Most of the time, nurseries located in the country or in rural areas are suppliers to local markets. Especially if the plants produced are also offered to the end customer in your own company or one of the family, often with additional services such as floristry or products that you would usually find in garden centers in the big city. The requirements for automation are certainly completely different than for large pure production companies. Therefore, the question sometimes arises to what extent it is economical at all.
Even if it is not always clear, one can say with certainty that the necessary investment for a suitable system has fallen to an affordable level in most cases over the last decade and is therefore worthwhile in the majority of cases in any case. Another factor is that in this environment of diverse products, there is little time anyway to take care of the ideal ventilation position throughout the day.
However, in order to keep the costs manageable, the disadvantage of the smaller units (compared to large-scale production) should be turned into an advantage. Due to the shorter cable routes, it often makes sense to set up an automation system from one or at most two central points. Very often there are only a handful of functions that should run automatically anyway. Our photo example (Höglinger nursery in Sarleinsbach) shows a control cabinet for 4 units, in which the electrics for all drives, the computer, which runs them automatically if the gardener wishes, and the device that, if necessary, forwards an alarm to the family's mobile phones, all neatly and compactly summarized. With this and the possibility of reducing the acquisition costs by one piece by doing your own work or local support, it pays off in the short term.
Maybe you haven't thought about all the factors, or you assumed that the desire for comfort cannot be substantiated with economic arguments. But that should definitely be raised.
Do you want a profitability analysis for automating your nursery?
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If there is a reasonable approach to the level of automation in your operation, then we will find it together with you.
