WEEKEND DUTY BLOG - GREENHOUSE WEEKEND DEC. 9-11

Alison and Liam

It’s been a frosty weekend here at the Fanshawe greenhouse, but that of course does not affect us inside our greenhouse. Poinsettia sales have been going amazingly well and we have only very few left. In our greenhouse class on Wednesday we were allowed to get a little creative and make up Poinsettia baskets and decorate them with bows, pine cones and greenery. A couple came into the greenhouse Saturday and picked out two nice Poinsettia planters for their family and they were so happy to see our work. To begin our weekend on Friday we started our long process of cleaning the propagation chamber inside and out, which took 2 days to finally complete it all and make it sparking clean. 

In our previous maintenance classes we planted tulips around the college grounds for Canada’s 150^th birthday next spring. There were many tulip bulbs left over so we are in the process of beginning to force them. To do this we put them in pots with soil and in the fridge to begin a cold period. Putting the bulbs in the fridge sends them through a stage of their “life” that helps them begin their blooming time early. 

More Poinsettia baskets were done up for a fellow Fanshawe worker to spread our horticultural cheer throughout the holidays. We also began taking off all emitters on benches 4-8 and soaked them in bleach and water for a period of time. 

The majority of the interior plants are large and in big massive pots. Last Friday we did some switching around of pots which let us with many large interior pots to be sanitized and put away for the winter.

We are currently training the Poinsettias that we have leftover to be standard trees for next year’s sales. If you are wondering how to do that, the first step is to get your secateurs ready, and cut off all the lower "stems" until it looks appealing and more like a tree. You have to make sure that all the cuts are made tight to the main stem for proper training. Be sure to check them out next year during our sale or in our woodland garden in the summer months. 

To start our Saturday off we opened the cash for sales, and did our morning greenhouse run down by making sure everything is normal in the greenhouse. To finish off the cleaning of the misting chamber we took the bottom grates out and scrubbed with bleach and water to ensure a good sanitization was complete. After all the emitters and emitter lines were done soaking, we ensured all emitters were put back on lines correctly. The next step was to attach all the emitter lines onto the water lines in the greenhouse which was a very time consuming event but we are now ready for our hydrangeas, arriving next week. To end our morning we filled up the Aquamate and headed into the school to complete the watering for the 6 interior plants we were responsible for.

Next on the list was to vacuum off the benches. 

Our Sunday began with doing a complete opening of the greenhouse, and heading out on the RTV to empty compost and compost soil. The tractor bay was then blown out by the leaf blower to get all the dirt and leaves removed for a sparkling clean floor. We then got out the microscope and e/c reader to do a little fun research in the greenhouse. Pots were put away and cupboards were organized! We then made up bleach and water mixture and put the Dosatron tube into a bucket. We then turned on the 4 benches we cleaned and of course shut off all other water lines and sent the bleach and water mixture through the lines to ensure sanitization was done 100% correctly. Two buckets of bleach and water were sent through the lines which took majority of the day.

Next we tackled the stock baskets and made up a few different baskets with the remaining cuttings we did in class, clipped the hangers on, watered and put them back in the greenhouse for an exciting new life. Lastly we sprayed down the window sills in the greenhouse, emptied drains and wiped off counters. We are now clean and ready for our second semester!