Weekend of October 6^th-8^th, 2017

By: Chris M. & Stephanie T.

Friday 6^th

We arrived at the greenhouse bright and early ready to receive all the information and advice from Jeff Rowley, the greenhouse technician. Our day started by running through the rules and the safety guidelines. Next, Chris opened the blackout curtains to allow the poinsettia crop day time light. Well that was being done, Steph walked all the benches and spot watered what needed to be watered, and fixed a couple of the dripline. She then ran the lines to water all the hanging baskets. Then we opened up the plant sale around 11:30. The greenhouse sales went well, but the squash we grew out a Cuddy Mac (AM) Gardens sold out before lunchtime. After the fresh nutrient-rich lunch break, we helped plant up some Alocasias that were dug up out of the woodland garden. The plants were to be moved into the interior-scape around the college. Chris helped move some of into the T building while Steph washed some pots. We then started to tidy up the around the greenhouse when our last costumer got to the greenhouse just before we started to close the till for the day. We then closed the blackout curtains so we could put the crop to bed.

The Poinsettia crop requires what’s called a photoperiod where there must be 12 hours of complete darkness. Since the greenhouse is located in a city environment, we use black tarps to block out any sort of light pollution created by the college and street lights. If these conditions are not met, the crop will not produce the colourful bracts that it is known for.  The 12 hour photoperiod must be uninterrupted, or the blackout process must be restarted, and this may affect when the crop is ready for sale. This would likely prove to be an issue because most crops, like the Poinsettia, are sold at certain times of the year. If the crop is not ready for a particular time, the greenhouse would lose sales, and there would be significant profit loss.

Saturday 7^th

                We began Saturday by opening up the blackout curtains in the greenhouse, and completing the opening checklist. After doing a walk of the crop, we determined that everything was functioning normally. Following that, we both helped Josh transplant a diseased Ficus tree that was close to D building. We struggled to get both the tree and the pot outside. After getting security to remove the middle portion of the doorway, we troubleshot ways of moving the heavy pot outside, and into the RTV. This took a while, but we were eventually able to get the pot in the back of the RTV after emptying out most of the soil.

Sunday 8^th

                We started the day the same as the previous by opening the blackout curtains and checking the crop. From there we placed 4 yellow bug monitoring cards in various places throughout the greenhouse. After 4 hours, there were only 2 thrips, one fungus gnat, and a shore fly that were captured.  Steph helped Josh with an interior-scape transplant of a Ficus tree while Chris worked on the blog for a bit. After washing a few more pots, we worked as a team to figure out the E.C. and pH testing process. Chris completed most of the testing while we were preparing to get the greenhouse ready for closing. Since it’s a holiday on Monday, we ensured that all the crops in the greenhouse were prepared for a day of no maintenance.