Fanshawe
College Weekend Greenhouse Duty
November
8th-10th, 2019
Hayden,
Jacob and Nicole
After some
concise explanations given to us by our instructors on what was expected of us
this coming semester, we were divided into groups and given specific weekends
including the Fridays before them and tasked with completing exercises with
educational and business tones around the college.
This blog
describes and logs the experiences we had the pleasure and great fortune of receiving.
Friday, November
8th
Our
morning started with our instructor taking us through all the necessary
policies and procedures associated with running a green houses day to day
operations. We reviewed the previous nights recorded temperatures along with
other measurements that ensure good quality yield from the facility.
Afterwards,
we spent the rest of the morning scouting out plants, culling weak and infirm
specimens and preparing the plants for use for the following afternoon
exercise. This included pruning off dead or weak limbs off plants, inspecting
the stock for any health issues and organizing them once the latter two
activities were carried out.
After a
brief reprieve from our delegated duties, we began the production of hanging
baskets. This included choosing choice specimens from our stock and potting
them in large baskets of threes.
After the baskets were prepared, we
labelled them twice. Once in the pot for reference if the basket were taken
down and one on the bottom of the basket to see from below. The baskets were
then thoroughly watered and hung above to catch the last of the golden rays of
our November sun shine.
The day
ended as quickly as it started. Parts of the duties of making sure a greenhouse is closed properly is to know what kind of light and dark cycle a plant
requires. From 8:00 am – 5:00 pm, the poinsettias we grow require intense day light.
However, they also require a long dark period and we close the shade curtains
when we leave and lock up. This concluded our first day of our weekend.
Saturday,
September 14th
The following morning after
sleeping in and eating a hearty breakfast, we joined up bright eyed and ready
to have a productive day. As per usual, the opening procedures were followed.
Shade curtains drawn open. Monitoring and scouting conducted to college
standards. Coffee, two sugars, two cream.
After we finished our initial
opening procedure, we continued our original task of re-potting and preparing
flower baskets. This took up until noon. We finished the task and took our
lunch before we regrouped and prepared a plan for the rest of the day.
We were tasked earlier by our
instructor inspect the bug scan cards hanging in the green house. These cards
are hung and bright in color. They will attract a variety of green house
pests. These pests will fly and get trapped on the adhesive surface of the
plant. After a period of time, we take them down and count the number of
insects and species. These counts are logged and
recorded for future use to determine pest concentration and what pests are
present in the green house. Afterwards, we replace the traps with fresh ones.
This practice took up the rest
of the day concluding our day as we finished our closing procedures for the
green house.
Sunday,
September 15th
Sunday
was our last day at the greenhouse. Despite the bonding, the learning and the
experience we were glad to finally complete our tasks given to us on the
weekend.
Though
we watered the Poinsettias Saturday we found that two of the plants on bench 4
were insufficiently watered. Luckily it was not a big problem and could be
dealt with quickly and efficiently. With the
spot watering done, we were able to get back on track to do our tasks.
First
was the EC and the pH measurements were needed to be done along with touching
up on the IPM. The EC and pH were
measured and each fell between 5.8 and 6.4 which were all in the acceptable
range of acidic/alkaline.
The IPM
was done next and to our surprise the work done to find each pest on the sticky
cards found that there were a lot of Fungus gnats that are affecting the
poinsettias.
As
these were done, we decided to do more walks of the crop, checking for wilting,
dead leaves and etc. to ensure that all was well in the greenhouse.
With
that done we finish for the day making final checks to the crop, the
germination and propagation chambers, and finally closing the curtains for both
for the greenhouse and for our time spent there.