Leading NZ nursery for vegetable & forestry seedlings

The management team of Nga Rakau Nurseries, located in northwest Auckland, aims for three key principles for their business: delivering (1) the right number of plants, (2) of the right quality, and (3) at the right time.

When you find out that they grow more than 1,000 different plant varieties and species, and supply more than 70 million seedlings a year to other growers, it’s clear that there’s a considerable level of complexity to producing seedling plants on this scale.

Nga Rakau Nurseries produces a wide range of transplant vegetable seedlings, bedding plants, herbs, native revegetation seedlings, container-grown forestry seedlings including tissue culture propagated redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) and kiwifruit seedlings.

Owner and director Mark Struthers has long had a passion for figuring out efficiency improvements for every step in their growing process.

The business was started by his grandfather who grew pip, stonefruit and hedging trees. In time, this evolved into Mark’s parents and aunt running a busy garden centre and florist in Don Buck Road, Massey. They grew their own vegetable and flower seedlings in flat trays, which were pricked out by hand before being grown into saleable seedlings.

A trip to the United States in the mid-1980s highlighted the option of using cell trays for germinating seedlings.

Greg Palmer, Nga Rakau’s General Manager, started with the nursery in Don Buck Road in 1992 as an apprentice and remembers hand sowing in open trays. He’s been a part of the development of Nga Rakau Nurseries into a highly sophisticated and efficient nursery operation producing some of the highest quality transplants in New Zealand.

“In those days, vegetable growers mostly grew their own seedlings and pricked them out to grow on. We were one of the first nurseries in New Zealand to produce vegetable and bedding plants sown into cell trays, initially only for the family-run garden centre.

“It wasn’t long before a celery grower asked us to grow his seedlings, then other growers wanted hundreds of trays of broccoli, lettuce and other vegetables. 

“A relationship with Zealandia Nurseries developed and we started producing large numbers of bedding annuals on a weekly basis from seed in cell trays. We quickly expanded to a commercial scale operation as cell-grown seedlings became more sought after.”

The business moved to Mudgeways Road, Massey where it was entirely dedicated to seedling cell production, and they introduced what may have been the first rolling bench system in New Zealand. Twelve years ago, when a second site was established in Taupaki, they had the opportunity to start with a clean slate, improving the flow of seedling trays through the nursery.

“Now, all of our growing areas, both inside and out, have a custom-made rolling bench system and overhead Urbanati irrigation booms which can be run automatically at regular intervals to maximise germination, and maintain consistent and uniform crops.

“We have always invested heavily in technology, and our software systems allow tracking of crops from seed lot through to despatch. These systems also track our orders from scheduling through all stages of production and shipping.

“Last year, the level of our automation in the production area went up a step with another custom-designed and built improvement – a more advanced self-loading bench system complete with QR coding to enable traceability throughout the nursery. This will soon be supported by an automatic labelling system of our trays to again improve efficiency and enable us to remain very competitive with our pricing.”

The nursery uses four seedling machines and employs 25 people across the two sites, with additional contractors during the forestry seedling packing season. The Massey site hosts the more specialised crops and tissue-cultured material. The Taupaki site is predominantly vegetable and flower seedlings. Together, there is approx. two hectares of covered growing areas and two hectares of outside, terraced growing areas.

“We have always asked ourselves, what’s the worst job in the nursery? How can we find a better way? This extends from the design of our custom-made frames and rolling bench systems, to a large hydraulic scissor lift frame dispenser to investing in some really good barcoding and software systems. We have continued to invest in multiple machines for handling trays and producing plants on scale such as washers, stackers, de-stackers, soil blenders, covering units, popping machines and conveyors.”

The automation extends to environmental control systems which maintain temperature, humidity and light to achieve optimal growing conditions.  

Greg has a drive to produce seedlings of the highest quality and says when you’re producing this volume of seedlings, it’s vital to pay close attention. He walks the rows regularly. “The fussiest people make the best growers.”

Good watering practices and correct fertigation play a huge role in producing the perfect plant with the right root-to-shoot ratios suitable for transplant machines. Cultural methods of pest and disease prevention and control are vital, and supported by chemical and biological methods. Often the window of opportunity to spray is small and the correct chemical selection is important in order to tackle a problem quickly.  

“We have enjoyed a long-standing relationship with PGG Wrightson and Fruitfed Supplies for 40 years. William Moss, our Fruitfed Supplies Representative, is knowledgeable and offers great suggestions for tackling a broad range of pests and fungal diseases. Like our former Representative Craig Lamb, William is well prepared with details on rates and pre-harvest intervals, especially for short turnaround crops like hydroponic basil which might be harvested only four weeks after we dispatch it. Some of the chemicals applied in the nursery are not because we are seeing the disease here but to assist our growers with pest and disease pressures they face out in the field. Some growers also need us to spray so to remain within the maximum residue levels for food crops that have a short planting to harvest time.”

As Nga Rakau Nurseries production continues to grow, Greg says consistent quality will always be the goal. “Advances in technology in the horticulture sector are just amazing, and we watch with eagerness to see what we can implement next to ensure that we maintain our competitive edge.”