Greenhouse Weekend Blog

October 23-25

R. Farrow and N. Rogers

Greenhouse weekend duty is a great responsibility and an excellent way to gain some hands on learning experience in the field. During the weekend duty we learn quite a lot about what it takes to run a greenhouse. Luckily during our weekend duty at the Fanshawe greenhouse we were able to take care of the beautiful poinsettia crop that are course is growing to sell towards the Christmas season. This also means we are in our crucial black out period that the poinsettias need, this back out period goes from five in the evening to eight in the morning. The poinsettias looked great this weekend with their foliage gathering that wonderful shade of red that we all love; the program is also growing other varieties this year.

On Friday October twenty third we started off with a walk through with Jeff on the opening and closing check list. Once we gained all the information we needed to successfully run a greenhouse for a weekend by ourselves we headed out to complete our tasks at hand. Our first objective was to walk the crop; this is a key factor in taking care of the plant stock in the greenhouse. When walking the crop, you must check the roots, stem, and foliage for anything out of the ordinary and cleaning up the plant from any dead foliage. Our next step at hand was to pull out the crates in the back underneath the stock basket shelf and move them to a spot were more sun would shine. We also raised crates off the floor to prevent excessive moisture that could lead to mold or rot. Once we had the crates organized we cleaned and spaced the tree poinsettias in the back corner of the green house. Then proceeded with removing swampy water from our water plants, finishing off that area we cleaned and moved over the elephant ears sit next to the water plants. Once everything was moved we created laminated signs to place in the greenhouse.

The following Saturday October twenty fourth was not the best day for good weather. Unfortunately for most of the day it just rained constantly, but we wouldn’t let the bad weather get in the way of completing our task. Of course we started with completing the check list and opening the black out curtains. We set off on figuring out the plants on the right hand shelf that interfered with the black out process, our goal was to move them down so they wouldn’t get in the way. We spent the first part moving smaller cacti to the shelf in the back to make room for the larger cacti that were being move down. Once we had everything moved to the right spot we got started on the biggest task for our weekend duty, to organize the stock basket by genus. We decided to organize the genus of the stock baskets alphabetically, with the A beginning from the doors and following down the shelf alphabetically using both top and bottom shelf. In the end we were triumphant and then went back over the organized stock basket to place any black labels that we could match.

Fortunately for our last day on Sunday October twenty fifth, we were blessed with some sunny weather. We started the day like usual with the opening list and sliding the black out curtains back, then finished off with walking the crop. With better weather on our side we headed out to clean up the garden beds next to the greenhouse. We removed all the dying annuals and cleaned up the grasses, to finish off the area we cleaned up the fall leaves that were piled up in the corners of the garden bed. When the beds were completed we headed back to the greenhouse to do a major cleaning. We bore down on the greenhouse cleaning with a vengeful purpose, in the greenhouse we pulled back the crates and swept underneath the right wall bench. Then swept the greenhouse before spraying down and using the squeegee to clean the floors. Then we moved on to the main structure of the greenhouse, we pulled back the media bins and recycling bins to sweep the floors. Dusting was also a large task wiping down window sills and storage units we finished of the room with spraying down the floor and giving it the squeegee run also. From there we moved on to the garage, we picked up scattered pots, and moved the Kubota’s to get a good sweep of the floor. Then finished off cleaning with emptying the floor drains cleaning out plant material and soil.  With some extra time, we went to the tool room and gave it a quick clean also. In all weekend duty went well and was an excellent learning experience, can’t wait to have another chance to work in the greenhouse.