The California Protea Association is a close-knit community of 30 to 40 member farms that all work together, sharing information on planting and growing. Photo: courtesy of Resendiz Brothers Protea Growers L-R: Leucospermum lineare × cordifolium ‘Succession’, Protea ‘Susara’, Protea ‘Red Baron’. We can get 100 stems in a shipping box if the stems are straight. MR: Proteas require very little fertilizer-too much produces fast-growing plants with crooked stems and heavier foliage. We’re trying to add varieties that bloom closer to Valentine’s Day so as to spread the volume out through the course of the year. We continue to propagate and grow our own hybrids. MR: Some of the first to bloom are the hybrids ‘Pink Ice’ and ‘Pink Mink’, which are harvested in the fall, followed by ‘Brenda’ and ‘Pink Duke’. We grow a wide variety of South African and Australian ornamental flowering shrubs, including protea, leucadendron, leucospermum, Serruria florida, waratah, wax flower, grevillea flowers and foliage, leptospermum, and banksias. The soil is pure decomposed granite with a pH that ranges between 5 and 7. MR: Soil and weather conditions are the same as what you would find on a South African protea farm. Drainage is good and the breezes move through the rows of plants to provide good air circulation.ĭP: What kind of cultural conditions exist on your farm and what varieties of cut flowers do you grow? The protea plants can handle that topography. We grow about 1,500 protea plants per acre on land that is quite steep. MR: We grow on 140 acres, but I also manage other properties so together we’re harvesting from 250 acres. Today, depending on the variety and the time of the year, the wholesale price of protea ranges from $1 to $7 a stem.ĭP: What is the size of Resendiz Brothers’s farm?
I knew that some day the price would go up. When we started, wholesalers and bouquet makers paid us 25 cents per stem, my brothers said, “Let’s grow something else.” But I wanted to stick with protea. I decided to start my own business and I found land in Fallbrook, about 25 miles north of San Diego.ĭP: What is it about this flower that you admire? When the owner sold 40 acres to a developer, he closed down the flower farm. MR: I worked for Zorro Protea Farms in Rancho Santa Fe from 1978 to 1999. Our conversation has been edited and condensed here:ĭP: Mel, how did you start growing proteas? I recently interviewed Mel Resendiz and Diana Roy for my Slow Flowers podcast. Int WATERPUMP = 13 //motor pump connected to pin 13 int sensor = 8 //sensor digital pin vonnected to pin 8 int val //This variable stores the value received from Soil moisture sensor.Coastal conditions in Southern California are conducive to producing a colorful and lasting harvest. So, to reduce all these hardware complexity, I made DC motor based water pump using diode, transistor and registers combined circuit which operates DC motor according to the Arduino code. I could use 12 volt water pump in the system but to operate this, it will require a relay module. I have used a self made water pump in this system using 5 volt DC motor. After which the water pump will automatically get stopped. As plant get sufficient water and soil get wet then sensor senses enough moisture in soil. If soil will get dry then sensor senses low moisture level and automatically switches on the water pump to supply water to the plant. In this system, soil moisture sensor senses the moisture level of the soil. So I have made Automatic Plant Watering System Using Arduino UNO. I gone through several options to solve this problem as plants need water according to the moisture level of soil. Whenever me and my family go for vacations, I used to get worried about my plants because they need water on regular basis.