For this new chapter of our technical column ‘Valente Solutions’ we returned to Umbria, more precisely near the Tiber plain below Madonna del Piano in the province of Perugia, to meet a very special customer; Nicolò Pagliani, owner together with his father of the nursery company Idea Verde.
The company was born in 1992 from a conversion of a classic cereal-growing farm into a nursery for the production of ornamental plants.
Nicolò is the second generation and now the company, which is specialised in Mediterranean-type plants, extends over about 40 hectares, 10 of which are dedicated to yards for the production in pots and containers of both tall and bushy plants.
Cultivation is mainly conducted in the field, after which the plants are rooted in pots for about a year and then sold to customers who may be interested in this type of product.
A large part of the plots were planted and managed using Valente systems that allowed, as Nicolò tells us, to get the best out of the plants.
The highlight of the building is a 70 per cent shading system, created in response to their need to protect plants with a shading net, also due to climate changes with increasingly hot summers and very high light intensity and, in the spring-summer-autumn periods, increasingly frequent hail storms.
Together, they designed and created a special shading system that was specifically tailored to the nursery and Nicolò’s needs.
Here we find strawberry trees, plants from the undergrowth that therefore like to be in the shade, and with 70% shade they find their best conditions for vegetating. The total height of the system is about 4.5 metres; this allowed even large plants to be placed under the system and at the same time to be able to enter with vehicles to carry out routine operations.
In this first year of using the shading net, the plants have responded, and continue to respond, very positively.
The key factors, according to Nicolò, are two: firstly, with very bright days even in spring, the shoots may be subject to strong stress, whereas by protecting them with this shading, rooting proceeds optimally and the plant follows an ideal growth pattern to be then sold in the markets where it will be destined.
Secondly, the shading net also allows the plants to be protected from winter frost, or even late spring frost, which could cause very serious damage to this type of crop.
One of the peculiarities of this system is that the installation was carried out entirely autonomously by the customer, obviously applying the instructions provided by our technicians who provided continuous assistance in both the design and subsequent assembly phases.
Once the posts were placed, Nicolò and his team managed to complete the structure, pull the cables, etc., using the manual we provided with the equipment for each step in about four days; and as you can see, the result proved to be excellent.
Another product that Nicolò greatly appreciates is the brown coloured post, instead of the classic grey concrete post; he started using it a couple of years ago and, he tells us, ‘it is giving us great satisfaction, not only for the technical aspects but also for the aesthetic aspects; this post, in fact, blends very well with our products, our plants, and also conveys a more visually appealing look than grey posts’.
To sum up, when asked ‘why did you choose Valente’, Nicolò replies: ‘why do we choose Valente? Well after 25 years it is almost a difficult question (smiling). Definitely the quality of the product, the reliability of the company and the constant pursuit of new solutions, also for the nursery’.
Thank you for putting your trust and confidence in our company Nicolò, and see you next time with new solutions for nursery gardening.