MASON - An aerial shot of Mason shows acres upon acres of flat, silver rooftops.
Scott Barnitz has the photo hanging on a wall in the office he shares with his four brothers. He ran his fingers across the photo, showing stretches of greenhouses spanning across nearly 23 acres of the small Mason County town near the Ohio border.
It's hard to believe, he said, that it's come such a long way since his dad put his first greenhouse up in their family's backyard in the late 1960s.
Barnitz and his brothers are each vice presidents of Bob's Market and Greenhouses, Inc., a company his parents Robert and Corena started in Mason in 1970.
"My dad and his brother and their father went into business together back in the late-'60s, growing tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. They were farming lots of land they could rent," Barnitz said. "They were not getting good quality plants. So in '68 or '69, we had a little house with this great big backyard. They decided they were going to build a greenhouse. Just a little one behind the house, it was made out of wood."
And they got good at it. So good they wanted to expand and start selling their crops in a roadside market in Mason.
"They were used to growing their crops out in the open, unprotected. That's farming - drought, a late frost, too much rain. Struggle after struggle, he learned in this controlled environment, he quickly learned he was better at this. He said, 'I can manage and mitigate my risks better than outside,'" Barnitz said.
In 1970, Barnitz said his parents built two greenhouses behind their roadside market, and later tried their hand at growing flowers.
The family slowly kept expanding year after year, adding more greenhouses and expanding into flowers.
Then, in 1995, they had their "big break," Barnitz said.
Technology in the industry changed - and so did Bob's Market and Greenhouses.
"In the mid-'80s the technology in our industry made a paradigm shift. We used to sow our seeds in these open trays, and all the roots would get what we called community root. But whenever you got ready to put them into your finished container, you had to pull all these plants apart to transplant them," Barnitz said. "When you did that, your plant was going through a shock because you're tearing some roots. Its roots, you have ripped anywhere from 30 to 60 percent of its roots to get them apart because the tray was open."
Enter what is known as the "plug tray."
The plug tray, Barnitz said, changed everything for their family run business. Bob's Market and Greenhouses has partnered with Ball Seed Company to grow and sell upward of 150 million plugs nationwide each year. Barnitz said the company has found its niche in commercial plug production.
The waffle-type plug tray has anywhere from 144 to 512 individual "one-studio apartments" for each seedling to grow in.
A seeding machine, with the help of the company's employees, plants a seed in each slot - including soil and nutrients to help the plants grow.
From there, the seedlings are transported into one of the company's many greenhouses. Since the advent of the plug tray, Bob's Market and Greenhouses has been able to expand even more - totaling more than 1 million square feet of greenhouse space in Mason.
The greenhouses are run like well-oiled machines. Inside, black plug trays and sprouting, green seedlings line shelves in perfectly straight lines. Nothing is out of place in the greenhouse, so the company's automated watering mechanisms reach every single plant.
Hanging baskets dangle from a separate watering mechanism on the ceiling and line much of the roof space in the greenhouse.
Bob's has largely shifted away from its roots in tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, with nearly 98 percent of its business coming from selling flower plugs. The seedling plugs spend an average of six weeks in the greenhouse before being shipped to the next customers.
The company ships flowers - ranging from marigolds to impatiens and everything in between - to businesses in all 50 states.
Often, Barnitz said, Bob's will sell its small, green seedlings to other greenhouses and nurseries, where the plants will stay and continue to grow until they are ready to be sold at places like Home Depot or Lowe's.
The rapid growth and success of the plug trays have landed Bob's Market a spot in the nation's top 10 young plant producers.
Barnitz said its secret to success is simple - "We pay attention to the little details," he said.
He likes to compare plants to people. Young plants, much like young children, require careful attention, water and food to grow strong and independent.
Bob's Market and Greenhouses strives to do just that.
It's hard work, but the company pays attention to little details.
For example, Barnitz said, Bob's Market and Greenhouses has someone go through and water the edges of each plug tray in the greenhouse that may have been missed by the automated machine. A group of women works diligently in the greenhouses to pick out and replace spaces in each tray that may have not successfully sprouted by hand.
The little details, he said, put Mason on the map for young plant production, along with places like California, Colorado and Long Island, New York.
"We've all grown up in the business and kind of have it in our blood," he said. "I really love this."
Bob's Market and Greenhouses is based in Mason, but it has market locations in Gallipolis, Ohio; Atlanta; and a wholesale location in Pittsburgh.
The Mason market is located at 839 Second St., in Mason. Plants and produce can be purchased from the market in Mason, which is the original Bob's Market location.
For more information, visit www.bobsmarket.com.
Reach Carlee Lammers at 304-348-1230
carlee.lammers@wvgazettemail.com or follow @CarleeLammers on Twitter.