'It's a totally different concept... I couldn't be happier.'

Added on 14 February 2025

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'It's a totally different concept... I couldn't be happier.'

Alden Brown, Selle Farm

Alden Brown has been at Selle Farm, near Wrightstown, New Jersey, for going on ten years. As Manager, he’s responsible for seeing to all aspects of growing, production and shipping of the four-generation family farm.

Selle Farms has about four acres of crops under glass, with the propagation part of the business a key function.

“We sell spring bedding plants, fall mums,” says Brown. “Some popular varieties are Vinca, Sunpatiens and Begonias. We’re about 85% annuals, 15% perennials and a small amount of produce.”

Alden met with Svensson at the Cultivate show in Ohio, where he was looking for a solution to improve some sporadic issues with botrytis that had been affecting the propagation house.

“It was frustrating,” he remembers. “We would bring plants almost to finishing, where they were ready for transplant and just in the last few days we’d see the botrytis affecting pockets of the crop.”

“Paul Arena turned me on the ventilation idea,” recalls Brown. “He brought one fan to the farm so we could try it out and that was extremely helpful”. Having a small-scale trial with one fan gave Brown some ideas that turned out to be critical.