By Tom Invten, Canadale Nurseries Ltd.

Our odyssey south of the equator began with an e-mail invitation last September from John Schroeder of Valleybrook Gardens to join him and his wife Kelly as they escaped the winter to enjoy the summer weather and study the vibrant horticulture industry in Chile. My wife Laurie and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to explore this country with professionals who shared similar interests: meeting growers, botanists, and visiting gardens, nurseries, farms and wineries.

Fast facts on Chile
Chile is a fascinating country, both geographically and culturally. It is a narrow strip of land that averages 176 km wide and 4,600 km long, stretching from Peru to the Antarctic. The Andes Mountains provide the eastern border and the Pacific Ocean is the natural western border. The climate in Chile is very diverse — the central valley has hot dry summers and cool (rarely freezing) winters when rainfall occurs. The southern part of Chile experiences significantly more rainfall, while the north country is almost desert-like.

     Chile has a population of 16 million people, with six million in the capital of Santiago alone. 95 per cent of the country’s population is of Spanish decent. The population density is highest, the climate mildest and the land the most productive in the central valley that runs 240 km north and 950 km south of Santiago.

     Chile has a diversified true market economy and one of the most educated work forces in Latin America. The economy is based on exports of copper (Chile is the largest copper producer in the world), seafood, fruit and wood products. Agriculture and forestry sectors play a major role in Chile’s economy.

     Chile has been a democracy for just over 10 years after Pinochet gave up his dictatorship. Its economic success is linked to a combination of policy measures, including privatization of key industries, tariff reductions, diversification of exports and debt reduction. Key elements of growth have been fiscal responsibility (Chileans save over 28 per cent of their earnings), and a limited government role in the economy as well as reinvestment in their economy.

     Throughout the length of the tour, it was very evident that the Chilean entrepreneurial spirit was alive and thriving.


Agriculture
Chilean food production has increased since 1970 due to replacement of extensive crops such as wheat, barley and corn, with intensive crops such as kiwis, pears, grapes, apples, raspberries, tomatoes, blueberries, avocados, garlic, plums and flowers. The new focus of fruit and vegetable producers is the North American pre-Christmas export market, as producers get the highest prices for their products at this time.

     The climate in Chile’s central valley is generally dry, so irrigation is important. About 60 per cent of Chile’s arable land is under irrigation. Two consecutive 100-year droughts in 1997 and 1998 prompted conversion from flood to drip irrigation, especially in vineyards. However, we saw many old unlined canals and waterways that still utilized the water flowing from snow melt in the Andes.

     International agricultural processing and marketing enterprises are very much present in Chile, making a major contribution to the modernization of production as well as processing and marketing. The agriculture industry in Chile produces high quality fruit and vegetables, nursery stock, flowers, seeds and wine.


The horticultural industry
The horticulture industry in Chile is in its infancy, and as such, is not well organized. There is no association or organizing body such as our Canadian Nursery Landscape Association. All growers operate on their own with little or no communication or cooperation between themselves. The Chilean Ministry of Agriculture provides some support in the form of site inspections for diseases.


Viveros (nurseries)
There are five large nurseries in Chile, known as viveros, with 10 or more acres of container stock and many small growers. The majority of the viveros were located in one area on the outskirts of Santiago.

     The five large growers sold their product to the newly emerged chain stores, with Home Depot dominating. Home Depot was even buying their own garden centres to market nursery products effectively. They were buying the most progressive garden centres and eliminating the independent business operators before they even got started.

     Due to the economic importance of agriculture in Chile, soil transport within the country is very limited to help prevent the transport of soil born diseases. Most growers had a retail outlet, and most retailers also had areas for growing and offered plants for sale from growing areas On the whole, we saw no mechanization in nurseries, the wheel barrow was the most sophisticated form of equipment. No tractors were used, and the fields were cultivated by horse-drawn tools. Labour was still cheap — most Chilean workers were paid $9 U.S. per day. Therefore, trees were planted and harvested by hand and pots were filled by hand.

     We noticed few poly pots on our tours of the viveros; almost everything is grown and sold in cheaper poly bags. They don’t even utilize flats for more efficient transport as there is no manufacturer in the country yet.

     Most plants were grown in containers, although we did see larger trees like tulip tree, sweet gum, poplars, London plane, magnolias and some conifers grown in fields to produce larger specimens.

     Chilean nurseries don’t use any soil-less mixes — each grower produces his own container mixes with whatever he has available. Fertilizers are mostly organic manure and compost-based, however a few progressive growers use slow release formulations.

     Marketing support is non-existent at the nursery level. The growers don’t provide any colour tags or POP materials to help customers market their plants.

     All the nurseries we visited suffered from too much inventory and not enough turnover. Competition was high and it is a major reason why nurserymen keep secrets to themselves and do not want to communicate with others (a stark contrast compared to the more open Canadian nursery industry where sharing of information is frequent).

     Due to the intense heat, many plants are grown under shade or poly for sun/heat protection. All of the protection structures we saw were wooden covered in two-year poly. As one nurseryman explained, technology is available but not always affordable. He told us that his wooden greenhouses cost $2 per square metre compared to $10 for steel structure. Foreign companies invest in higher technology, like a Dutch bulb company that built a new state-of-the-art greenhouse outside Santiago for the production of potted flower bulbs. This single greenhouse has captured the bulb market in Chile.

     Propagation techniques employed by Chilean nurserymen were often primitive. The most sophisticated operation we saw provided bottom heat to their propagation beds by a combination of hot water pipes in some beds and horse manure ‘hot beds.’ Intermittent mist was employed by several growers.

     Seedling propagation was common in-ground; we saw plug seedling production in only one nursery. Fruit trees were grafted or budded by specialty nurseries, most often by contract. Each grower had re-invented the wheel with regard to growing and propagating techniques and was a master of ingenuity and improvisation. As our guide explained, Chile has throughout its long history been isolated from the rest of the world — by the Atacama Desert in the north, the Andes Mountains to the east, the Pacific to the west and Antarctica to the south. This isolation has meant that Chileans traditionally have had to rely on themselves. We observed ‘Chilean Ingenuity’ as a result of limited means and isolation and an unwillingness to cooperate in all the viveros.


Plant material
Much to our surprise, the viveros of Chile grew many of the same species we did. Many of the street trees were the same species found in Canada, including London plane, tulip tree, poplars and locusts. Maples were, by far, the most popular shade and street trees we observed. The conifers produced in Chile, although not as plentiful as in Canada, were similar and included a lot of juniper and cypress varieties.

     Annuals were used everywhere and mostly the same varieties we grow. Annual plants are very popular in Chile because of their long season without frost. On the other hand, we saw very few perennials on our travels. We noticed the native iceplant, and did observe some primroses that were currently being introduced.

     We observed many varieties of rhododendrons especially near Conception where the climate was a little cooler and moister than in Santiago. Also spotted were weigelas, spireas, hebes, yuccas, and much more.

     Fruit trees were very popular throughout the country. Lemon trees were a status symbol, which everyone who owned a property had to have. Also popular were pear, plum, apple and cherry trees.

     The viveros of Chile grew all that we grew, and then much more, as they produce semi-tropicals and tropicals in their hot climate. Mixed into the landscape are palms, including the native Chilean palm, Acacias, the native monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana, also known as the Chilean pine), Podocarpus, and of course, the native Beech (Nothofagus). Many South African natives have made their way into the Chilean landscape, including Agaves. We noticed the use of many xerophytic plants especially in the desert-like atmos­phere of the north part of the country.

     Generally, there was not as much diversity of plant material and definitely not as many hybrids as offered in Canada. One nurseryman we visited noted there was a real need in Chile for new plant material from other parts of the world. He saw a real opportunity to specialize and to introduce new cultivars and varieties. For example, he noted there were only a few herb varieties available in Chile, while on the Internet he saw North American and European nurseries offered hundreds of varieties — another example of the isolation and self-reliance of the Chilean culture.


Tom Intven is an owner of Canadale Nurseries Ltd., a nursery and garden centre in St. Thomas, Ontario. Intven’s account of the horticultural tour concludes in the next issue of Landscape Trades, with a look at Chilean garden centres, landscaping trends, cut flower production and wineries.