Blog Post

Greenhouse Practical

Friday, November 21, 2014

Rachael and Chantdell

We started our day with Jeff giving us the run down on how to open the greenhouse in the morning. We then started by walking the crop and watering plants that needed to be watered. We found three plants almost completely wilted so we placed them on a different bench for close monitoring. We packaged up 29 poinsettias (foiled, paper) for delivers into the school and delivered them to various locations. Today we sold $108 worth of poinsettias .Upon walking the crop we cleared all the dead foliage, made sure everyone had an emitter and gave the crop a 15 minute bath with the Dosatron. The seedlings in the fridge and tractor bay didn’t require water. Then we made sure all the cactuses were watered and assisted Mike with the interior. The blackout curtains needed to be removed off the doors and we placed four sticky cards to monitor the bugs. We packaged 7 poinsettias for Michael’s meeting. The end of the day neared we cleaned up all the pots. There was a problem with the misting system so we had to shut off water valve as it was flooding and ended having to manually running the misting system for an hour each day. We started to take pictures and continued to monitor the pests and roots in the greenhouse. Today was a very productive day. We completed our opening and closing check lists and calculated the poinsettia profit.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

This morning we walked the crop and removed all the dead foliage off the crop. We re-located the poinsettias from the back of the benches to the front for sale. Upon doing the walk around the greenhouse we had noted someone had used the greenhouse as a bathroom. Then we re-located the Perellia from the cactus location to the back of the benches to be placed on a drip for congress. We had to spray the variegated cultivars and polar bear plants with Safer insecticide soap to aide in the white-fly population and placed potatoes in some of the crop to see about catching some fungus gnats. We ended up an hour later spraying these cultivars with water to dilute the solution. Our program shirts were covered in white flies when we were done. It took about 4 bottles of the soap to complete so we also had to mix that up with safety glasses and gloves. Then mixed up 10 liters of fertilizer for the Dosatron and gave the plants a 15 minute drink. Earlier in the morning we had to remove the dead foliage off theColocasia to promote growth for spring. We had completed our tasks for today early so we gave the greenhouse a very thorough scrub and organized the materials for plant sales to make it look clean and organized. We even scrubbed all the tables, bins, misting lights, the floor mats and places that hadn’t seen a good cleaning in a while. The three poinsettias that were under watch we placed double emitters in and are making a fast recovery. We also calculated the PH readings for the Poinsettias. The weather today wasn’t so nice but we did enjoy the sound on the greenhouse roof. We completed our opening

and closing checklist and sold one more poinsettia. We completed the ph. readings however we are unsure if this devise was working correctly. We had another very productive day.

Sunday November 23/2014

What a beautiful morning. The snow is gone. We began the day doing the walking around the greenhouse as suspected we found a bunch of beer cans and bottles. Some of the bottles were smashed against the greenhouse. Upon completing the morning check list the prima box was really dry so we wet the wick. We completed the 100 Grass stems required for congress. After completing the grass we walked the crop and removed all dead foliage. We then completed the order of poinsettias for Monday’s delivery and left them in the greenhouse so that they wouldn’t be under too much stress. The wilted plants we discovered are back to full health and are ready for sale. The insect count collected for the pest management was pretty high. However, after the safer soap spray the whitefly count has come down a lot. Michael paid us a visit and we ended up selling one large pot and 3 plants today so we had to make up more arrangements. Unfortunately due to root rot we had to throw out one plant. As the near ends the greenhouse got a good thorough clean and compost put out to the heap.

Fanshawe College Greenhouse Blog

Zach and Colin - November 14-1, 2014

This is the cash register where customers and visitors purchase their plants and get their poinsettias wrapped up with gold, red or green pot sleeves according to customer preference. All sales get punched in to the register accordingly and a balance sheet is filled out at the end of the day to record the day’s sales. Since it is getting colder out we ask the customer how far they have to walk to their car, if their car is parked further away we would completely wrap up the poinsettia so it doesn’t freeze to death before it even gets home. Then the profits are stored away and one hundred dollars is left in the till for change.

Poinsettias are not the toughest plant. They will show serious signs if anything is wrong with them. What we noticed on Saturday was that they were fairly dry, but because of the open house we did not want to water them and make all the floors wet for the visitors coming through to check out the greenhouse. Any plants that were really wilted we took aside and watered them individually so that they bounced back up for the open house so that they could have a chance of getting adopted.

 

Over the weekend we determined the price for one plant with Jeff. During the open house sale we made up little desk size planters which will also help contribute to the total profit. We also made up a sign of our own outside the green house. The sign was just informing people that plants are now for sale and days that someone will be here. Most of the weekend duties were just preparing for the open house so a lot of the work was housekeeping, improving cleanliness, organizing and putting out signs.

Fanshawe College Greenhouse Practical - Courtney and Brian

Day 1- Friday November 7th 2014

On this cold but clear morning at the college, we met with Jeff and were given the orientation of the greenhouse while in the process we also opening the shade curtains for the plants in the greenhouse. We also misted the PRIVA Box Wet Wick to maintain the accuracy of the greenhouse PRIVA readings, and then checked and recorded the PRIVA readings on the computer program. With the greenhouse opening completed, we then walked the crop for the Poinsettias and groomed them of dead, dying, and/or diseased leaves to dissuade pests and diseases from the plants.

That being said though, the Whitefly problem is quite apparent on the crop with some areas above the plants being filled with hungry juice-sucking Whitefly.

 

It’s certainly a good thing that the Encarsia have been released to devour the Whiteflies. With that we then began watering the tropicals, cacti, begonias and annuals with a well-balanced 20-20-20 fertilizer at 100 parts per million for good general feeding for health and growth. We took a lunch break and then separated; one back to water the Poinsettia crop after making a new batch of 250 parts per million fertilizer for them, as the weaker fertilizer mix used for the other plants would definitely not give the Poinsettias optimal results with it, and the other went with Mike to one of the Campus’ offices to collect two large Ficus planters for grooming and repotting. Pine bark mulch was brought out to the new garden at M building for the new plants. The collected Ficus and their neighbours were given a spot killing to destroy their mealybug and scale problem and were then sent back in their fresher looking forms.

The new M building gardens were partially watered and mulched, after which time we ran out of time as it was time to close the greenhouse and begin blackout, so we separated to get the tools put away while the other closed the greenhouse.

Despite their excellent colour they are not completely ready, not just because of the Whitefly issue but because not all of the plants are fully coloured enough to be worth selling yet. In a few weeks with repeated blackout however, they will be plenty ready by the time of the sale! The last of the greenhouse data was collected for recording and we then signed out after cleaning up the work area outside of the main greenhouse. That was not the entire end of our adventure though; the key to the greenhouse was bent when we received it for the day, and upon attempting to lock the facility the key snapped clean off into the keyhole! With that issue needing resolving we called security to help in locking the greenhouse.

Day 2- Saturday November 8th 2014

An opposite feeling to the previous day, Saturday has been a cold drizzly one, giving off a dull miserable feeling to the outdoors. Regardless of this though, there is still no rest for the hard working! Bonus being that the rain will at least help charge the evergreens and other plantings a little bit for winter. With the key still broken, assistance was needed through the campus security to get into the greenhouse, which lead to quite the comedic sight of the tallest of us being lifted up to get access to the only operable door and lock. We must say that the security has been quite helpful and kind despite the inconvenience. The officer was even helpful enough to give us a heads up about a plant clean up that had to be dealt with over in the F building. With the doors free for use for the day, we separated to first open the greenhouse, and then separated further with one of us walking the crop as the other went to F building to deal with the plant clean up that the security officer spoke of. The whitefly were less active, though plenty were resting under the poinsettia leaves.

From what we were told it seems that a drunkard came in and torn out the plants at their own bemusement. The saying/complaint “this is why we can’t have nice things” comes to mind in this situation. Luckily the plants were just as easy to put in as they were to be ripped out. The annual plants in the one flowerbed beside the greenhouse was then cleaned out, with the finishing touches of leaf removal and soil raking saved for a little later as we were then regrouped to quickly water the handful of Poinsettias that appeared to have not have gotten any water from the drip lines as well as place potatoes among a few selected planters in the greenhouse for pest testing. With a little confusion at the start, we found the proper hoses and brought out the hose and sprinkler to start supercharging the newly planted evergreens. With the drying winter winds coming around soon, the evergreens can use all the water plumping up they can get. Once the sprinkler was properly placed, we then took a lunch break. After the break was finished, we then completed the finishing touches of the cleaned out annual flowerbed. We were then brought aside by Michael to be shown what other evergreens and plants had to be watered for winter preparation. After the show through, we then went to K building to move around the displayed houseplants per Mike’s previous instruction. Time soon came flying to a close, so we then separated so that one could put the tools together for washing while the other did finished touches on irrigation for the day. Blackout was done smoothly, and we signed out and called security for assistance with locking up the greenhouse for the night.


Day 3- Sunday November 9th 2014

Not unlike Friday, Sunday has been a cold but nice day, with the occasional appearance of the sun between the overcast clouds. The day started with the security helping us into the greenhouse once again, and then we signed in and set to work. We both worked together to open the greenhouse deftly and smoothly. The irrigation was started again and the evergreens were given a much more thorough autumn drink of water, as did the new evergreen that we planted. The poinsettia crop with walked and the Whiteflies once again began apparent as they were on Friday, but with just a less of them flying in the air. The irrigation was moved to our partially mulched garden to water the mulched plants as we took our early lunch break.

Nearing the end of the break, we checked the potatoes that we placed last night to see what invaded the delicious tubers. We surprisingly found not a lot of insects on the tubers but we did find a handful of mites and thrips.

With break then over we set to work to finish up mulching the remaining bare gardenbeds by M building. With the sun peeking out and heating up the greenhouse, one of us went back to check on the poinsettias. Although on the surface they appeared dry, the roots below were plenty moist so they weren’t watered. After the mulching was completed and the closing of the greenhouse started, we also began on cleaning up the work areas for the weekend closing. From the floors of the Greenhouse hallway, to the tools in the tool and tractor bays, as well as the propagation space, we did sweepings, vacuuming, and finally a hose down throughout much of them to make it cleaner than it was when we originally arrived on Friday. Even the propagation chamber was at the mercy of cleaning, with the algae on its walls thoroughly scrubbed with bleach mix.

With the Poinsettias shaded for another weekend night, we left the greenhouse after signing out and leaving security to lock up the door.

 

 

Greenhouse Weekend Blog

October 31 - November 2, 2014

Aaron, Justin, Taylor

 

 

This weekend had some ups and downs such as not having the Priva system working on Saturday morning. Another thing that put a loop into our weekend was the daylight savings (it was awesome to have an extra hour of sleep) but not when we got to the greenhouse to find out that the overhead curtains did not fall back for the one hour. That means that the were open for about 45 minutes before we got there and then closed at 3:30 pm instead of 4:30 pm but it worked out okay in the long run. 

 

This image shows the grasses that got divided (not all of them only like 2 plants worth) and some elephant ears that got put into the greenhouse for the foliage to die back. We also worked with some Tropicana cana’s that the awesome people from Clintar gave us from St. Joe's hospital.

 

The 3 annual beds at the east side of the greenhouse were cleaned up and we removed all annuals out of them. This was one of those jobs where you think that there is more work at hand but it turned out to be a pretty fast job that by time we were done it was nice to see what it looked like.

 

 

This is not Zack Effron working in the greenhouse its Justin….. this is where he put his supervisory skills aside and worked hard as nails to clean the inside of the greenhouse including the drains and washed media off the floor. As Pascoe asked for a spotless greenhouse we went at it sleeves rolled up. Mike if you read this we spent almost 3 and a half hours cleaning our greenhouse including the tractor bay inside the main room and washed out the trailer and the RTV got a wash. This weekend was a long but great weekend we had some good laughs but did what we were there for.