 2020 Head Grower of the Year, Aleski Yosifov. As Head Grower at Pleasant View Gardens in New Hampshire, he strives to produce a high-quality crop each season.
Photo by Gil Talbot Photography

That's great, you might say, so does almost every other grower in this industry. It's the reason they entered the world of horticulture.

Talk to him a little more, however, and you'll discover even more passions. Teamwork. Education. Knowledge (which is different from education). And perhaps most importantly, problem solving.

I interviewed Yosifov, Greenhouse Grower's 2020 Head Grower of the Year, over Zoom before putting this story together. But it wasn't a run-of-the-mill, face-to-face discussion. As he went through some of the processes he's put in place at Pleasant View Gardens to plan production on a daily schedule, he got out of his chair, walked me (or, to be more specific, my face on his computer) over to an area where he had mapped out the schedule, and showed me in detail the system he'd developed, and how his team has put it into action.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have prevented me from having an in-person conversation with Aleksi. But that didn't stop him from sharing the excitement he obviously felt in recognizing that something wasn't working and figuring out a better way to do it.

It's something Aleksi has been doing his whole life.

An Early Education

Aleksi Yosifov grew up in Bulgaria, and like many others, his summer jobs as a teenager involved working on farms. Following that, between his time serving in the Bulgarian army and then enlisting in college, he decided to buy a couple acres of land where he grew tomatoes. He learned about developing the plants in low tunnels before moving them to the field, and he found a customer in a local processing factory. By the time he was accepted into the local agriculture university as a plant protection specialist, he had already learned some important lessons.

"I began to understand the value of teamwork, because I could not have done that early farming without help from friends," Aleksi says. "I also learned if I put my mind to it, I can do it, even with challenges. It gave me a push to develop myself, and [I learned] the importance of planning ahead."

Moving up the Chain

After graduating with a four-year degree in plant protection, with a focus on life cycles and disease management, Aleksi came to the U.S. via an internship program with Pleasant View Gardens. He spoke no English, so he worked on the production team as a pot mover.

"But I was very much interested in growing plants and getting rewarded with a good product, so I took classes after work to learn English," Aleksi says.

Over time, Aleksi gradually moved up the chain at Pleasant View. Even when full-time positions were not available, he would work on the weekends as an assistant. This caught the attention of the section grower Aleksi worked for at the time, who suggested he become a full-time assistant grower. As he took on more responsibilities, he began to learn more about what it took to produce a high-quality product, including the importance of irrigation.

Aleksi's passion for plant production continued to grow, and he became focused on learning more about the details of cuttings, liners, and propagation.

"I would sometimes sneak into the propagation area just to see how the booms worked," Aleksi says. "I was fascinated."

Once again, he caught the attention of the Head Grower at the time (current Pleasant View Operations Manager Mike Goyette), who moved him full-time into the propagation department.

"There I learned the value of crop management and how important even the smallest details are to propagation," Aleksi says. "The propagator at the time told me that once you solve problems related to mismanagement of the crop, everything else would fall into place."

The promotions continued from there, from section growing to eventually becoming a Head Grower himself.

"The Head Grower in Loudon is Noah Derohanian, and we share the same goal of producing high-quality plants," Aleksi says. "We grow the same varieties in the same container sizes, so good communication between us is critical."

The Value of Learning and Adapting

As a Head Grower at Pleasant View, Aleksi's primary focus has been on looking for better ways to do things, even if that means diverging from long-established routines, and then educating his team on the how and the why.

One great example of this is the use of Picas software to create a roadmap to producing a better plant. Aleksi started this process by helping his team shift from taking notes on the crop by hand to entering all the information into a spreadsheet. And yet, he wasn't satisfied.

"Crop reports were pulled by the week, and I struggled to complete a week's worth of activities, so I decided to develop my own process," Aleksi says. "Now the report is broken down into a daily schedule, so our team members know what they have to do each day, whether it's spraying for downy mildew or something else. The idea was to reduce stress levels, while at the same time increasing quality."

Another example came a couple years ago, when Aleksi noticed that cuttings from offshore farms were coming in with foliar diseases.

"We had a conference call with our offshore suppliers and set up misting and pinching guidelines," Aleksi says.

With help from the team at Griffin, those guidelines have turned into a plant recipe program designed to ensure a consistent crop.

"When you walk through the crop, you can see the uniformity and understand why it's important to pay attention to even the smallest details."

And yet, the education process continues for Aleksi Yosifov. He is a regular attendee of AmericanHort's Plug and Cutting Conference, where he's able to connect with researchers and other growers to get ideas on improving plant quality. He is also active with the Floriculture Research Alliance and uses that as an opportunity to connect with his peers.

Teamwork is the foundation for all phases of plant production at Pleasant View Gardens, and Aleksi Yosifov (second from right) is a key part of that.
Photo by Gil Talbot Photography

A True Team Focus

When you go back to the lessons Aleksi learned early in his horticulture career, they are all tied to the value of teamwork.

"At Pleasant View, our team tries to meet every week for a walk-around to keep upper management informed," Aleksi says. "We walk through every zone in every greenhouse, watch for trouble spots, and come up with solutions in a timely manner. We also meet after the liner season and talk about what worked well and what needs to be changed for the next season."

Teamwork is especially important when you're working across multiple facilities. For a long time, Pleasant View's Loudon, NH, and Pembroke, NH, facilities worked off the same environmental monitoring system, which caused a lot of confusion.

"We reset the Argus system back to its factory default settings and started from scratch, setting up customized platforms for each location," Aleksi says. "We then had to train everyone on how the system worked and how it could be adapted as we added more zones and planned for expansion of the Pembroke facility."

For Aleksi Yosifov, much of plant production is based on trial and error. For example, he points to the development of a new premium liner for Proven Winners' line of Superbells calibrachoa.

"We've been doing trials on ways to improve branching so we can give the customer a better product," he says. "We rank them on a scale of eight branches or above being better and experiment with light and pinching to get the lower-branching varieties to perform better."

After all, as Aleksi says, there's always room for improvement.

"I never stop trying to grow a better product," he says.

It's a philosophy every grower should follow.

Do You Want Fries With That?

The first crop Aleksi Yosifov ever grew was tomatoes from his home of Bulgaria. He was able to produce a nice crop and managed to find a buyer at a local processor. However, the company kept putting off paying Aleksi, right up to when he was just about to depart for university study. They did end up paying him — in the form of ketchup.

"They gave me boxes and boxes of ketchup, which I was supposed to sell," Aleksi says. "Needless to say, all my friends and family received bottles of ketchup for Christmas."

Words of Praise

Here's what Aleksi's peers had to say about him when they nominated him for the Head Grower of the Year award:

"Aleksi Yosifov is incredibly passionate about growing, and he's deep into the weeds when it comes to fine-tuning his crops. He's never satisfied, always trying to make the next crop his best crop, though he doesn't let this drive to perfection stall his naturally upbeat personality. Aleksi is hands on with his growing team and provides them with an organized approach to their work and clear expectations. If he sees something out of line, he doesn't hesitate to provide the coaching needed to get things back on track, and he does it in a way that isn't overbearing or disrespectful."

"We've had many of the top growers and players in the industry come through our facilities, and I can assure you that as soon as you mention Aleksi's name, they would tell you how detailed of a grower he is and how passionate he is about what he does. Our cutting suppliers walk through our facilities each year, too, and they often comment, 'That's the best we've seen that look anywhere.' A typical response from Aleksi would be, 'Wait until you see the next group, it's even better.'"

Source: Greenhouse Grower

Source: Greenhouse Grower