Greenhouse Weekend Duty Blog

Blayne & Thomas 

October 30^th, 31st & Nov 1^st

Friday

Working at the college this summer as a student gardener, I got to experience the best of both worlds; working in the greenhouse and maintaining the campus grounds. It was a great experience and I have to say I am very happy to be back working in the greenhouse this weekend with my partner Thomas. Here in the greenhouse we are gearing up for the Poinsettia sale that is approaching quickly. All of them are colouring fast and there will be a brilliant display of colour in the greenhouse as the sale approaches!  

Today began as a chilly cloudy morning but that did not stop my enthusiasm to get started! The first thing Thomas and I did was sign in and open the curtains for the Poinsettia black out period which is from 5:00 pm – 8:00 am. It is important to open and close them on time so they don't get disturbed while they are still developing colour. Then we did the opening walk through check list to make sure the facility was in tip top shape! This included checking the Priva greenhouse system of the temperatures, humidity, light etc. are at the right levels. After we completed our check list we began to "walk the crop". This is the opportunity to check out the foliage and root systems, which plants need to be watered and to look for any other problems that may be apparent. Until more tasks were assigned to us from Sue later in the morning, Thomas and I headed into the college to water the indoor plants. Around 11:00 am we returned to the greenhouse and met with Sue to go over all the duties we needed to complete this weekend. After a long list of things to complete, we immediately started making room for the grass transplants we were soon to get started on. We did this by moving some of the cacti and succulents over to the right side of the greenhouse along the racks from the greenhouse bench. To do this, we needed to gather some hanging baskets already on the racks, put hangers on them and hang them up along a full drip line system. With this extra room, we moved the remaining cacti and succulents with the rest. We then had enough room to lay the grass transplants along the bench.  For the short amount of time remaining we got a start on the divisions and transplanting of the grasses.

                                    

Saturday

Thomas and I started our day with the same procedure as yesterday morning which included the Priva system and watering, we then got right into finishing the divisions of the Pennisetum grasses. At a fast speed both of us were able to finish 8-10 full crates of grasses in a good amount of time. The grasses were Pennisteum  setaceum ‘Rubrum’, ‘Cherry Sparkler’ and  Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Pennstripe’. As seen in the pictures I was very excited to get going on the greenhouse work that I missed and enjoyed from the summer. These divisions were transplanted into 24 cell packs per tray. In total we completed 11 trays. Once the divisions were completed we worked hard to make the tractor bay and potting room spotless! 

Sunday

Today began with spot watering the Poinsettias, as most of them were already well watered. When most of the Poinsettias are dry the use of emitters make watering a little easier. One emitter is placed in each pot to slowly water the crop. With the use of emitters some become clogged and need to be cleaned or replaced, which is what we did. While I was spot watering, I came upon this beautifully coloured Poinsettia. It’s one of the first examples of the cultivar ‘Premier Jingle Bells’ that caught my eye. As much as everything we did this weekend is important to running a greenhouse, cleanliness of the greenhouse is just as important. Thomas and I spent the morning washing down the greenhouse and tractor bay floors.  For the rest of the day we did little tasks that needed to be done. I made sure that any hand written labels from the greenhouse class on Wednesday were replaced with proper print out labels. This is important so every plant has the details needed for future reference. After I made a quick stop by the compost, Thomas attached Velcro on the blackout curtains and the wall to prevent any openings between the curtains. Exposure of the street lights and the lighting around campus could affect the colour development of the Poinsettias. 

As the sun started to go down, we wrapped up the weekend by completing our closing checklist, blacked out the greenhouse and signed off.  I enjoy greenhouse because there is always so much to do. Second year has been a blast so far! Now that my two weekend practicals are complete for this semester, with the help of a great partner, I have to say, I’m already looking forward to the greenhouse duty next semester.