Not sure how many of you know Hershell as he is a fairly new member but we have talked back and forth and last week he drove down from his home in Georgia to my place in Florida for a visit.  Hershell is a commercial greenhouse builder by trade as well as a professional tree grafter, more on that later.  

While he was here I had discussed that I wanted a greenhouse and picked his brain and he said get a big trailer and come on up, that he had extra parts from all the years of building and we could work out a discount.  So yesterday my neighbor and I made the 3.5 hour trip up to Hershells place in GA.  

The tour started out with him showing us his sugar shack, he grows sugar cane and processes it in to cane syrup....this is something this Florida conceived but yankee raised soul had never even heard of let alone tried.  Amazing stuff....kind of like Agave nectar but much richer.  My Florida native neighbor was in heaven, he said "why didn't you tell me he made cane syrup"?  Think it was mostly because when he said he made cane syrup I had no idea what the heck he was talking about:)  Hershell gave us 3 bottles each of the syrup and would not take a dime for it.

We picked a couple gallons of Celeste figs from his large tree which was just loaded with fruit.

Then the tours of the greenhouses, he has two 100 foot long 30' wide houses just packed with plants, mostly citrus.  He also has 25 or so varieties of citrus outside, still not sure how he can do that in Georgia.  I have never seen so many different and odd types of citrus in one place in my life and I have been to the University of Floridas citrus research station in Lake Alfred.  

We then got busy loading greenhouse components.  While Hershell had said he has extras I was still amazed when I saw it:)  Building after building and all jam packed with goodies.  These are commercial greenhouse components and the type built for schools, that sort of thing.  Very heavy duty rectangular tubular steel.  I ended up with a 17'x42 greenhouse that will be 12' tall at the peak.  I need the height to accommodate the lychee trees and mango trees already in ground.  Everything from the top arches to the posts, the screws, supports braces......heck even the ground cloth and all the irrigation equipment to run it..even the metal lath to make the tops for the tables.  My neighbor even ended up getting a smaller greenhouse, a 10x20' as well.

Hershell lives not far from Moody airforce base and all day the A1 warthogs were flying over then doing live fire training.....just an incredible noise.  The cannon it fires sounds like a long reverberating burp:) at least it did to me.  Hershell said each burp was about 1000 rounds. 

I forgot the grafting.....Hershell grafts trees for people on a commercial basis, just thousands of pecan trees a year.  He gave us a demonstration......he went SLOWWWWWWW  and it was still just a blur.  Think they were whip grafts?  They fit so perfectly together even doing them that fast that you could not see the line between the two pieces of wood....absolutely amazing.  

It was a very enjoyable day and I can't thank Hershell enough for his friendship and generosity.  His fig collection is amazing as well and in a short time I bet you he will have one of the best collections in this country judging by his citrus collection.  

Over the years I met many great people around the Country and Canada. This is what I miss most from being on the road.

Glad you had a great time. Hershell sounds like a great person to be around with.

Willis thanks for that nice write up and maybe some pics later of your green house.

Hershell, I would love a tour one day if I can get that far south.

We were at Hershells for 7.5 hours and it went by in a flash........

Great times, thanks for sharing.  Hershell is a great guy!

Learning something new everyday. Thank You.

Thanks for posting this, Wills.
Hershell is definitely a good one. Generous to a fault!  I had the pleasure of several visits and hopefully there will be more (Alma Sisters are asking for you, Hershell!)
This fig thing opens up all sorts of friendships that would otherwise never have occurred.  

Wills is no slouch in the generosity department either. And of course Rafed. And JD. And....

Ah heck, any more of this saccharine jabber and I'll become diabetic, so I'll stop.

I hate to travel, but a trip like yours would convince to make it! Can't wait to see the greenhouse pictures.

Sounds like a cool trip Wills! Im sure you will put it to great use. The best thing is now it opens up another door for you to really pursue some tropicals! Thats exciting stuff!!! Whats tops on the list now? Mango and Lychee are a given but what other exotic fruit are you going grow now?

He's been good to this noobie as well. Good story

Will,
Good post.

Hershell,
Good deeds.

Good post thanks for sharing with us.  I had my first conversation with Hershell this week.  Makes me even more look forward to our planned meeting.

Great story. I wish I could hire Hershell to build my greenhouse!

Wow, Hershell is up to some interesting stuff. Molasses on corn muffins is delicious. I'd love to see that citrus collection, and learn by watching an watch an expert graft pecans. Sounds like a heck of a nice day spent with Hershell. Mike in Hanover, VA

that's a pretty amazing trip, kudos to you Will and Hershell 

Phenomenal!  What a great group of people!

Whow Wills, are you trying to say that I am long winded. There are many here that have been very generous to me. Including you, Heck I have had two PM's this week from members wanting to send me free trees. What a great group of people. Mike got me started. Darkman knew me from the citrus forum and her introduced me to FMD and he took a chance and invited me to his house. Everyone that I have met and talked too have just been so great to talk too. All I can say is thanks to all of y'all that have helped me.

Hershell,

Think we all held our own on the conversation front.  There was just so dang much to look at and ask about.  Your place is like Disney.....you really need more than 1 day to take it all in:)  

My brother just joined the forum, he has not introduced himself yet but he is the syrup maker. I am just a helper. Without his help I would be lost.

Hershell,

Tell your brother to make an introduction thread......we don't bite, well not sure about Rafed.  

Mike. I missed your tour request. If I'm in you are welcome anytime.

Here is the erector set, err greenhouse:)  Well the metal parts anyway.  The square tubing to the left is 12' long and will go 2' in the ground and cemented.  The arches are 18.6 feet but may have to be trimmed back some, not sure on that yet.