Weekend Duty Blog for September 22-24^th 2017

By: Nicolai J. and Jennifer H.

                This was the weekend that Airshow London occurred, and so throughout our duties here, we got to hear, and sometimes see the overflights of the various aircraft that were performing at the event. In a way, we got our own free show from right inside the greenhouse. Friday morning we got off to a quick start with Jeff giving us a breakdown of our duties for the weekend. He showed us the ins and outs of our jobs, and helped switch out the labels in the label machine twice for us. Essentially for our duties, we had to dig up, cut back, divide, and pot up the red fountain grass found in front of the greenhouse (figure 1), we had to take cuttings and cut back the stock baskets (figure 2) that hadn’t already been done by the weekly greenhouse classes, and we had to install additional drip lines on the benches (figure 3). On top of those special assignments, we had to perform the weekly and daily activities like watering the interior plants by the bookstore and library, checking the crops, watering, performing plant sales on Friday, and cleaning. Once we had checked the crops for any problems, we got to work on the stock basket cuttings, we quickly discovered one basket absolutely infested with mealy bug, we kept it quarantined by the POS terminal for Jeff and Sue to pass judgement over it. Near the end of the day we closed the shade curtains, but the automatic overhead curtains did not close, so we had to call security to get them to open the priva box so that we could manually close them.

                On the next day Jennifer retrieved the key in the morning and opened the greenhouse, but since security hadn’t turned off the alarm yet, we got quite a loud wake up call. While it was still somewhat cool, Nicolai took the opportunity to do an inventory of all the miscellaneous items that reside above the washrooms. Before lunch we attempted to do the interiorscape, only to have to turn back halfway through, as the library didn’t open until 1 in the afternoon. Soon after we tried to install the new drip lines, after much difficulty and trial and error we got them installed .

For the remainder of the day, we took more cuttings from the stock baskets, and lo and behold, discovered another begonia covered in mealy bug, it joined its friend in our makeshift quarantine zone.

                On our final day we got to work on the grasses, throughout the entire morning we processed a row of the pennisetum. Throughout our three days in the greenhouse, we had to manually close the blackout fabric at the end of each day, and switch it back to automatic the next morning. Only later on Sunday did we discover that it was an error in the programming that was causing the fabric to close closer to 7pm, rather than the 5pm when it is supposed to close.  The reason we use the blackout fabric is so that we can encourage the poinsettias to colour up in time for Christmas. In their native habitat in Mexico, which is near the equator, poinsettias get close to 12 hours of darkness this time of the year, so the plant has adapted to use this photoperiod as a time telling device, so that they know when to flower. Here in southwestern Ontario, those 12 hours of darkness is harder to come by, and sitting right beside the main college buildings, nigh impossible. So, to produce this darkness, the greenhouse is covered in curtains and ceiling cloth made from blackout fabric. In the evening, these are drawn shut so to give our poinsettias their desired night’s sleep. After several months of this kind of treatment, the distinctive colouration that poinsettias are known for starts to appear, just in time for Christmas sales!

Greenhouse Weekend Duty Blog Entry: September 15^th – 17^th, 2017

By Matt M. and Norna H. 

Toward whatever ends we pursue a career in horticulture, we are united by our desire to learn how to care for our floral friends, and the satisfaction that comes with having greater connection with nature. As we return for our final year of our program, we look forward to what practical skills this year will yield over the theory-focused first-year curriculum.

As the first group to start this semester’s schedule of weekend duties, we hardly knew what to expect. However, we have found our work to be both valuable in a practical sense, as well as surprisingly holistic in exposure to plant life stages. In conjunction with regular greenhouse maintenance and housekeeping, we monitored the growth of cuttings, transplanted established plants, and cared for this year’s plants intended for later sale!

At the moment, gardens are partially in a transitional phase: the weather outside isn’t cold enough to over-winter plants yet, but it is too late in the season to effectively plant or seed most plants. Inside the greenhouse, however, is not season-specific. As the Fanshawe horticulture program has done for many years, this year’s crop is various cultivars of Euphorbia pulcherrima… Poinsettias!

On Wednesday before our rotation, we were given a briefing tour by our professor and program-director Sue Millar. We wanted to be as familiar as we could with the green house to get ready for the big weekend. Later, on the following Friday, Jeff Rowley (our program’s greenhouse technician) supervised us for our first day on our weekend duty. We were given a collective list of things to accomplish by both Sue and Jeff, who made us clearly aware of the many risks and responsibilities ahead of us. They were probably thinking: “I hope on Monday that the greenhouse is still standing upright!”. That was our hope too. At 4pm, we found ourselves in charge of our year’s crop, and our program’s main facility, but we were armed with cutting edge technology… and a lot of support just a phone-call away. It was a treat to work in a facility so ideally equipped for our work.

As we settled in we found our tasks were standard-issue greenhouse life support positions: water, space, monitor, re-arrange, fertilization, and sanitation. Not everything in this industry is glamorous, but we know that it all adds up. The plants we care for and sell fly off of our shelves into gardens and offices everywhere around London and beyond.

Unexpectedly, we also had the chance to get acquainted with the irrigation system, even installing a few new emitters (drippers) and a new valve.  Another interesting task we both enjoyed very much was identifying the mystery plants brought in from Thunder Bay, creating new stock-pots for future propagation, and even attaching the newly identified plants in their hanging baskets to our recently installed drippers! We have to toot our horn a little bit!

In the end, we hope that Sue and Jeff feel that they left the greenhouse in good hands. We made every effort to make that poinsettia crop happy, healthy, and spotless!

  

It may seem like having one type of plant could make our greenhouse inventory a little boring, but there is always something interesting going on in Fanshawe’s greenhouse that peaks our interest! We love our stock plants and their unique variations on relatively common plants! Until the poinsettias really start showing their colours, however, our curiosity was especially piqued by the unknown plants waiting for us to identify them.

Special: Pinellia ternate

“During weekend duty on Wednesday I was given a brief run down by Sue. As we walked through the greenhouse the poinsettia’s seemed to be the main focus, but in the corner of my eye noticed a tray of seedlings that were unmarked and it was like lightning struck me. I said, ‘Those look like Arisaema!’.” – Matt M. 

It was a very close guess! The mystery only deepened since the plants had been labelled as Pinellia ternata “Crown Dipper”, which threw off initial searched for information! It soon turned out that it was actually a Crow Dipper – a type of Arum!

Crow Dipper, part of the Araceae family, which is shared by the very identical genus Arisaema, is a herbaceous perennial native to China and Korea, and is thought to be an invasive weed in parts of North America. Its hardiness is between zone 5a - 8b USDA, which is a huge detail in terms of what they can be used for (Brickell, 2011). Flowering in late spring to early summer, Pinellia ternata’s elongated spathes form green berries which ripen in mid- to late summer. Pinellia ternata’s seeds have been used in traditional medicine in China. Left alone or unrefined the seeds are poisonous (Brickell, 2004)!

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Bibliography

Brickell, C.B. (2011). ENCYLOPEDIA OF PLANTS & FLOWERS REVISED AND UPDATED. London, England. Dorling Kindersley.

Brickell, C.B. (2004). Canadian Encyclopedia of Gardening. Ontario, Canada: Dorling Kindersley.