Mock named farmer of the year
Paul Mock, of Mock’s Greenhouse and Landscaping, has been named Morgan County’s conservation farmer of the year by the Eastern Panhandle Conservation District.
“The Eastern Panhandle Conservation District’s conservation farmer program encourages farmers to compete on conservation practices to improve land and water in our area,” District Vice President Jim Michael said.
County winners go on to compete in the West Virginia statewide conservation farmer competition.
Farming indoors
Mock is not the stereotypical farmer most people envision sitting on a tractor pulling a plow through acres of open fields.
Mock does most of his farming indoors. His 13 greenhouses covering 23,000 square feet are where he grows bib lettuce, watercress, tomatoes, basil, arugula and dandelion greens for local distribution.
Mock sells 99% of his crops to wholesale markets within a 150 mile radius of his farm in southern Morgan County.
His products are available at the Berkeley Springs Farmers Market and in several local restaurants.
Mocks produce is also featured at the farmers market in Bethesda, Md. and in Martins, Whole Foods and Wegman’s grocery stores.
Hydroponic farming
Mock not only does his farming indoors, he also grows his crops without
soil. This type of farming is called hydroponic farming.
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrients in water and without soil.
Mock started researching hydroponics after he moved here in 2003. Originally from Pennsylvania, he was a landscaper and water gardener and grew some field vegetables.
He produced his first hydroponic crop in 2006 after constructing three greenhouses. Mock is now in his fifth season and has increased the number of greenhouses to 13 with four more being added next year.
Intense farming
“We call it intense farming,” Mock said.
For example, the farm produces 36,000 pounds of tomatoes a year from 1,400 tomato plants in 8,000 square feet of greenhouse space.
Mock produces 3,000 heads each of bib lettuce and watercress a week, or about 300,000 heads a year.
Hydroponic farming allows Mock to produce crops virtually year round.
Tomatoes are rooted in perlite, a kind of volcanic ash, and only bear fruit eight months a year. The other crops are grown all year, Mock said.
Mock does his own distribution and marketing. He has two trucks to transport his produce to market.
In addition to his wife Raynette, daughter Kalee and son Joshua who pitch in around the farm, Mock employs two full time employees and four to six part time workers depending on the season - all Morgan County residents, he said.
The Mocks also have a daughter Megan, who is away in college.
“You are operating a business and farming is your profession. In five years we have gone from zero to being the second largest hydroponic farm in the state,” Mock said.
“To me this is one of the best advancements in farming I have seen in years,” Jim Michael added.
Conservation
Mock started to implement good conservation practices in 2006. He credits Rebecca MacLeod, then district conservationist, with putting him on the right track. She helped him develop a five year program to improve conservation on the farm.
Since then, he has installed a second well, a water pumping plant, a water well irrigation system, an underground irrigation water conveyance system and installed 2,500 feet of electrified deer fencing to keep deer out of the crops he does grow outside in a field beside his home.
“Part of the conservation plan as I was adding structure, was to come up with a plan to store water, for when it is needed by the greenhouses and for irrigation in the field,” Mock said.
He installed two 5,000 gallon water storage tanks, one inside and the other outside. The outside tank is drained in winter to prevent freezing.
Water used in the greenhouses to grow crops flows through growing trays, feeding nutrients to the plant roots. The water is then filtered and recycled.
“Hydroponics is a great steward of water. The only water consumed is what the plants need and a little bit of evaporation,” Mock said.
Measuring success
“Most people always take time to write down or complain. If they have had a bad experience they make sure they either write about it or go tell somebody about it,” he said.
“When they have a good experience they don’t take the time and just go on,” he said.
“When you start getting good emails and letters and calls and cards saying how they enjoyed your watercress and lettuce, that just puts the icing on the cake on our endeavors here,” Mock said.
