Horticulture hugely rewarding

from NZGrower | February 2021

by Horticulture New Zealand

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HORTICULTURE

HUGELY REWARDING

Words by Helena O’Neill

Molly Green

Working in horticulture is hugely rewarding for Waikato woman Molly Green.

The 23-year-old recently began her second horticultural role at Sutherland Produce in Bombay, south of Auckland. “I’m helping with planting, groundwork, and then will follow the crop all the way through. “I enjoy vegetables. I enjoy the fact that you can see your hard work over quite a short period of time. If anything does go wrong then you learn from it pretty fast. And then you get to do it again, you get to have another shot.” Molly graduated from Massey University in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in Plant Science and Horticulture. She initially began studying veterinary science but found she enjoyed plants a lot more. “I did a paper called biology of cells. We cut up plants and it was super interesting looking at them under the microscope.” After graduating she secured a role in Pukekohe with A S Wilcox & Sons as carrot crop technical support. There she got to learn about and make vital decisions on how best to grow the crop and ran her own trials throughout the country. “I was doing all sorts. Lots of digging carrots, crop estimates and trials, and a bit of admin. A range of things, but within one crop. I enjoyed it and it taught me how business worked. Something that our degree didn’t really teach as it was more science-focused.”

She stayed in that role until December when she took up a position in operations and projects with Sutherland Produce in Bombay in Waikato. “Being with growers like Wilcox and Sutherland, they have different crops so you get to dabble in more than just one crop. I’d rather be a general person than a one-crop specialised person.” Horticulture skills are very transferable which gives plenty of job options, she says. “Having that base understanding of plants from my degree I can ‘guesstimate’ reasonably well what is going to happen when I do something. “If you’ve been in horticulture for a little bit, it’s not retraining, it’s getting more advanced in something. Because those skills are so transferrable, you can go into something and after a month you have picked it up because you already have that base understanding. “That’s the awesome thing about horticulture – you can switch and change.” Working in horticulture is very rewarding, Molly says.

If anything does go wrong then you learn from it pretty fast. And then you get to do it again, you get to have another shot

“Once you’ve planted a full paddock of broccoli, lettuce, or potatoes, it’s quite nice to know that you are helping feed people. I can help plant a crop and then I can go into the supermarket and go ‘I helped plant that’. I’m now helping to feed people who need the food. “It’s really cool to see it from the very start to the very end.” Molly also took part in New Zealand’s first International Horticulture Immersion Programme (IHIP) in 2019. The study tour is designed to help develop future industry leaders.

“When I went on the IHIP trip, we saw the planting of kiwifruit around New Zealand and then we went overseas and saw them on the ships, the packhouses, the coolstores, and then into the supermarkets. We got to see New Zealand kiwifruit in South Korea. “It was really cool to go into the supermarkets and see our produce there.” Molly made about 40 visits across the Netherlands, Belgium and South Korea in just two and-a-half weeks. “We got to see so many amazing things and so many different business models.”

“One thing that I found in the horticultural industry here is that people in other countries are very similar. They’re just as friendly, they are just as interested in you, and they want to know about you. It’s really cool to experience that. “If you go overseas, you’ve got opportunities just waiting for you.” Molly’s love of plants doesn’t stop at work, as the 23-yearold is a houseplant enthusiast. “I have 80-odd houseplants. I love taking cuttings and propagating. I just love having plants around – it’s relaxing I think.”

And commercial growing remains satisfying. “It’s so rewarding planting a little seed and then throughout the 120 days crop walking every week watching them grow. Then being able to pick them out at every stage and to see the growth is pretty cool.”