Rising energy damage are also causing problems for many nurseries . An example from Neumagen - Dhron , Rhineland - Palatinate , Germany , demonstrate that plant cultivation can nevertheless be worthwhile .

Gardener Vera Krebs loves her occupation . She is standing in the nursery at her greenhouse in Neumagen - Dhron . The young geraniums already have a lot of green . Even the one or other blossom in rosé or red . She plucks off a bit of wilt . " February and March are fundamentally the most beautiful time , " she says " it already really smells like plants and increase . "

menage - own nursery since 1904Vera Krebs spring up most of her industrial plant herself . She take over the baby’s room in Neumagen - Dhron from her beginner . The company was founded by her great - grandfather in 1904 . " The nursery has already hold out two warfare , " says Vera Krebs . She is also feel the current energy crisis . For example , she says , electrical energy price have rise more or less .

As far as heat the greenhouses is refer , the entrepreneur is beaming that her Father-God installed a woodchip heating system organization back in the 1980s . The wood chip have also become more expensive - but moderately so , if one were to compare this with the increased costs of crude heating system , for example , say Vera Krebs .

The Krebs greenhouse in Neumagen - Dhron heat with wood chipsThe large stove has to be refilled with woodwind instrument chips every few hours . It is located in the smallest greenhouse of the baby’s room . It is pleasantly warm there . " The heat that the warmer gives off is used , of course . "

In this greenhouse are currently very pocket-size seedling . They need a lot of heating . And they get it from the waste heat of the woodchip heating system . The tomato seedlings are not even two centimeters high at the minute .

So that the seedlings do not stymy each other in their growth , they are separated - pricked out , as they are called in horticulture lingo . Then they are place in their own small pot and , after a while , in another greenhouse that is about two degrees cooler . Because the larger the plant become , the less sore , they become .

Energy screen make unnecessary up to 30 pct of energy costs in the greenhouse 16 degrees is what the thermometer reads in the gravid , cooler nursery . " DOE can be salve here , too , " tell Vera Krebs . At night or even on cloudy day , she extends the so - called energy screen . This is a kind of curtain that is pull forward . It separates the upper area of the greenhouse . Only the lower part is then heated . This write up to 30 pct of energy costs .

All in all , arise plants is still worthwhile even in times of energy crisis , says the gardener . " Because a lot of thing just come together in my business , " says Vera Krebs . The greenhouses of different sizes , which do n’t all have to be hot up at the same time , the woodchip heating , the waste heat that can be used , and the Energy Department screenland .

It also save on monetary value by making its own soil as well as fertiliser . Rainwater is also collected . In term of work , much of the glasshouse is move by the family . In addition , there are one or two seasonal workers . Many steady customer apprise the handicraft and the beneficial quality .

About 95 percent of the client at the Krebs greenhouse are ego - getaway customers . In addition , there are also eating house or hotels that are supplied .

Around the final stage of April , the nursery set about selling the first summer bloomers - such as geranium , fuchsia , and male person chaff . " Some customer also need summer plants earlier , " read Vera Krebs . But then you would have to bug out grow them even earlier in the winter . That would have more energy , and the end of April would be a better clip in view of the Frost Saints . Because then you could see whether the temperatures will discharge again by then or whether you could already engraft .

Prices for flowers and vegetable plant will heighten only slightlyPrices for summer plants will , therefore , only rear more or less this year at Vera Krebs . Vera Krebs is await five to seven percent at the most .

The original gardener is already looking forwards to the conclusion of April when everything will be in wondrous bloom . Then she can start sell summer flowers again .

beginning : SWR