Harvested Ice Blocks Keep Nursery Stock Cool

Harvested Ice Blocks Keep Nursery Stock Cool MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous Schlabach’s Nursery keeps nursery stock dormant with pond ice harvesting it with a chain saw and ice rake The ice is sliced into 4 by 7-ft sheets that are 8 to 12 in thick They are grabbed by the ice rake and winched up a 60-ft ramp At the top of the ramp the ice drops onto a wagon bed Stacks of ice are then carried to storage by skid steers and forklifts “We started harvesting ice in 2005 with a plywood sled and a horse ” recalls Abram Schlabach “It evolved as we got into more commercial quantities ” The evolution included making a frame for a chainsaw so it can be pushed backward through the ice The saw sits on a platform on the frame that the operator raises and lowers for ice depth A remote throttle control lets the operator adjust engine speed on-the-go “We take the rakers off the chain and it cuts fast like a knife through butter ” says Schlabach Other innovations included building the ramp out of pallets and covering it with sheet metal so the ice glides easily The ice rake is a simple frame with 3 hooks that grab onto the ice sheet Once multiple sheets of ice are stacked on the wagon they are picked up with specially adapted forks to unload “We make a small blade like a hockey skate blade and attach it to the side of each fork ” says Schlabach “It is the main secret in handling the ice We used to use ratchet straps but we would lose 20 pieces or more a year sliding off the forks Plus it took a lot of time strapping and unstrapping ” With the innovations ice harvest is faster and safer This past winter it started at 6:30 a m and was finished by 2:30 p m the same day “We harvested 233 000 lbs of ice in 8 hours ” says Schlabach “In the past we would go all day and all night ” Schlabach and his brothers Andrew and Emanuel and father David put the ice to good use cooling nursery stock in their cold storage building The ice goes into a 14 by 70-ft room inside the building where it is stacked up to 8 ft high on a single layer of pallets Nursery stock is stored according to shipping dates in 2 adjoining rooms “When the air temperature starts to warm we turn on a fan to push air across the ice and into the rest of the building ” says Schlabach “We try to keep the nursery stock around 40 degrees As we ship stock out of a room we close it down ” Schlabach and his family carry a wide variety of fruiting plants including 40 varieties of apples as well as custom propagating with around 400 different varieties of apples they maintain for that purpose They also sell peaches pears plums cherries and small fruits “We cover from zone 3 through zone 8 dwarf semi-dwarf and full-size trees ” says Schlabach The business started as a hobby of David’s but turned into the family’s primary farm business in 2000 As the business grew the need for cooling to maintain dormancy until shipping grew as well “The ice saves a lot of money that would be used for alternative cooling and extends our shipping season by about a month and a half ” says Schlabach “If the winter is mild we may not be able to harvest as much ice but we’ll ship earlier If it’s a bitter cold winter we harvest more ice and ship later ” The family recently added a small ice vault It is SIP-panel construction with 14 in of Styrofoam insulation sandwiched by plywood It is being used for the first time this year to store scion wood It will also be used to store fruit from the nursery’s test orchard until it can be sold at their roadside stand “It has a 12-in thick commercial cooler door ” says Schlabach “It is so efficient we’ve been told we’ll have to throw out old ice when we refill next winter ” Request a catalog for a complete list of plants Schlabach Nursery carries and custom propagations Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Schlabach’s Nursery 2784 Murdock Rd Medina N Y 14103 ph 585 798-6198

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