Greenhouse Practical Blog April 18-20, 2014

Sky Holbrook, Johnny Clarke and Hilary Sivyer

 Friday

With our end of the term party only hours before, we arrived early at the Greenhouse the next morning for our finale practical. Sky and Johnny took the lead on transplanting all of the Salvia and Dusty Miller from seed trays into cell packs. They spent the majority of the day transferring small seedlings from one tray to the other and tagging each appropriately to prepare them for sale. Sky and Johnny had to prepare cell packs for planting several times and decided that the fasted way to fill them would be to work as a team. After successfully transplanting close to 2,600 Salvia and 400 Dusty Miller they each took on separate jobs around the greenhouse sterilizing trays and pots.  While they were in the potting room transplanting Hilary spent the entire day in the greenhouse counting and arranging plants to ensure that orders from Fanshawe and Clintar could be filled.

  

Saturday

Arriving at the greenhouse for another eventful day Sky and Johnny prepared the potting room for the transplanting of roughly 200 Canna Lilly. They each took turns moving to and from the greenhouse with two to three crates each of the plant. They first needed to sort the corms from what was vegetative and what didn’t make it through the winter. Once they had all of their pots ready and the plants separated they spent a large portion of the day planting one pot after another. But once they began tagging the plants they realized that there were more than two different types of Cana Lilly. Hilary used the computer to try and differentiate the leaf patterns and distinguish the different cultivars from one another. This proved to be a challenge as some of the plants were barley even peeking above the soil. The three managed to complete the tagging and used a cart to move the plants into the greenhouse to be sorted on the benches. Unfortunately, Sky foolishly had her hand rested on the side of a table with her thumb over hanging the side and it was crushed between the tables. A quick break was taken to retrieve a Band-Aid and clean her thumb before we returned to organizing the benches of plants. Sky and Johnny finished out the day by using a small cart to move tropical plants into the T building, while Hilary remained in the greenhouse sorting the remainder of plants and ensuring that every plant had been accounted for and watered. The day ended with a group effort of cleaning the potting room and prepping the greenhouse for the next day.

Sunday

Hilary began the day by watering the crop and ensuring each plant was receiving the proper amount of fertilizer. The fire alarm began going off abruptly and everyone was caught off guard. None of us knew what was happening until a security guard came to the greenhouse to inspect the building for any faults. After the firefighters arrived and gave us the all clear we returned to doing our jobs in the greenhouse. Sky spent the morning ensuring that every plant had the proper tag and that they were arranged appropriately in the cell packs. Johnny and Hilary took on the tropicals in the tractor bay sorting the healthy plants from the ones that weren’t doing as well. They moved the healthy plants into the greenhouse on a cart and met up with Sky in the outdoor storage area to stack pots onto a skid and prepare them for being picked up. They then spent the remainder of the day as a crew cleaning the tractor bay, potting room and greenhouse.