Greenhouse industry in Cleveland

1885, Martin Luther Rutnik, the son of a German immigrant priest, built his first greenhouse in Shaff Road, a Brooklyn villa, located at the southern edge of the industrial zone along the coast of cuyahoga river. Over time, his greenhouse and truck farm earned him the nickname "Celery King". By 1900, several other growers, including Fred Witthorn, joined him and planted a total of 5 acres of land under the glass. Although the competition from southern and western states is becoming more and more fierce, the greenhouse industry in Brooklyn Heights continues to expand, and Ruetenik pioneered a scientific method to make the greenhouse industry in Cleveland a national model. By the mid-1920s, about 50 enterprises maintained 80 acres of greenhouses, mainly planting tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers. The second focus of the industry is the supply of Easter lilies and the "trade in potted plants and window boxes". Ruetenik and other growers joined forces at 1926 to form the Cleveland Greenhouse Vegetable Growers Cooperative Association. This organization conducts scientific research and promotes greenhouse products. It also set up a greenhouse vegetable packaging company in Berea to sort and package tomatoes and other agricultural products for the market. Martin reuter Nick owns a fleet of Ford Model T cars, which use trucks to transport agricultural products from Indiana to Pennsylvania to the market. However, most vegetables grown in greenhouses in Cleveland are sold at local roadside stalls and midwest markets.

Greenhouse agriculture is not a simple effort. Actually, it's laborious and expensive. In summer, outdoor farms in Ohio are in the middle of the growing season, and farmers in greenhouses are trying to disinfect the soil, clean the boilers, and repave the greenhouses as needed. Sometimes they burn tobacco stems in cauldrons and release blue smoke to kill insects in greenhouses. In autumn, greenhouse workers transplant seeds twice, and finally line them up at regular intervals. They imitate the working principle of bees and beat tomato flowers with electric vibrators the next day, forcing the fruit to grow on plants. Greenhouse growers use steel pipes to release steam and carefully adjust the temperature in the greenhouse to create ideal conditions for crop growth. Every few years, workers must also sterilize the soil with steam, "to avoid the slightest disease invading the indoor empire."

Cleveland's greenhouse industry continued to expand in the middle of the 20th century, reaching 400 acres under the glass, employing 65,438+0,000 greenhouse farmers, many of whom were Puerto Rican immigrants. By the early 1960s, greenhouses had been extended for more than two miles along Sheff Road, and more and smaller greenhouses could be found in olmsted Waterfall, Loki River, Columbia Station, Berea, Evan, Sheffield Lake and Worcester. From 65438 to 0966, Governor James A. Rhodes visited the A·G· Heinrich Greenhouse on Shaff Road to promote the greenhouse industry in Ohio. At a special luncheon there, he washed nine greenhouse tomatoes and a cucumber Bieber lettuce salad with a glass of tomato juice. While Rhodes praised the success of greenhouse growers, the greenhouse capital of America, which produces 80 million pounds of tomatoes every year, was on the verge of recession.

Greenhouse agriculture has always been a high-cost undertaking, relying on high yield per mu of land to create profits. An acre of glass underground not only needs 750,000 gallons of water per year to irrigate the factory, but also generates great heating costs. In the early 1960s, farmers turned to natural gas because the cost of using boilers to heat greenhouses became too high. However, the energy crisis in the early 1970s pushed up the price of natural gas, which made many greenhouse owners unable to operate. Pollution from the factory near the apartment produces smog, which will only aggravate the problem of Cleveland's notorious district attorney rk in cloudy winter. Sometimes heavy rain will cause chemicals in the air to seep into the greenhouse and burn plants. Industrial expansion has also attracted people's attention to the spacious farmland outside the city, and many struggling greenhouse growers are eager to sell these farmland. 1969, such a farmer, Edwin Orth, sold all the land of his 60-mu Brooklyn Highland Farm, only 3 mu, including 16 greenhouses, and became a part of a new industrial park. The increasing competition from Canadian-funded greenhouse companies has further weakened the greenhouse in Cleveland.

By the 1980s, most large greenhouses in Brooklyn Heights had disappeared. Small ones still exist, but they give up planting vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and seasonal plants, such as poinsettia. Today, people can still see the "Celery King" Rutnik Building built on Shafu Road in 1930s. Several remaining greenhouses nearby are still in operation today, suggesting that Cleveland was once a national "artificial" vegetable center.

Can Northeast Ohio regain its status as the "greenhouse capital of the United States"? "If the Cuhoga Valley Greenhouse Growers Association established in 2009 has its own way, it will use the most advanced sustainable greenhouse technology. Greentown Growers Cooperative was established in the central community of Cleveland in 20 13. It produces hydroponic Ranunculus ternatus, Cleveland crisp lettuce and green lettuce in a greenhouse of 3- 1/4 acres, overlooking the RTA express transportation line. As the largest urban food production greenhouse in the United States, the growers of Greentown are not a sign of Cleveland's return to its heyday as a coal-fired greenhouse, but suggest that this forest city may become a national leader in environmental protection urban agriculture.