The new facility sits across 18 hectares in Skye, Victoria
Ball Australia is excited at the possibilities presented by the expansion of their existing young plant production and seed distribution business. Ball Australia, in operation in Australia since 2001, recently made the move to a larger 18ha site in Skye, Victoria. Ceremoniously officiated by Anna Ball, CEO of Ball Horticultural Co in Chicago, USA, the new purpose-designed greenhouse, production facility and offices were opened at the new Skye site on 1 December 2017.
To mark the occasion, Anna planted a ceremonial Gingko Biloba tree on the site, which represents longevity; as a business commitment to the Australian Horticultural industry; to the staff at Ball Australia who have supported the business over many years.
Other guests in attendance at the opening included Jan Patranella, Senior Director at Ball Chicago, and Rick Mast, Sales Manager at Ball Floraplant.
A Van der Hoeven structure, the new production nursery boasts 32,000m2 of growing capacity on 18 hectares of land. The nursery and offices were built by Builtwise, designed by John Trakios Architects, with Powerplants Australia as project managers.
The double skin plastic roofing, hot water heating pipes, smartphone or local control boom watering, three germination chambers and two megalitres of water storage collected from the roofs, gives Ball Australia the capacity to produce 90 million plus plugs per annum.
In addition, the Priva climate control system that manages shade, heating, venting and fertigation throughout the structure helps make it possible for Ball Australia to supply the Australian market quality flower and young vegetable plants.
The visit for Anna Ball and other international industry guests was timely as Ball Australia have just finished hosting their Grower Trials, which are held each year for wholesale plant growers in the industry. Each year Ball Australia presents a vast range of new, experimental and existing lines, and this year’s event gave the company the chance to showcase the new greenhouse facility and the purpose-designed landscape garden area that allows customers to wander through and review the plants available.
Ball Australia has introduced many innovative plant varieties to the Australian market including Simply Beautiful, Nature’s Décor, Sunpatiens, Osteospermum Blue Eyed Beauty, SuperCal Petunias and Trixi.
To view the full range of seeds, plugs and plants on offer visit the Ball Australia website.
