OVERSEAS trips, golf, AND fishing were all on the bucket list for Bob and Gayle Glogoski when they retired from beef farming.

“Cattle had been hard going for a few years and we just wanted time for us,” Gayle says. “After working seven days week on the farm we needed a holiday.”

So in 2014 the couple moved from their property in South Gippsland’s Foster, an hour away to the sleepy seaside town of Corinella, venturing on their first overseas trip within a month and a month later jetting off on another trip.

“Then we got home and realised we were already bored,” Gayle says. “Living out of a suitcase wasn’t so much fun and fishing and playing golf every day was just not our thing.”

Bob began dabbling in his backyard shed with a hydroponic system and within a year the Glogoskis had embarked on an entirely new farming business, CHG Hydroponics.

“At 65 we’re either brave or stupid, we’re not sure which yet,” Gayle says, laughing.

Given the business’ quick success, brave and canny is the answer.

CHG Hydroponics media_camera CHG Hydroponics is run by Bob Glogoski and his wife Gayle, at Corinella where they lease a greenhouse. Picture: Andy Rogers 1 of 32 media_camera Lettuce plants are priced from $2.50, herbs from $3.50 to $4 and seedlings start at $3. Picture: Andy Rogers 2 of 32 media_camera They produce 35,000 plants annually, selling through IGAs and Foodworks supermarkets, farmers’ markets and restaurants. Picture: Andy Rogers 3 of 32 media_camera Taylor Burgess, one of four workers at CHG Hydroponics. Picture: Andy Rogers 4 of 32 nav_small_close Want to see more?( 28 more photos in collection )Continue to full gallery nav_small_left nav_small_right

By this summer, CHG Hydroponics will produce 35,000 plants annually, selling to 40 IGAs and Foodworks supermarkets across Melbourne and South Gippsland, as well as 10 farmers’ markets a month and a select number of restaurants.

The couple’s main crops are seven lettuce varieties and 14 herbs, with their most popular red oak, green oak and butter lettuces each producing 3000 a month. The top producing herbs include basil, coriander and parsley — 300 a week — with dill at 200 a week.

In addition, they grow cucumber and tomato crops, with seasonal lines such as silverbeet, beans and zucchini in winter and in summer microherbs, radish and beetroot leaf, plus edible flowers such as cornflower and viola.

“These aren’t big lines, maybe a restaurant wants microherbs and we’ll grow 20,” Bob says. “Because we’re small — not like the big hydroponic guys who can’t be flexible — we can grow what the client wants.”

In the past year the couple has also contracted two Mornington Peninsula growers to supply product, and have set up a small nursery selling seedlings at Freedom Organics in San Remo.

“We just don’t have the infrastructure here to keep up with the demand. Currently demand is outstripping supply,” he says.

Even though their growth has been relatively swift, it has been measured.

“We don’t owe a cent, we grow the business as we can afford it,” Bob says.

He attributes part of the success to his unique, but simple invention. All it took was a fish pump and Bob had cracked on to a new way to market hydroponic horticultural crops, the only one of its kind — he says — in Australia.

“These are the systems we’re putting in supermarkets,” he says, proudly pointing to his large white display cases.

Bob has designed and produces portable cases — or “trays” as he calls them — that mimic the hydroponic growing system.

A tray measures 1800cm by 900cm, and is supplied for free to a supermarket. “We retain ownership of them,” Bob says.

Each tray can carry 40 plants. Large holes are drilled out to hold potted herbs or lettuce in square growing blocks, with a fish pump underneath to continually supply plants with water, but without the nutrient solution used in greenhouse hydroponics.

“When we put these in and the supermarkets realised the sales they were getting, they jumped on it. In San Remo IGA alone, sales of lettuce went up 300 per cent.

“The idea just came out of my head. I think outside the square, then the rectangle and finally the triangle.”

Gayle adds: “All his life he’s been like this. His ideas drive me crazy.”

Bob says the trays keep plants alive and fresh longer, and electricity to run the fish pump costs just $1 a month.

“Lettuce that you buy in a sleeve from the supermarket, for instance, lasts two or three days and then it turns brown and slimy, or herbs dry and shrivel,” Bob says, adding that he also sells the trays to households who want to have a small home hydroponic system.

“But with this method you can keep it for eight days and so in theory you shouldn’t have to throw it out.”

THE Corinella greenhouse is not much more high-tech than Bob’s low-tech trays.

media_camera Low-tech: The Corinella greenhouse, home to the thousands of leafy plants.

With plastic walls and roof, the average temperature inside the greenhouse is 17-19C in winter and 28C in summer.

Lettuces are grown in synthetic rock-wool — a material Bob prefers to the usual cocoa peat because it helps keep the growing area cleaner and allows more air circulation. Herbs are grown in pots in a growing medium mix of synthetic perlite and vermiculite.

Seeds are planted weekly, with lettuces in summer taking about a month to grow out or in winter up to six weeks.

Water from a 4500-litre tank, mixed with liquid nutrients specific to plant needs, circulates around the hydroponic system.

The couple does not apply any sprays, instead opting for integrated pest management to keep pests at bay, buying wasps or ladybugs — and even frogs — to prey on unwanted bugs.

They apply an organic spray of bicarb for any mould and scrupulously clean hydroponic growing areas after each plant has been grown to avoid diseases.

With one full-time and one part-time staff member, the Glogoskis pick fresh and deliver twice a week to supermarkets.

They also donate some produce to a charity, such as the local foodbank.

Given the popularity of their largely organic produce, the couple admit they will draw a line in the sand at some point.

They say at their age they don’t want to keep expanding.

“Darling, do you think we are ever going to retire?” Gayle asks her husband.

“I’m a workaholic,” Bob replies. “It’s just about keeping it to a size we can manage. At the moment we’re just riding with it.”

Farm facts

CHG HYDROPONICS

Bob and Gayle Glogoski lease a greenhouse at Corinella, South Gippsland, where they run CHG Hydroponics, producing 35,000 plants annually, selling through IGAs and Foodworks supermarkets, farmers’ markets and restaurants.

The couple produces a base line of seven lettuces and 14 herbs, with lines such as micro-herbs, beetroot leaf and edible flowers added in season. Lettuce plants are priced from $2.50; herbs from $3.50 to $4 and seedlings start from $3.

The most popular three varieties of lettuce are red oak, green oak and butter. Herbs include basil, coriander, parsley and dill.

Bob has also invented a portable hydroponic tray that can be used to display lettuces and herbs in retail outlets. He lends trays to supermarkets, and says the sales uplift has been dramatic.