A good nursery layout will minimise the distance that people and trays move, and also minimise the effort required to move them.

The flow through a nursery is as follows:

Inputs:

• Mix - to storage then mixer, from mixer into the flat filler then into trays
• Seeds - to storage then into the seed hopper then into trays
• Vermiculite - to storage then into the vermiculite coverer and into trays
• Fertiliser and other chemicals - some into mix, some into spraying system near pump house, others into spraying vehicles.
• Water - onto trays, maybe through a fertiliser mixing process.
• Fuel (eg for forklifts) - to fuel up point
• Electricity - to seedling line, pumps, irrigation booms, office
• Trays - through the seeding line, through the nursery, perhaps out to the grower then back in for cleaning and storage.

Movements

Many of the inputs are funnelled into the seeding area, and then move with the tray through the nursery. Depending on the climate the tray movements vary between two extremes:

Minimum:

Seeding line ® Outside where the seedlings are raised ® out for transplanting

Maximum.

Seeding line ® germination chamber ® into glass house ® into shade house ® outside for hardening off ® out for transplanting.

The main areas of labour input are:

• At the seeding line
• Moving the trays around the nursery
• Managing the crop - eg fertilising, treating disease problems, etc.
• Dispatching
• Maintaining the nursery - cleaning etc.

A good nursery layout is one which makes it "easy" to do all the above. This includes:

• Structuring your seeding shed so its easy to move bulk items such as mix into storage, then easy to get the mix through the mixer, into the filler and into the trays; having a shed which facilitates the "flow" through the shed helps tremendously - ex: high roofs for the easy loading of hoppers, pallets of trays easily accessed, plenty of space for forklifts to manoeuvre.
• Having a "flow" of trays that minimises the distances that people have to travel to move them and the amount of work required to move them.
• Having a good flow in your dispatch area, whether this be pulling your plugs and loading them onto boxes which are then trucked out, or loading the trays straight onto the truck which then go out to the farm to run through an automatic transplanter.
• Having good drainage across the nursery

Depending on which country you are in, with a labour cost of around USD $10 an hour (including holiday pay etc), every person that can be saved in the nursery represents a contribution of around USD$20,000 a year.

Every time that someone has to move something in the nursery, particularly a tray, it costs you money. Typical areas where multiple handling takes place include:

• Placing trays onto the seeding line. With a tray destacker, the same person who is putting the trays on can also control the seeding head and feed of mix. Williames trays are well suited to automatic destacking, and Williames also manufactures destackers
  
• Moving trays from filler to seeder. Some nurseries fill their trays, stack them, then move them onto the seeder, which takes a lot of time. Williames seeding lines  provide a continuous flow for the tray - the trays are fed into the destacker, then taken off the other end after they have been filled, sown, covered and watered. For additional automation Williames seeding lines are also suited to the automatic stacking of trays onto racks after passing through the seeding line.
  
• Moving trays individually around the nursery. Many nurseries incorporate aluminium T rails in their greenhouses; trays are pushed in by hand onto the T-rails. While this is a low-cost way of setting up a small nursery, and is used by many market gardeners, it does result in a great deal of multiple handling of trays. Trays are moved individually off the seeding line onto pallets, then off the pallets onto T rails in the shade house, then individually outside for hardening off, then individually into the stacking area where they are pulled and sent out. All this takes a great deal of labour and contributes to high nursery running costs. The use of racks or rolling benches greatly cuts down on this labour. Instead of moving trays individually, a number of trays can be moved at once. Williames manufactures and designs a wide range of racks and rolling benches [link to racks and rolling benches page] taking as many as 44 trays each, which can be tailored to suit your precise needs.

From our experience in visiting nurseries around the world it is surprising how quickly a nursery business can grow and how quickly it can run out of space. Nurseries without much space then start cutting into "dead" space, only to find that this blocks the flow of plants, and more labour is required to keep up. It is also interesting how quickly land values can appreciate around nurseries as cities become bigger and nurseries which previously were out in the open find themselves in the suburbs. This is another reason for starting big if you are setting up a new nursery near a major city, the chances are that in the long term your land value will grow as well.

Williames specialises in labour saving machinery and products for seedling and vegetable production. Compare the following: [put links to all the bold text]

A rotary drum seeder which will seed up to 1500 trays an hour vs 20 trays an hour by hand.

A tray filling machine, which will fill up to 1500 trays an hour vs 60 trays an hour by hand.

Rolling benches with which 1 person can move 44 trays at once as compared to one by hand. Williames rolling benches and racks are designed such that down the track technology for automatically loading and unloading trays off them can be incorporated.

An automatic transplanter which will detect plugs with no plant in them and "gap up", reducing greatly the number of field walkers required, meaning that with half the people you can transplant the same quantity or even more plants.