HORT-3015-18W April 15th, 2018
Fanshawe Weekend Duty – Greenhouse
Blog
Group:
Rebecca J. & Connor D.
Theme: Greenhouse
Organization & Sanitation.
The weekend of April 13th(Friday),
14th (Saturday), & 15th (Sunday):
On
the Friday morning of our weekend duty we were actually out and away from the
greenhouse at Cuddy Gardens in Strathroy to preform our C.L.T. (Certified
Landscape Technician) practical testing. Having the CLT until the afternoon, we
arrived back at the Fanshawe Campus Greenhouse roughly around 1:00pm which gave
our greenhouse technician Jeff time to inform us on some of the tasks that were
needed to be completed over the next two days of the weekend while we managed
the Fanshawe greenhouse. On the Friday we also had the opportunity to run sales
in the greenhouse whereas the next two days the till was closed to the public.
On
the Saturday we arrived and met at the greenhouse close to 7:50am. Upon arrival
we looked over the opening procedures list that we didn’t have to overlook the
previous day, and went through the list of the various greenhouse tasks
involved with getting the greenhouse and plants started for the day. I started
up the job that I was last working on at the end of the day Friday which was
pruning back and installing plantings into the moss baskets that Fanshawe is
preparing for the upcoming Western Fair in London, as well as look over the
remaining hanging baskets throughout the greenhouse. Becca was in the main
office of the greenhouse more focused on transplanting various plants from the
propagation chamber to bigger pots, some of these plants included Salvia,
Dusty Miller, and some Celosia. After we had both completed our separate
tasks we decided to work together and start condensing and organizing some of
the different benches, traying up loose pots and separating them by plant as
well as adding the new transplants onto the benches. By this time it was about
time to begin our closing procedures on the list and close down the greenhouse
for the night Saturday and continue on tomorrow.
On
the Sunday Becca and I decided we work together dedicated on cleaning and
organizing things throughout the greenhouse, as this is extremely important to
rid the environment of any harmful pests or diseases. With all the plants
transplanted from the propagation chamber the previous day, we gathered all the
heating mats from throughout the greenhouse and gave them a wash and scrub to
allow them to be able to perform to their full potential when used for the next
grow. After that, we headed out to the garage to organize some of the pots and
trays that are separated by kinds on various shelving units. After
organizing/cleaning the shelves and sanitizing the whole garage area we did the
same to the greenhouse office area. While cleaning the greenhouse office area
we also preformed pH (Potential Hydrogen) and EC (Electrical Conductivity) test
to make sure the Geranium crop was in the acceptable range of pH (5.5-6.0) and
EC (2.0-3.5) which it was. If the crop was too low in these numbers it means
that it needs to be fertilized, but if the numbers are too high that indicates
that there is too much fertilizer and the crop needs to be flushed
(watered-down). After the greenhouse environment was cleaned
and the plants looked after, we starting preforming out closing procedures to
shut the greenhouse down for the end of our weekend managing the Fanshawe
Campus greenhouse.
Aphid and castings
Winged aphid
Parasitized aphid
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