Mum unrooted cutting production to Southern California

According to Emily Mason, Regional Director of Programs at Dümmen Orange, the move will help the company remain nimble in its production strategy and ramp up availability to meet seasonal needs.

"We can do very intensive production trials here, and we can also adapt the production to meet environmental needs or customer needs with timing or with specifics," Mason says.

New for 2021, all Dümmen Orange chrysanthemums for both garden mums (VitaMum) and pot crop mums have moved south from Oxnard, CA, down to the coastal city of Encinitas.

This change provides a number of benefits, including weather, expertise, and staff. Southern California's coastal conditions are ideal for year-round quality cutting production. Having the cuttings at the Dümmen Orange facility where all mum research and development is done on new varieties provides expertise in successfully growing and completely understanding the crops before they go into commercial production, Mason notes. Dümmen's staff members will be onsite for trialing, growing, order entry, and shipping, which allows for faster communication and agility for last-minute customer requests.

Sylwia Vaclavek, Farm Manager at Dümmen Orange, will be on-site overseeing all mum unrooted cutting production and shipping. Having decades of stock management experience, she will handle forecasting, planning, and production of the mum crops at the facility.

The consolidation of Dümmen Orange's core strengths into one facility is designed to benefit its customers and the industry as a whole. Production can quickly increase for different times of the year, such as Easter or Mother's Day, to meet seasonal needs. Conducting thorough production trials allows for intensive product stock evaluation. The ability to respond quickly to customer needs and make changes to the production schedule based on climate and local growing conditions are all valuable assets.

Breeding and trialing activities at the current site also allows Dümmen Orange personnel to evaluate and observe their breeding pipeline, make the best possible selections related to mum timing and families, and provide the best quality cuttings for mum production season.

Source and Photo Courtesy of Greenhouse Grower

Source: Greenhouse Grower