HydraFiber Heroes: Fernando Hernandez, Colorpoint LLC, Illinois
Fernando Hernandez, operations manager at Colorpoint, LLC in Illinois, discusses how easy it was to transition to HydraFiber and the benefits of less dust and improved storage.
Fernando Hernandez, operations manager at Colorpoint, LLC in Illinois, discusses how easy it was to transition to HydraFiber and the benefits of less dust and improved storage.
“When we switched to HydraFiber, we shaved 5 hours of labor off every zone each week due to plants needing less water. That’s a 5 to 10% labor savings for us. And on some crops, we have been seeing faster rooting, with white roots all the way to the bottom in 9 days on crops that typically take longer.”
"Previously when we would move some of our dormant grass liners to heat, we would see tremendous top growth, but rooting would lag behind and there’s not much you can do to enhance plant quality without good roots. When we moved these liners to a HydraFiber blend, we had a very successful crop – plants grew uniformly and we had good root quality throughout the crop across various varieties.”
“From what we’ve seen, the pH of poinsettias stays more stable because of the length of the crop. Also the shelf life is better because the HydraFiber retains the moisture and when it’s sitting on the shelf longer at the store, it’s pulling that moisture out of that wood. We’re seeing several more days at retail which is a huge benefit.”
"We are using the 365WB HydraFiber material in our mix. The moisture content is about 55%, and the mix holds together like a loose snowball to give us the best 'loft' during filling. It rolls through the mixing line well and fill the pots nicely. Handling the new mix is a little different…but it's working!"
"The biggest efficiency is space savings. We're able to bring in 3 to 4 loads of compressed HydraFiber vs. 30 to 40 of perlite."
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