Kate and Nicks Weekend Blog: Greenhouse

March 18, 2016

We arrived at the greenhouse by 8:00 am and after getting a quick overview from Jeff, Nick and I got to work on our duties.  First we worked on filling out our opening day sheet recording temperature, using the infrared thermometer and the like.  We needed to wet the wick in the PRIVA box, but there was no more distilled water in any of the spray bottles so Nick got some out of the chemical room and we wrote up a new bottle.  Afterwards I sprayed the wick and Nick and I got started on potting up the Colocasia esculenta  (Taro).  We potted them up and placed them in the greenhouse then I watered them down while Nick watered the Poinsettia’s.  It was then time to pot up the Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi which are a lovely succulent with a very pretty flower when in bloom.  We had to mix up some new cactus mix with the Promix HP and Turface; then we placed them in some very sophisticated looking reddish orange pots, gave them some water and placed them in the greenhouse so that they could soak up the sun and get themselves acquainted in their new home (just to specify I mean the pot).  I would like to mention that I was writing up labels and placing them in the pots as we went as well so that future classmates knew when they were potted and what type of plant they were looking after.  For the rest of the day we began to work on transplanting the baby succulent cuttings (which look adorable).  Of course we only did the ones that were well rooted and were able to be transplanted, and they too were placed in cactus mix.  At the end of the day we did our closing duty sheet, locked up the greenhouse and called it a day.

March 19, 2016

Another day of greenhouse duty arrived and after we settled ourselves in and called Jeff to let him know we made it there (all four of us), Nick and I started working on getting the greenhouse ready and prepped for the day.  This included doing our opening duty checklist and saving more PRIVA graphs.  Then we checked on the seed pans and seedlings to see if they were doing well and if they needed watering or airing. Once that was completed we decided to get to work on repotting the Echidnopsis dammaniana from the sophisticated reddish orange pots into the 2½” square pots.  Halfway through labeling these interesting looking plants, the label printer ran out of labels and we unfortunately could not find more so we began to write them out ourselves using pencil and some blank scrap labels we found in the drawer.  We also ran out of the 2½” square pots, but luckily we got most of the Echidnopsis dammaniana done before this happened.  Also during the day our fellow classmates Blayne and Jamieson came to say hi as they were doing the chainsaw certification course, and they grabbed some equipment they would need for the lesson, such as a chainsaw and chaps.  I then watered the seedlings and seed pans, while Nick watered the succulents and cacti.  Then as I continued to water everything else, especially the begonias as they sorely needed it, Nick went to work on getting some seeds sown.  Once I was done watering I went in to join him and we worked on completing the rest of the seeds we got from an Austrian seed exchange which is very exciting.  We used the 8” bulb pans and filled out propagation sheets as keeping proper records is very important, then placed them in the greenhouse with the other seed pans and placed a plastic lid over it to help with the germination process.  Once they were complete we watered the seedlings and seed pans, including the new ones, then filled out our closing duty sheets before locking up and heading home.

March 20, 2016

The final day of weekend duty came upon us in a flash, and as usual we began our day doing our handy dandy sheet.  I then gave the seedlings and seed pans a once over and noticed they were drying out so I gave them some water using a haw’s watering can with inverted rose which is the proper way of watering the seeds.  Then I helped Nick take the cuttings out of the propagation chamber so he could clean it out with 10% bleach solution which we had on hand.  While he did that I headed to the tractor bay to see about reorganizing and labeling the trays and flats that were there.  I got to use the handheld label machine which was exciting, though I must confess it took me awhile to figure out how to peel the label off.  Once I was done with that and Nick was done with cleaning the propagation chamber we went into the greenhouse to start grabbing some stock baskets so we could take some cuttings.  As we got ourselves set up, we decided I would go check on the plants in the greenhouse and make sure what needed watering was watered while Nick would begin to start doing the cuttings.  After I finished watering I went back in to help with the cuttings.  This was my first time getting to do cuttings so it was an interesting experience for me, especially using the rooting hormone as I have never used that before.  I managed to get a tray of cuttings done before we began cleaning up the greenhouse.  We cleaned the filters, swept the floor and wiped the tables down.  After completing that and doing our final closing duty sheets we said goodbye to the greenhouse for now and made our way home.