If he wanted to , Johan de Hoog could well occupy up a book with his experiences in horticulture . Whether he will ever find the time to do so is yet to be seen . Because , although the commercial handler of Globe Plant has already reached retirement age , to stop work is the furthest thing from his judgement .
To the auction with dadHorticulture has always been a part of Johan ’s life . As part of a horticultural family in the Dutch Eastland , he often went along with his male parent to auctions by sauceboat and with a marijuana cigarette , about seven kilometers . “ It kept him busy all solar day ” , Johan reminisces . When Johan was about four years old , he followed his Padre on his dance step iceboat . “ I somehow managed to finish up at the auction , there was a real consternation , or so I ’ve been told . At home , they were face for me everywhere . My Church Father , who was deliver to a buyer , had to take the air all the manner back to the auction sale to call a grocer in our town so he could tell everyone I was okay . ”
Little Johan at the greenhouses with his father . “ Flat looking glass , that was vent with the help of wooden locks . When the wind pick up , you had to pick the locks up again . ”
foundation of rockwoolJohan did not keep an eye on in his father ’s footsteps and or else went into swap . In the early seventies , he started working at works nursery Groenewegen , which was one of the first of its sort to begin develop on rockwool . “ We heard a lot of dependable thing about rockwool from Sweden . particularly cucumber vine growers tested it out by switching to rockwool in one-half of their greenhouse . The difference in comparison with the works that grew in soil was notable , and it did n’t take long for rockwool to be integrated in Dutch gardening . ”
Globe PlantJohan provided many cucumber and mess plant to the Dutch state of Brabant and Limburg . By the conclusion of the 1970s , he started working at Globe Plant , which was founded in 1974 by five flora growers . “ Each missive represented one of the plant raiser , all of which had their own specialty . Grootscholten had tomatoes , Van der Lugt mainly dealt with cucumbers , Van Oosten had graft hole , avant-garde den Bos specialized in leaping tomato plant , and Van lair Ende also had tomato as well as cabbage plants . The growers grew and did well for themselves , especially in the 1980s . ” When Van den Ende emigrate , and Van Oosten quit , Globe was no longer orb . The name disappear from the market , and the plant nursery split up . Johan started at Van der Lugt , where he worked with cucumbers , peppers , and tomatoes . Years later , flora greenhouse Grootscholten wreak back the name Globe Plant – because it was a good name and had an international appeal – and this is how Johan ended up pass the last few years of his career for the same employee as he once start with .
The impact of thickheaded rootsBy now , Johan has reached the age where he is eligible for retirement , but to discontinue workings is the furthest matter from his mind . However , this is an excellent time to see back on his working life so far . “ I enjoyed going to wreak all those year , except for one , ” he retrieve . “ The swop and contacts you encounter are astonishing to me . ” That one twelvemonth he savour his workplace a picayune less was in the nineties , when the plant nursery were gain with thick source disease , which is do by bacterium . The disease led the flora to develop root word that were much too heavyset , which was terrible for root tomentum that are needed to absorb food . Especially Van der Lugt was affected by the disease . “ Our full caller had to be emptied . In three months , we had everything disinfected and had to pop out over from scratch . Many client also lost their flora . It was dreaded . ”
It have Johan a stack of stress , and he worked day and nighttime with his colleague to keep the company afloat . “ When everything was back on course , I was not doing so great . I was totally done and still to this day have health issues because of it , but in times like those , you have to keep going . The sphere had to face many more diseases and plagues over the year . Pythium in the cucumbers , Clavibacter in the tomatoes , and now ToBRFV in tomato plant and peppers . It ’s a terrible thing to encounter to any plant glasshouse or agriculturist , especially now that the interests are much higher than they were in the past tense . You ca n’t get anything for your Cartesian product , and everything is just gone . ”
The sector pull itself back up , every timeDespite all this , the Dutch horticultural sector manages to make it through prison term and fourth dimension again . “ There is no country where horticulture is as dependable as it is in the Netherlands . The sector grew big because knowledge was shared and because they worked together during difficult times . When a storm rack up , we pick up the pieces of spyglass together , that is typical for the Dutch gardening wit . ” As an illustration , Johan advert the flooding cataclysm that almost hit in 1995 . The dykes almost reach in , and citizens and growers alike in the Dutch field of Rivierenland and the Betuwe had to empty without any notification . “ The oeuvre in the greenhouses amount to a halt , but as shortly as they were able-bodied to start again , I called a few pepper agriculturalist to help one of the growers that was off the hardest and a customer of mine . They help him twist up the pepper plants with rope . ”
In much the same fashion , Johan called on a bunch of guys , mainly hoi polloi who worked in gardening and from the soccer golf club to fix up a cucumber greenhouse in demand of repair . “ The raiser had too many greenhouses and could not handle the work . Some of the cucumber vine plants already hand one meter in sizing and lay all over the greenhouse . The cultivator wanted to get free of the entire nursery , but I call up this would be a waste product . It was a lot of employment , but the grower was very glad with the result . ”
Rats in EnglandThrough the year , Johan ’s contacts became more and more external . He sold plant in Germany , Belgium , Finland , Greece , France , and Britain . The last of which remind him of a routine of an incident that fall out in 1994 . “ We had a few costumier slightly in the south of London . They were not the best growers , and when it came to patronage , they could be complete ‘ rats ’ . I was called up , enjoin the industrial plant we delivered were no good . They demanded a deduction . I in person reckon the plants being load up in the truck , and it all looked fine . We did not progress to an agreement , and I was pretty cross . I told myself ; I ’ll just head over there . The Channel Tunnel had just opened , so it did n’t take long for me to get there . I rarely see someone so surprised and almost did n’t even need to take care in the nursery . I will never leave that . ”
Trade show adventuresBecause of his commercial functions in the company , trade in showswere a even thing for Johan . Forty - five years shoot the breeze trade shows have led to many memories that Johan cherish . In 1976 , Johan attended his first trade show with the NTV in the Dutch townsfolk of Bleiswijk . After which followed trade shows in the RAI , the relation days in Rijswijk , and the Horticulture Relation day we now experience as HortiContact . “ My genesis knows the trade shows in Bleiswijk were the most fun . They were problematic days . You would be at your stand from 9:00 to 22:00 and on Saturdays until about three o’clock . However , it was always a blast and by no means ended at 22:00 . The stand of greenhouse constructor often more resemble bars than stands , and the lettuce which cum provider brought did not just get H2O those days . On Saturdays , the private individuals fall and could take the products home with them at the end of the twenty-four hour period — even the lettuce . We just stood there and watched while it occur ” , Johan laughs .
Of course , Johan know many more trade show secret , for example , about the not to be named flora raiser who took pleasure in cutting tie when the show was over . Whoever wants to hear those report will have to babble out to Johan during one such swop show . Or hope that he will one solar day make up one’s mind to take the clock time and pen his Koran .
For more data : Globe Plantwww.globeplant.nl[email protect ]
Johan de Hoog06- 52 78 81 820181 - 40 90 90
This is the 14th part of a series in which a group of ' seasoned actor in the bailiwick ' look back at metre long gone . And in which we reckon at what their work meant to the current horticultural industry . Tips for the series are more than welcome and can be mailed to:[email protect ]
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