|
| Retired agriculture teacher Jim Hadden tends his hydroponic, greenhouse lettuce crop in St. Francisville, La. |
In 1998, a year before he was set to retire, Jim Hadden of St. Francisville knew that he needed something to occupy his time after he retired. He also needed some additional income to supplement his teacher’s retirement. He was set to retire in 1999, after 33 years of teaching agriculture.
In his career he taught two years in St. Helena Parish, 11 years at Istrouma Junior High School in Baton Rouge and 20 years at Baker High School.
Hadden knew that he did not have space to grow field crops, but there was room next to his home to build a greenhouse. He erected two greenhouses at his home in St. Francisville, and he calls his enterprise “Feliciana Greenhouses.”
His first crop was greenhouse tomatoes. Breaking into the tomato market turned out to be difficult. It was difficult to compete in the farmers’ markets with established tomato growers, and he did not produce sufficient produce, nor did he produce a continuous supply of tomatoes to satisfy buyers from a grocery chain. Other problems with tomatoes included a high production cost and a long wait before harvest.
Hadden solved his problems by switching to hydroponic, greenhouse lettuce. There was a demand for lettuce at the farmers’ market; lettuce is cheaper to produce and lettuce can be grown in a much shorter time than tomatoes. Lettuce can be grown in about 8 to 9 weeks in cool weather and in about 6 weeks during the warm season. Tomatoes can take as much as 7 months to produce.
Jim visited several growers to gather information about growing vegetables in a greenhouse. Other greenhouse growers were willing to share their knowledge, and Jim took the best information from each grower. With that information, he created a hydroponic growing system from fence posts, electrical conduit, plastic pipe, wood, rubber tubing, gutters, a swimming pool pump and a livestock watering trough.
Hadden says that a person using hydroponics needs to be a “jack of all trades” because he needs to be a plumber, an electrician, a carpenter, a general laborer and a scientist.
Jim currently grows pesticide-free Bibb lettuce, green and red Romaine lettuce, curly red and green lettuce and arugula. He controls insect pests with hand picking, a biological control for caterpillars, and insecticidal soap for aphids and similar pests.
He sells on Thursdays at the seasonal St. Francisville Farmers Market, on Saturday at the Baton Rouge Red Stick Farmers Market and on Tuesday in New Orleans at the Uptown Square Farmers Market. His best seller is a mixture of different lettuces, and Bibb lettuce is his most popular single lettuce.
Jim plants seed every week to keep a constant supply of lettuce ready for sale. Lettuce is well-adapted to growing in the cool season, but it is difficult to grow in the warm season. He uses a shade cloth to reduce the heat in the warm season, and Hadden controls the temperature in his greenhouses with thermostatically controlled fans.
During a recent visit to Jim Hadden’s greenhouse, Dr. Carl Motsenbocker of the LSU AgCenter Horticulture Department indicated that Jim’s lettuce was of excellent quality and that he did a very good job of maintaining the proper plant nutrient level for optimum growth and a quality product. In addition, Motsenbocker said that he enjoyed lettuce from “Feliciana Greenhouses” that he purchased at the Red Stick Farmers’ Market.
One of Hadden’s biggest pleasures is his interaction with his customers at the markets. In the third year of lettuce production, his hydroponic system is an example a sustainable agricultural enterprise in Louisiana.