Online community for ornamental horticulture

Crop Scheduling

I am curious as to what everyone is using to accomplish Crop scheduling, Space management, Crop budgeting? I am learning Microsoft Project as it seems the most logical program to accomplish this. Is anyone else using Project?

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Permalink Reply by Steve on February 20, 2010 at 1:08am: It is interesting you mentioned Access. I designed an Access Database a year or so ago that starts down this road. I am just no so sure it has the charting capability that Project has.

Tara Herrera said:
Hi Steve, Michael, et all!

I just ran across this thread, and I am so glad you guys are talking about it.

First i'll say that this is the area of Hort in which I make my living. I am a grower-nursery manager with a Hort background that ended up in the cost analysis/numbers world of nursery production. Now I am a consultant and I help nurseries come up with customized solutions to these very problems/questions. Please check out my website if you want a little more info - www.herrerahort.com. Enough advertising!

I find Access to be the most comprehensive way to accomplish all of your goals listed above. I used to work in Excel, but I have now switched to Access. I have made a couple of custom databases for nurseries that can incorporate all of the different modules. You just need to spend some time at the front end inputting your key data and then the planning part becomes 'easy'. Excel is great but it is very cumbersome in the 'size' of the files. I believe someone mentioned that below. It is also very linear and not able to incorporate information from different areas easily. Access has a greater capability to work as a centralized clearing house for combining lots of different information - as long as there is one key that is the same. It's usually the Gen spe cult and size of the items you grow. You'll have to give each item in your catalog a unique identifier. That might take some time initially, but it is 100% worth it, especially when you use it for invoicing etc... Then you can incorporate all of your data in one place for planning, costing, space utilization, etc...

Good luck!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Steve on February 21, 2010 at 9:33pm: The one thing that Access is NOT good at is exporting Data! That is a serious issue!
s.

Tara Herrera said:
Hi Steve, Michael, et all!

I just ran across this thread, and I am so glad you guys are talking about it.

First i'll say that this is the area of Hort in which I make my living. I am a grower-nursery manager with a Hort background that ended up in the cost analysis/numbers world of nursery production. Now I am a consultant and I help nurseries come up with customized solutions to these very problems/questions. Please check out my website if you want a little more info - www.herrerahort.com. Enough advertising!

I find Access to be the most comprehensive way to accomplish all of your goals listed above. I used to work in Excel, but I have now switched to Access. I have made a couple of custom databases for nurseries that can incorporate all of the different modules. You just need to spend some time at the front end inputting your key data and then the planning part becomes 'easy'. Excel is great but it is very cumbersome in the 'size' of the files. I believe someone mentioned that below. It is also very linear and not able to incorporate information from different areas easily. Access has a greater capability to work as a centralized clearing house for combining lots of different information - as long as there is one key that is the same. It's usually the Gen spe cult and size of the items you grow. You'll have to give each item in your catalog a unique identifier. That might take some time initially, but it is 100% worth it, especially when you use it for invoicing etc... Then you can incorporate all of your data in one place for planning, costing, space utilization, etc...

Good luck!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tara Herrera on February 21, 2010 at 11:08pm: I'll have to check out Project. I'm not that familiar with it. I've never run into trouble exporting from Access, but as it is a Microsoft product- I wouldn't be surprised!

Steve said:
It is interesting you mentioned Access. I designed an Access Database a year or so ago that starts down this road. I am just no so sure it has the charting capability that Project has.

Tara Herrera said:
Hi Steve, Michael, et all!

I just ran across this thread, and I am so glad you guys are talking about it.

First i'll say that this is the area of Hort in which I make my living. I am a grower-nursery manager with a Hort background that ended up in the cost analysis/numbers world of nursery production. Now I am a consultant and I help nurseries come up with customized solutions to these very problems/questions. Please check out my website if you want a little more info - www.herrerahort.com. Enough advertising!

I find Access to be the most comprehensive way to accomplish all of your goals listed above. I used to work in Excel, but I have now switched to Access. I have made a couple of custom databases for nurseries that can incorporate all of the different modules. You just need to spend some time at the front end inputting your key data and then the planning part becomes 'easy'. Excel is great but it is very cumbersome in the 'size' of the files. I believe someone mentioned that below. It is also very linear and not able to incorporate information from different areas easily. Access has a greater capability to work as a centralized clearing house for combining lots of different information - as long as there is one key that is the same. It's usually the Gen spe cult and size of the items you grow. You'll have to give each item in your catalog a unique identifier. That might take some time initially, but it is 100% worth it, especially when you use it for invoicing etc... Then you can incorporate all of your data in one place for planning, costing, space utilization, etc...

Good luck!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Eric Rohloff on February 22, 2010 at 10:26am: Chad, There's as many approaches to grower spreadsheets as there's to growing the plants them selves. First you need to make a list of the things you want from your sheet. Then you need to determine how you want that data to appear on your sheet. Then you can start making the sheet and entering formulas and links to get that data to return the results you want. Start small and focus on one task at a time. Setup your workbook so each task is on a different sheet. I setup my workbooks so I enter data on one sheet and get reports from that info on another. For example, I have one sheet that I enter all of my greenhouse details into. Length and width of the greenhouse and the sidewalk. Also how many hanging baskets the house holds. This also allows you to see which spaces are the most efficent and determine cost per sq/ft. All of the programs mentioned can help you with your greenhouse task. I would be glad to point you in the right direction for Excel since this has been my focus.

chad latta said:
I am currently working on a scheduling workbook using excel and am excited to see so many people using spreadsheets. My only concern is that I really dont even know where to start. I am pretty new to the industry and have found its very much a learn as you go position. Would anyone be willing to share a scheduling template? I would love to see how you have it set up and where I could take it from there.

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