By Gary Lee Stuber
Mike Sizemore Jr. has a disarming and somewhat familiar smile. He is definitely a Sizemore and has that distinctive smile shared by most of his family, uncles, cousins and even grandparents.
And he has reason to smile. Mike owns and operates the biggest and most successful greenhousein Clay County, Sizemore’s Greenhouse. He is going on year nine in this endeavor. He says that retail marketing is in his blood. A long history of Clay County will verify that. From his grandpa Jack and grandma Marm who owned the famous sawdust floor market in this Maysel location through the late 1970’s, even back to John A. Sizemore who owned a market in the forties and fifties in downtown Clay, retail marketing has been in the Sizemore blood. His great uncle R.T. Sizemore operated the local IGA in Clay until his retirement, which has left a hole, figuratively and literally in the center of downtown.
Now Mike has a new passion. Plants.
“Years ago,” Mike says, “dad built his own little greenhouse to raise plants for his own garden, and people started stopping by willing to buy plants form him. Pretty soon we were selling more plants than we wanted to.”
The greenhouse he was standing in as he tells this story is huge, nearly the size of a football field. “I started doing research for two years on greenhousing and that is how it started.” There are literally hundreds of hanging baskets overhead, watered by an overhead sprinkler system.
He reached up and takes a basket down. “We sell a lot of plants, spring vegetables, houseplants, annuals, perennials, even some exotic house plants and flowers. Then in the fall we sell Chrysanthemums, mums.” He points to some of the exotic and perennial house plants as he talks. Those spent the winter indoors, plants from last year, under a sun lamp with perpetual watering. “We pretty much sell the standard vegetables everyone looks for: tomatoes, peppers, cabbage and more. We can’t carry every variety. I have a variety of about 12 to 15 types of tomatoes. There are more than 1,000 varieties of tomato plants.If we did that it would fill up this greenhouse with just tomatoes, but the variety we do carry are tomatoes that produce well. We cannot compete with the big box stores for the standard plants, but we beat the box stores for things like the hanging baskets.” He smiles, “And one thing we can offer that bigger stores can’t. I have accumulated a wealth of knowledge on plant care. I can tell you how to get optimum production out of your plants. And if there is something I don’t know about agricultural science I have the ability tolocate someone who can.”
He credits his dad, Mike Sizemore Sr., with the design.
“This is completely custom,” brags on dad, “You can’t buy this.He scavenged the parts in the beginning to build this. He started in November and we completed it in three months. The frame is metal but the plastic membrane about it is actually double pane. And there is a fan that blows air between them, creating a pocket that provided the insulation.” And they need it. They crank up planting and production in February so they get at least 12 weeks before they open to the public. This is a sight business. Sometimes people come in to buy something very specific and then see something that strikes their eye. “We get some customers that see something they didn’t know they needed until they came in here.”
He speaks fondly about the first iteration of a smaller greenhouse in this location that was only 10 by 20 feet. “When I planted that first seed, I got the ‘bug.’ And then I realized that we either go big or go home. I always tell people that the information is free here, but the plants are not. But you won’t find better quality plants than here.” He describes that before he caught the greenhouse bug he worked in landscaping, restaurants, and sales, because retail sales runs in the family. He has a younger sister who lives in Fayetteville, but Mike is trying to make his mark here in Clay County. And he does have a son who potentially could him in the future: Mike Sizemore III.
“You know everybody makes mistakes in business,” he observes, “But we were lucky we have made more good decisions than bad ones.”
Opening day this year is Saturday, April 20. “Last frost in West Virginia is normally mid-May, but every year we get requests to open earlier.” He said, “You can generally keep an eye on the weather and you’ll pretty much know if there is a chance of frost or not. I generally tell people keep plants no later than two weeks before you put them in the ground. We would prefer to open after the first of May, but customer demand drives this business.”
His worst enemy in the growing season is not frost or freeze. His worse enemy is humidity. Not only must he control temperature this time of the year, he has to control the moisture within the humidity levels. Mold, fungus, blight and other biological enemies can kill plants. He has to keep humidity below 85%.
“Planning is the reason for our biggest success. You don’t always have plans go as smoothly as you wish but planning makes things go much better.” He demonstrated his “planting box.” It is a big square clear box with a metal flat top with tiny holes drilled every half inch. A vacuum line in the box makes the tiny holes draw air. He pours out a packet of seeds on the metal lid and when they come near a hole they are trapped in position. He pours off the excess seed and then turns it upside down over a small rubber flat that has equally spaced squares half filled with potting soil. When he turns off the vacuum the seeds drop in place. Then he simply covers the 50 to 100 seeds with more soil and place them on the pad that allows them continuous feed, water and warmth. The whole process turns tedious work into easy tasks managed by himself, his only employee. “I tell you gardening is hard work. “ He insists, “If you can save a little of labor on the tedious things, you are just that much further ahead.”
April 20 is not far off, be sure to mark this opening on your calendar.
