Greenhouse Weekend Blog : Nov.28/29/30, 2014
Connor & Ben
Also while doing this moving the side poinsettia crop a few inches inward, this would allow plants to not be knocked over and possibly damaged. As the day progressed we installed a heat mat system underneath our developing grass collection. The day was passing by rather quickly but the customers seemed to keep rolling in for the sale of our lovely poinsettia crop. Connor and Ben were able to help a lady from the college by producing two more poinsettia planters for her to talk home for the Christmas months. Another great opportunity arose by us having to create a new mixture of fertilizer solution for the crop. We put our brains together remembering the math over the semester and figured out the right amount of 20-20-20 fertilizer to add.
250x100 divided by 20x10 equals 2500 divided by 200 equals 125 grams.
While doing the mix we used the M.S.D.S sheet for the fertilizer to insure what PPE to be worn for the application and some of the harm the fertilizer can do.
Being on time for work Saturday morning we were ready to get at it again and have another fun successful day. Starting with the the opening checklist again analyzing the temperatures, graphs of the greenhouse and all the other following procedures. Next we started to hang up a few sticky cards and cut potato slices to collect some data on the pest in the greenhouse. Taking one of each differently cultivated poinsettia crop off the bench to check the ph reading of the media, most of the crop had similar readings. We then took an average of the entire crop and found it to have a ph of 7.10. Later we had to take our trees for congress planting out of the cold and get them down to the c building tractor bay. When getting down there Connor realized that the Kubota tractor has a mechanical light on, so he decided the tractor might be unsafe to drive. He then innovated by using the RTV with a trailer on the back to get the trees down to the new location for warmth. He then started treating some plants with an isopropyl solution to get rid of a mealy bug problem. Then he pruned back the dead leaves on the elephant ears as instructed and removed the excess dead on the plant. Taking down some of the blackout curtains was a bit of a challenge for Connor due to the limited space to work in around the benches. Ben went at organizing the hanging baskets and picking out 9 for a pruning demonstration for a high school class next week. After the organizing was done we as a team did a soft pinch on the baskets and removed any dead foliage in the soil media to reduce the risk of pests or diseases.
On Sunday we opened the greenhouse like every other morning and started to walk the crop. We decided that Sunday would be our day of full water for the poinsettia crop. Started by sweeping the entire greenhouse we watered early in the morning and squeegeed up all the access water after to help reduce the humidity and condensation for later in the day. Consistently misting the wick for the priva wet bulb like the past few days to help with the humidity reduction. Going through the Ficus, Miracle and Citrus x limon tropical finding some mealy bug and powdery mildew we applied some isopropyl solution for the mealy bug infestation. For the powdery mildew we decided to use the safers soap to treat against the problem. All of the dead foliage was removed from both the plant and the tops of the soil media. Last we cut down some grasses at the side of the greenhouse and got all the weeds from the bed. Before leaving for the weekend we made sure all of the benches were walked and restocked to have everything look nice for monday morning. Connor later then took the RTV out to the compound to dispose of the compost in the designated area.
