Greenhouse Weekend Duty Blog

Myles Roach & Emily Weber

Feb 5-7 2016

Friday:

     Another greenhouse weekend is upon us. Once we arrived at 8am we went through our checklist that every weekend group has to go through, which involves checking the inside and outside temperatures humidity as well as other important environmental factors, especially those crucial to the hydrangea crop.  Around 9am Jeff went over the weekend tasks with us giving us a few additional items to be completed throughout our 3 days at the greenhouse. The three of us sorted through some perennial geraniums that were in the bed of one of the RTV’s-last weekend’s group mistakenly took them for compost and put them with the rest of the dead plant material-then put them aside for potting later on. Emily and Myles then put the emphasis on the plants in the greenhouse, particularly the hydrangeas. We walked the crop, noting any pests or environmental damage. We decided to spot water any particularly dry Hydrangeas and decided to give them a healthy drink tomorrow. Emily then went through the stock basket plants pulling out dead foliage, scrapping mold and algae off the soil surfaces and monitoring for any pests. We found a number of mealy bugs on several of the stock plants, as well as a lot of aphids. The aphid population was reported in higher numbers the previous few weeks, so judging by past data the number of them seem to be still declining. While Emily continued to tend to the stock baskets (also re-organizing them by genus and or physical characteristics) Myles mixed fertilizer for the next few days. Around 10:30, after we took morning break, we potted up 76 Pennisetum plugs that came in recently. They will be for sale down the road. After that Emily fertilized them with some granular fertilizer and went through the Cacti and pulled out any dead foliage, then re-organized the calla lilies by colour (green and red separated) while Myles tended to things on the heat mats.

 There’s some ornamental peppers and other seedlings there that need to be constantly moist to make sure they don’t dry out. After lunch at 1:30, Jeff went with the two of us up to T-building where we re-potted two indoor Ficus trees and cleaned some mealy bug off another. T-building is at the front of the school and for obvious reasons we’ like these plants looking nice, so it was an enjoyable experience. This took about an hour, as we made quite a mess doing so which had to be cleaned. We were going to cut down an indoor dragon tree as well, but decided to come back tomorrow. After we wheeled ourselves back to the greenhouse Jeff showed me how to use the laminator so I could print off a sign for some plants in the greenhouse. Jeff left at 3pm, then we took break and re-organized the Pothos and begonias that were on the heat mat beside the seed pans. 

The begonias are for sale so they went on the sale bench while the Pothos were just in the unorganized. By the time we had that looking wonderful, we started cleaning up from our activities throughout the day. Things like washing the pots from the Ficus trees (big pots for interior trees), disposing of waste soil and sweeping the whole place. We left feeling satisfied and accomplished. Another two days ahead of us.

Saturday:

     Emily arrived around 740 and unlocked the greenhouse, Myles showed up at 750.  We went over our checklist, looked through the Priva system on the computer then walked the crop. The first time we did this last semester the greenhouse environment seemed unfamiliar, a bit foreign, but after some experience the full picture becomes much clearer and we can confidently walk in there and know what can be done to help promote a successful life for every plant were looking after. After going over our checklists we walked the hydrangea crop then watered them. 10 minutes seemed to do the trick. Myles hand watered the Pennisetum grasses we potted yesterday with the fertilizer also mixed yesterday. The seed pans and anything dry looking on the heat mats got watered also. Emily hand watered and tended to the poinsettia standards, and put turface in some cacti and succulent pots that were lacking ground cover. After break Myles potted up the geraniums we grabbed out of the RTV yesterday, then put clear plastic covers on them (to retain moisture) and put them on the heat mat. During that Emily was cleaning the staghorn fern and a bay leaf tree. They both had some scale on them as well as a fine layer of dust. Before lunch we pulled out the microscope and looked at some of the scale under the lens. Fascinating. The mother ‘scale’ morphs into a cocoon like structure to protect her young (this is what the scale appears to our eyes as) which live underneath. If the scale is pried open under the microscope, one can see how many babies are crawling under it. At first glance scale appears to be a plain stationary non harmful inanimate object, however upon investigation it’s a pretty creepy pest. After the bug viewing we were hungry, so we took lunch. After lunch we planned on taking the compost out back in the RTV and then around to the front where we still had work to do in T-building, but could not find the keys, so we wheeled our supplies up to T-building. We added more soil media to the two Ficus (Fig) trees we repotted yesterday then cleaned them free of mealy bug and dust. We also cut down an Indoor Dragon Tree that had a huge scale infestation and brought the healthy foliage back to the greenhouse (any foliage with scale stayed outside and went to the compost pile at the back of the property). Upon investigation we determined the keys were in Jeff’s office, so we made phone calls to him and M. Pascoe but to no avail. We had two RTV’s full of compost, so while we waited for a response Myles went and did more re-organization and cleaning in the greenhouse while Emily was in the tractor bay cleaning and putting away miscellaneous pots. Then around 3pm Jeff showed up and gave us the RTV keys, so we took the RTV to the back and dropped off the compost. After we got back Emily washed pots from the pennisetums and other random pots that were laying around while Myles attempted to print labels for the repotted plants. The label printer wasn’t lined up with the labels so Myles gave up printing labels for the day. We then did research on how to propagate an Ice Plant’s as the one we have has mealy bug present so we took some cuttings and tossed the mother plant. 

With about an hour left we went outside to complete another task which involved cutting down some tall grasses at the front of the greenhouse. We got the shears out tied them up and cut them down. I guess Jeff is taking them, so we put them out on the back patio. We spent the last half hour of our day cleaning up and going over the end of the day checklist.

Sunday:

     After calling in at 8, we checked the environmental settings in the greenhouse and went through the Priva system as usual. Everything looked good so we went into the greenhouse and decided to clean. There was a fair amount of soil and debris under all the rolling benches, so we climbed underneath and swept the entire floor, every inch under all the benches and out of all the corners and the nooks and crannies’. Emily cleaned along the window sills while Myles kept sweeping under the rolling tables. This was a time consuming event as it took us up to 10 o’clock. At this point we watered the Hydrangeas and any seed pans or pots on the heat mat that looked dry. Myles then went outside and finished cleaning up the garden in front of the greenhouse while Emily leaned up algae on the walls inside the greenhouse. After break Emily drove the smaller RTV out to the compost pile and dropped off the remaining compost. Driving these things is so fun. When we got back to the greenhouse we pulled out the other RTV and cleaned out the tractor bay. We swept then washed the floor as there was lots of dried salt on the floor, oh winter. Afterwards Emily organized the back patio while Myles repotted a Haworthia and a Crown Of Jewels, a succulent and a cacti. Myles then joined Emily and we moved some crates around on the back patio. It was now 12, time for food! After lunch we put all our efforts into cleaning. Myles wet and cleaned the floor in the greenhouse then squeegeed it into the drains. Every time the plants get watered, or the benches even get moved, dirt falls on the floor. The floor was spotless this morning but after watering it was loosely covered in dirt again, not to mention dead plant foliage from the benches bumping into each other, so another quick clean was in order. Emily concentrated on cleaning the potting room, as the floor was dirty in there. After a wash down we let it dry, then once dry Emily swept the remaining amount of dirt. After cleaning we organized some interior plants, organized the begonias again and did a final check of all stock basket plants.

Myles then watered the callas that are sitting in crates while Emily went and printed off a sign for the interior plants that are being grown. After a final cleanup we went through our final checklist and closed up shop for the weekend. It was another awesome experience for the both of us. This greenhouse is a wonderful place to learn in, there’s endless amounts of opportunity to experiment and grow in (pun intended) with the huge variety of plant species that we come in contact with. Even spending a few minutes aimless staring at the plants, something will be discovered. College is great, let’s hope others can share the same experience.