Weekend Duty Blog

By Easton Klaudi and Dakota Stephens

Friday April 7^th 2017

On Friday our entire class was completing our practical CLT exams as part of the new and improved industry standards. We were busy that morning preparing the greenhouse work before the events of the day.  We filled 2000 4” pots with media in one hour and thirty minutes by hand. We have the brand new potting machine up and running but innate human spirit drives us to beat the machine. We now know the machine has to beat an hour and that we feel we can too! We also set three different sticky traps in attempt to monitor pest levels in the greenhouse. We then headed off to Cuddys in Strathroy for our final Certified Exams.  The CLT exams were a great experience for most of us; there had been snow in the morning but the day ended in pure sunshine. We filled our bellies and returned for one final hour of power in the greenhouse for the day. We filled more 4” pots with media and did some afternoon watering and maintenance. We closed the greenhouse for the night.

                                                                              

Saturday April 8^th 2017

On Saturday morning, we arrived at the greenhouse ready to work during a beautiful day. We began by opening up the greenhouse and going through the opening checklist. Temperatures were optimal and there were no signs of major problems. We then performed the required watering (Seedlings, Petunias, geraniums etc.) We fertilized all the annuals in the greenhouse. We then finished preparing the rest of the 4” pots for Wednesday’s class. Easton also pinched the chlorotic leaves of the Petunia baskets to improve the aesthetics and to obviously keep the foliage color as uniform as possible.  We then moved on to planting the vegetable seeds that Lucas brought in to sell at the Cuddy’s Open Garden in June.  We watered them and covered with plastic domes to help retain moisture during germination.  We decided to begin moving cuttings from the propagation chamber to 4” pots. Dakota began to do some cleaning around the Greenhouse to help decrease the possibility of pests and diseases as fungus gnats were found flying in the main instruction area. We then worked on some stock basket cuttings, moving them from trays to 4” pots. Some of them did not have enough root growth so they remained in the propagation chamber until they are ready. We also had to water the seedlings in the greenhouse again because it was so sunny out and they began to dry from the increased rate of transpiration.

Sunday April 9^th 2017

      Sunday morning saw us return for the third and final day of our greenhouse duty. We opened the doors and made our phone call to Jeff Rowley to let him know we were getting ready for action. Our red and white Petunias growing in baskets (to celebrate Canada’s 150^th anniversary) are preparing themselves vigorously to bloom for the historic celebrations. For 150 years we have developed and reshaped this nation. Canada has a rich history both in peace keeping globally as well as the trade of our natural resources and of course our world renowned maple syrup from Canadian Sugar Maple trees. When it comes to our waving flag and our blooming flowers we want the white and the red to glow in honor of our heritage. We used two types of fertilizer this weekend, 350ppm formula, for our petunias to grow, as well as 200ppm 20-20-20 stock basket solution for stock plants and the Alocasia plants. Quickly we went inside the school with our watering tanker to care for the plants in front of the book store and the library. We checked our propagation chamber to find a few of our specimens were well rooted and ready for a 4” pot. We mixed in our standard Pro mix HP mycorrhizae with just some good clean water and made sure to transfer the numbers in our records from the propagation chamber quantities to the 4” pot quantities. Plants can easily get lost, stolen or damaged so proper tracking keeps proper records and our program coordinators happy. We used our E.C. and pH reading technology (pH- 6.4, E.C= 2.1) to ensure the petunias were being cared for properly and we cleaned the leak out of the container it all came in… people need to be a little more careful when putting things away, but we all need to finish the work we find before stopping the day. We have to look after each other, care about each other and we have to bloom together.

 

The Horticultural Technician program was a great experience; people taught each other how to stand together and how to chase dreams. In my early twenties with a joyful tear in my eye we finished our final Fanshawe horticulture blog post and see the future in front of me. Thank you all.

Greenhouse duty

Liam and Ben

March 31, 2017

It was a gloomy spring morning when Ben and I entered the greenhouse. We began our duties by completing our daily check list and walking the crop. We spot watered all plants and used both 200 ppm and 350 ppm fertilizer for petunias, stock baskets, Alocasias and annual Geraniums. We then took a walk through the greenhouse where Jeff pointed out tasks that we could add to our list. After our break we began to sow all sorts of vegetable seeds as well as make labels for plants. 

After lunch we got right back at it and we had the task of helping Mike Pascoe and Lucas bring in some soil as well as take down horticulture displays for the apprenticeship graduation that happened today.

We also set out bug traps for our pest monitoring report. We continued our day by walking around the school observing the interior plants that we needed to maintain during the weekend. We also trimmed back olive trees and changed the sign outside. Other small tasks that we completed were organizing stock plant baskets, opening and closing the POS system and watering seedlings.

April 1, 2017

As we woke up and headed to our weekend greenhouse duty we knew today was going to be a good day as the sun was shining and the birds were singing. We began our weekend duty by completing our daily check list as well as a thorough walk of the crop where we noticed that we needed to water the seedlings in the greenhouse.  We then decided it was time to deal with the interior plant tasks that Jeff had left for us. This included planting up some Pothos and Ficus as well as watering with the Aquamate. 

We made our way to T building to plant Pothos in the common area then on our way back we stopped at M building to plant more Pothos. After break we were able to do EC readings and Ph readings. Shortly after, we began selecting plant from the stock baskets to cut back. After lunch we selected all baskets and trimmed them back. Then we watered the crop (seedlings) and did a walk through. To finish off the day we washed pots and did a walk of the crop, cleaned and washed all surfaces, watered seedlings and checked the propagation chamber.

April 2, 2017

Today was a good day. It was forecasted that it would be sunny so we were ready for a great day. We started out morning with our usual check list. Shortly after that we did our walk of the crop where we spot watered seedlings and stock baskets. We also watered the hanging stock baskets with 200 ppm fertilizer using the irrigation system. There were also some baskets that needed to be cut back as we missed them yesterday. Then we began to clean the tractor bay which included organizing pots and tools, cleaning the floor and organizing the letters associated with the sign.

We also vacuumed off all surface and shelves. After break we did another walk of the crop and cleaned out the drains. At this time we also had to water seedlings again.

After lunch we decided it was a good idea to also clean the pots located in the hallway in the loft shelf and organize them. There were also a lot of large clumps in the media that had to be broken up. We then checked the mist system and gathered our pests for our pest monitoring report. After completing a thorough monitoring report we then did another walk of the crop to ensure things were good and everything was watered. After filling the propagation chamber with water we then began to wrap our weekend at the greenhouse by cleaning all surfaces and putting away all tools that we used.