Noah and Rob

Greenhouse Blog

Friday October 25th,

First day at the greenhouse. Today we spent the day with Jeff, Stacey, Mike, Sara and Carly. Jeff gave us the walkthrough of our weekend duties and greenhouse protocol. Once that was finished we started our list of duties. We tried to finish all the small/ short duties first so we could spend as much time as possible on the grasses over the next two days. We finished almost all the small duties and were able to start most of our other duties such as the blog, IPM assignment etc. Testing the pH of the cultivars was interesting. I found out the tester works with the cap on or off. 

Saturday October 25th,

After completing the morning checklist, we finished off the small tasks such as cleaning the pots and walking the crop, so we could spend the rest of our time dividing the (grasses). While inspecting the tropicals we noticed three of them had numerous spots of mealy bug, so we pulled them aside and wiped down all the foliage with the water/ alcohol solution. A couple of the poinsettia were wilted and all of them had dry media so we watered them ensuring all the emitters were functional. After turning the water on the sound of water spraying on the floor did not seem right, and we quickly noticed the furthest pipe on bench 8 had a leak. We immediately turned the individual line off and moved the several crop to different emitters on the same bench, as well as the wilted ones. The rest of our day was spent on crown division and planting the cuttings into cell packs as well as checking the Priva wick, temperatures, and cleaning up at the end of the day.

All in all it was a successful second day.

Sunday October 26th

Once the checklist was finished, we did a complete cleaning of the greenhouse because we wouldn’t be working in there all day. We also removed the potato slices we placed on various plants from Friday and noticed larva was still present in a few plants. We also placed a sticky card around each cultivar of poinsettia so monitor if the white fly were still active. We spent a large portion of our day dividing and planting the grasses. We turned roughly 100 grasses into 1000 after a long day of dividing.

Maintenance Practical – October 24th-26th, 2014

Carly K.

Jeff gave a short orientation the morning of our first day of practical. The purpose of the orientation was to familiarize and supply the practical students with all the necessary the information needed over the weekend. This included, our daily duties, available equipment, contact information, emergency information, required personal protective equipment, etc. After Jeff gave the appropriate instructions, Sara and I were instructed to prep the garden beds at the front of Fanshawe. We were told to clear the beds of all the annuals as they are affected by the frost and cold weather. Sara and I preformed a circle check on both the Kubota and trailer before we went and gathered the appropriate tools for the job. After we collected our things, we drove the RTV to the front of the school where we would completely dismantle the garden bed for the plants that will be planted there in the future. We dug out all the plants, weeded the bed, cultivated and raked the soil. We did this for 2 beds. Our third bed contained daylilies that needed to be deadheaded and cleaned up. We collected all the scraps in a pile on the trailer. Once we finished, we made our way back to the Woodland Gardens where we would deadhead more daylilies and prune hostas to aid their growth in the spring and make the landscape look more visually appealing. After those duties were complete, we took the scraps to the compost, we cleaned the tools we used throughout the day and put them back in the tool room in their designated spots. Cleaning the tools daily prevent future damage such as rust and cracks. I then returned the Kubota and trailer to the tractor bay, signed in the keys and called it a day.



The second day I worked alone in the Woodland Gardens. Just like my first day, I signed out my radio and keys, preformed a circle check on the Kubota and trailer and collected the appropriate tools for the day. I was asked to maintain, edit, weed, deadhead, prune and change anything that required it. I spent the majority of my day weeding and deadheading day lilies and taking trips to the compost pile. I cleaned the tools and put them away in the tool room for an easy find for my third day.



The third day was much like my second day with a few differences. As required at the start of every day here at Fanshawe, I signed my radio and keys out, performed circle checks and collected the necessary things I was going to need. I did more weeding and editing throughout the Woodland Gardens. I pruned grass, cultivated, raked, and collected the scraps to transport them to the compost. Added, all while having my personal protective equipment on. This includes, my hardhat, safety glasses, gloves, hearing protection, a reflective vest, steel toe work boots and the appropriate uniform. The faculty and students here at Fanshawe are aware that safety is extremely important. To prevent any problems from arising, the personal protective equipment is mandatory at all times while working on school grounds.

Fanshawe College Greenhouse Practical Class

October 22^nd, 2014

                In the greenhouse class, Reese, Rob, and Rachael released two beneficial  insects: Encarsia formosa and Steinernema feltaie.

Encarsia formosa - This biological control was applied to decrease the whitefly population. It is released on three seperate occassions (each one week apart) so that the full life cycle of the whiteflies are targeted. Tiny cards were hung on pots that have eggs on them which will develop through their six stages. Nine cards per m2 were applied.

Steinernema feltaie- A nematode biological which feeds on fungus gnat larvae. They are applied at a rate of 500,000 per m2 by putting the gell block into approximately 15 to 20 degrees water to break it down. The solution is continuously agitated to ensure even distribution of the nematodes and then applied directly to media in the poinsettia crop. 

Fanshawe Greenhouse Weekend Duty Blog

October 17-19, 2014

Julia and Reese

The start of the weekend duty was very interesting; I am amazed at all the things that are needed to be monitored and the maintenance that goes into running a greenhouse. The technician that over sees the greenhouse on a daily basis went through the greenhouse protocols that are required for the weekend. Jeff did a spectacular job at explaining all of the different things that we needed to know for the weekend.

We brought in all of the elephant ear plants into the tractor bay in preparation for the winterizing process. While I was doing that my partner was potting some propagated plants that the students in Greenhouse Production course did not complete. After that we filled hanging baskets with media and propagules for our stock plant collection. 

It is surprising how fast a day goes by when you are working hard. I did not realize how difficult it really is to close the black curtain - that was a long process. It has been a very busy day and a confusing one at that.

The cactus collection is watered only once a week which was completed on Friday afternoon.

 

 

Saturday brought us a visitor at the greenhouse by the name of Eric Abram. After that, we re-potted the small cactus. This took a very long time! We finished just before the end of the day. 

 

 

 

 

Sunday started out with the usual check in list. I maintained the College's interior plant scape. As I was doing that, Julia was inspecting the crop and applied culture. Upon further inspection we discovered many fungus gnats and white flies.

The crop is starting to look beautiful as some of the specific cultivars leaves are starting to turn red.

 

 

The afternoon brought lots of cleaning and organizing. 

It was a great experience this weekend in the greenhouse! We have learned so much about technical and practical techniques that are used in our greenhouse every day.

Maintenance Weekend Practical

Stacey Kirkbride & Anina Frick

October 17-19 2014

The leaves are falling, temperatures dropping and the plants are starting their hibernation at Fanshawe College. It was evident that there was much to be done before winter sets in as we made our way around campus last week. Throughout the week, wesoon noticed that Mike, Jeff, and Tim had the same mindset, as their duty instructions piled up quickly.

As Friday came along we practically dove right into our tasks. Jeff who took us through a quick run-through of our weekend as well as adding some extra tasks. With that, we headed to the tractor bay to retrieve the Kubota and trailer. When completing our circle check on the Kubota we discovered that the fuel was low. It was a new learning experience for us both as we hadn’t fueled up before. Then we made our way to R1 to clean the beds around the buildings. Hostas were cut back, shrubs were pruned, tree wells were re-edged and weeds were pulled. Our compost piled up, and our driving skills improved as we maneuvered our way through traffic and into tight spaces.

 

 

 

As our day came to a close, we quickly made a trip to E building to the grass seed site for our maintenance class. We squared off the site with some stakes and caution taped, in order to minimize any foot traffic that may cause compaction.

Our Saturday started wet. The rain began around the same time we did; however that didn't prevent a productive day. We did have a slight hiccup with the Kubota, realizing that our transmission fluid was low. Uncertain of the effects, we decided against using it and returned to the greenhouse, signing out the RTV and trailer instead.

The conifer garden was our focus of the day. We dug some holes for some new trees. As well, we pulled out a euonymus and did some transplanting of junipers, false cypress and pines. As the trees are growing, some of the had to be re-spaced to allow them their maximum growth.

 

 

 

Of course our moods were slightly dulled with the weather but as we got going with our tasks, we soon learned that even the rain can have its own benefits. Weeding for one, was more effective as the ground was softened which made it easier and less time consuming to pull them. Our biggest challenge though, was literally to reduce our footprint as best we could. As the soil got heavier, so did our feet, and we tried to step in gardens as little as possible. All the better for compaction minimization as well, we supposed.

Sunday went smoothly as our routine wore in. We were back at the conifer garden, finishing up where we left off from the previous day. As we were weeding, we made the most of our time turning on the sprinklers to water our evergreens. We were slightly uncertain about watering techniques of the evergreens in the fall. Taking into account what we had learned in first year,we knew that evergreen survival was heightened if they received regular watering throughout the summer months. The water would be stored in the plant’s root system and as winter would set in and the ground would freeze--limiting the plant’s water uptake—water loss through transpiration would occur. As well, lowered air moisture and strong persisting winds would contribute to water loss essentially causing desiccation and potential death of the tree. Doing some additional research, we discovered that watering the evergreens this late in the season was advantageous as well. If watering was slowed in September, the evergreen would go through the “hardening off” process were new growth would stop. However, watering again in October is crucial as the tree receives its final tissue hydration before the ground freezes completely.

We were pleasantly surprised when Eric Abram visited the conifer garden that afternoon. Though we were wary about his presence at first as we thought he was sent to critique our work, he was very helpful giving us tips and tricks which added quality to our responsibilities. In the afternoon we headed back to R1 to continue making our way around the beds lining to buildings.

 

 

Seeing bed by bed being cleared out was both enlightening and motivating. However, considering our time constraint, we decided to move through the basic goal at top speed cutting back the remaining hostas and clearing out garbage The rest would have to wait for a further date. As we evaluated our work and did some critical thinking we remembered the our goal involving tasks: see a job to completion. At that, we headed back to the conifer garden one last time, to do some leaf blowing and touching up some edges with the vertical edger. Our time was closing in quickly and as 4:30 came, we finished up our mental checklists of emptying our compost and leaving our tool room in top shape as though we had never even been there.

Maintenance Practical Blog
Chad, Johnny and Ben
October 10-12, 2014

Autumn is here and it’s time to start getting those gardens cleaned up and weed free. To start off our Friday, it was time to gather all the tools necessary to tackle this task and head down to Z building. Jeff came and did a walk-through of the site to provide further details on our tasks for the weekend. After completing some weeding it was time to head out to Strathroy for Certified Landscape Technician (CLT) testing. Upon returning from the morning CLT testing, further weeding was completed.

The majority of Saturday consisted of weeding. Johnny came along with the tractor and trailer to assist us in our tasks for today. There was a significant amount of weeds in all the beds. We started systematically by working from the far end of the building along Oxford Street and worked our way north. We focused on one bed at a time and split up and worked toward each other. There were numerous weeds including Lactuca serriola (PricklyLlettuce), Convolvulusarvensis (Field Bindweed), Taraxacum officinale (Dandelions), and Equisetum arvense (Horsetail) to name a few. It looks like the weeds have enjoyed the weather this summer as there were some areas in the garden beds where you could barely see mulch for the weeds! It was important to ensure that the entire weed including the root system was pulled to prevent the weeds from returning. We used a variety of tools to assist us in removing the weeds including ahand trowel, garden fork, and our new weeding fork from Cuddy’s. We also used a rake afterwards to ensure that we left the site looking great, or as Tim says “make it look like you were never there”. After working on weeding for a while we decided to tackle the removal of the dead Taxodium distichum ‘Cascade Falls’ (Cascade Falls Bald Cypress). This was a difficult task, as the roots were large and well established. The tree fought a good fight but with perseverance and hard work we managed to win the battle. Creating a large hole in the soil which we properly backfilled and cleaned up around.

 

 It was then time to complete another task of removing the Treegator® watering bags from all the trees around Z building. The watering bags were a low maintenance, efficient tool used to provide water to the trees over the summer. We had trouble removing some of the bags due to the locks being seized with rust. We removed any remaining water from the bags and put them in the trailer. We then continued with weeding until the end of the day and walked back to the greenhouse. 

 

We began our final day with a heavy frost! The day started off cold but quickly warmed up. We continued with our taskof weeding, finishing with the north bed. While completing this weeding, some women walked by and commented onhow lovely the flowers look when they walk by every day. This was nice to hear and figured we would pass on thispraise! Once the weeding was complete, we moved onto edging along the front of the building facing Oxford. We did this using a string line on the straight edge of the bed to ensure a straight line was accomplished. Next we raked all the mulch up and out of our way. One person made the cut with the half moon, followed by another with the spade to remove the unwanted turf, followed by another with the dutch hoe to break up the large chunks of soil and even it out. We then used the vertical edger to create a clean finished edge and then raked down and evened out the mulch.

 

 

We also brought WD40 to assist with the removal of five Treegator® bags that had seized locks, this worked great! We spent some time as well rinsing the soil off of the Treegator® bags so they could be stored for winter. We also sprayed WD40 on all the locks so they wouldn’t seize up over the winter from rust, to ensure they function properly next year. Another important task in cleaning up our site was removing all the garbage and debris from Z building, which there was a lot of! We also cleaned up the tree wells along Oxford Street. It was the end of our weekend so we headed back to the equipment room to clean off our tools and this was the end of our rewarding weekend at Z building!