Before there was “go green” and eco-friendly everything, Maple Grove’s George Lucht was conserving water in the most unconventional way. For the past 10 years, Lucht, who owns Malmborg’s Floral in Rogers, has been collecting rainwater off the roofs of his greenhouses.
“I needed clean water and wanted to find an inexpensive way (to find it),” he says.
After collecting the rainwater, Lucht reuses it to propagate his plants. He tried out various techniques before finding rainwater was “by far the best… it’s crystal clear all of the time,” he explains.
Prior to using rainwater, Lucht found his well water was of poor quality and full of minerals, leaving behind heavy deposits and not yielding the plants he wanted. He struggled to grow poinsettias, but now has no problem at all growing the holiday plant.
Lucht has three interconnected, seven-foot- deep reservoirs underneath his greenhouses for collection with a combined capacity of 70,000 to 80,000 gallons.
“It’s really simple,” he says of the process. “It’s produced top-quality plants.”
@
Malmborg’s
20045 County Road 81
763.428.2061
