Risto and I drove south and east of Suonenjoki, about an hour's worth, to UPM's nursery at Joroinen. To say this is an impressive nursery is a bit of an understatement. This nursery produces 50 million spruce seedlings each year... They use 6 different growing regimes to essentially produce the same target seedling. The challenge they have is trying to grow a seedling that looks the same regardless of when, and where, they start it. Some seedlings are outplanted in one year whereas others take 1.5 years. Tom Landis and I visited this place last year and were amazed by the huge greenhouses. Gotta blimp you need to park? I know a spot. Despite lots of greenhouse space, most of the crop is in outdoor growing areas. Risto and I had a bit of lunch in Joroinen and stopped for coffee on the way back to Suonenjoki. We spent a lot of time discussing trends in nursery research, comparing our respective notes, and again wondering what our collaborative research might look like. By the time we returned, it was about time to call it a day. I got in my exercise and tried to upload this yesterday, but a little WiFi snafu prevented that...
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