Greenhouse Duty Blog

By

Camilo B, Colton G & Austin M.

This weekend was all about the transition from the Poinsettia to the Hydrangea Crop. Early in the week we received the shipment of Hydrangeas (285 in total); we received 4 cultivars (‘Rosa, ‘Early Blue’, ‘Vanilla Sky’ and ‘Chique’). Another Important theme throughout the Weekend was to clean spotless. We worked as a team to take care of all out tasks given for the weekend and overall we had a great experience.  The Crops were walked every day, hand watering single plants in needs of it and removing dead foliage. Opening and Closing Checklist fully completed and Cash register opened and closed following procedures.

Friday, December 15^th, 2017

A major part of the day went repotting the Hydrangeas. The ‘Chique’ came in 6” pots; they remained in those, while all the other cultivars that came in 4” pots, all were repotted into 7” Azalea shallow pots. After they were organized on the benches, placing drip lines in each pot. The Poinsettia crop was walked and rearranged where it needed, to free some space for new plants coming in.
Jeff changed the Greenhouse temperature settings for the Hydrangea Crop on Priva, he also changed the EC and pH requirements on the board. 
Night = 14-15°C  Day = 18-19°C
EC = 1.5-2.5      pH = 5.8-6.2

We also re-potted the Variegated Lavender Scallops. Each leaflet has grown new mini plants, which were even shooting roots out. They were all placed into new 2.5” mini pots, labeled and placed back on the benches for future gifts.

We also cleaned up, washed the Hydrangeas pots, took the Compost to the back with the RTV and brought some new soil in to defrost over night for future use.

Today’s sales were good; a few clients came and purchased Poinsettias.

Saturday, December 16^th, 2017

Today was a fun day, it had a combination of labor and smart work. We needed some new Begonia cuttings, so we chose varieties that had not yet been used and produced a whole new tray full of cuttings. Each one of us chose one and did 16 new leaf cuttings, following the guidance of Fanshawe’s very own Mr. Vivarium. Austin Picked Plum Paisley, Colton picked Escargot and Camilo had the Gryphon Begonia.

We did some updates on the Culture Charts to explain the new tasks completed and placed the insect monitoring yellow sticky cards around the greenhouse. We left them overnight to catch our bugs. We checked through the cuttings in the misting chamber to try and repot anything that needed it. We thought the Tradescantia zebrina was ready, but it turned out not to be, we put it back in the misting chamber. Since the day before we used up all the Cacti Soil Mix repotting the succulents, we mixed a new batch for future use. Another assigned task was to maintain and water some plants indoors, specifically the 3 Ficus nerifolia in front of the Bookstore and the one Yucca plant in the library.
We started the facilities clean-up process as well, by washing the greenhouse floors thoroughly.

We also did the EC and pH reading on the Poinsettia Crop, turned out we had to do it for the Hydrangea Crop instead. Funny little detail we corrected the next day.

Sunday, December 17^th, 2017

The last day was fun. Since we realized we had done the EC and pH Readings on the wrong crop, we preceded to re do it on the right Crop. We found that our new Greenhouse Guests (the Hydrangeas) are within what we are looking for in terms of readings.
‘Chique’ à EC = 1.9 & pH = 5.5
‘Early Blue’ à EC= 2.3 & pH = 5.1
‘Vanilla Sky’à EC = 2.1 & pH = 4.8
‘Rosa’ à EC= 2.0 & pH = 5.2

We did some hand watering by individually checking which plants needed it, finding that the grasses and the congress plants needed a good soak.

Today was Clean –up Day, we made sure to put some good effort on this one as Sue said it was important, especially with the transition in crops.

We only had 1 sale, a very nice Family came in and purchased 4 mini Poinsettias.

Weekend Duty Blog: Getting ready for Christmas, Congress and Hydrangeas


Rebecca and Connor


Friday


First thing on Friday morning we met with Jeff in the greenhouse. He explained the opening circle check for the greenhouse and outlined some of our duties for the weekend. While its hard to give up your weekend for school it seemed really nice this time of year to be in a warm tropical feeling greenhouse while the weather outside is cold and snowy. On our first day of work we spent a lot of time walking the crop and inspecting the poinsettias. We found several that were wilted: some of them were under watered and it was nice to see them return to their healthy form the next day after being properly watered.

One of our main tasks for the week involved condensing the poinsettia crop to as few benches as possible to free up space for the new crop of hydrangea plants that will be arriving during the week. Hydrangeas are popular in spring and around Easter time so it may seem early to be bringing them in so early but it takes months to get the small immature plants to a good size and for them to have flowers that will catch the eye of customers. Growers need to know how long their crops take to flower and be of a good size and to time this with popular times of the year for flower sales. No one is going to be interested in buying a poinsettia in January and very few customers care to grow them on in their homes to will likely buy one every year, meaning holiday plants can be lucrative for greenhouse owners. Considering the trend that the Christmas season seems to begin earlier and earlier every year it would be interesting to know if growers have had to change their yearly schedules to accommodate this.

On Friday we sold quite a lot of poinsettias to Fanshawe students and staff. We also sold a few succulent arrangements. A lot of what we sold was going to be given as Christmas gifts. In coming years it might be interesting to sell other plants intended as gifts, such as succulents or Christmas cacti in holiday themed pots or packaging. A lot of people were looking for gifts but were worried the poinsettias were too large, required too much watering and attention, or would be a hazard for pets so it might be good for sales to have something different to offer them.

Saturday

On Saturday we removed the water emitters from the drip lines on the empty benches and began soaking them in bleach and water to sterilize them. It is important that these emitters and cleaned before the new crops arrive so that any germs or diseases are not transmitted. We also began cleaning up any dead material from the hanging baskets as the plants in flower will be used for Fanshawe’s display at congress. We did not do very many sales on this day so we spent a lot of time spacing plants, cleaning, and doing a lot of cuttings from the stock baskets.

Sunday

On the Sunday morning we had arrived at the Fanshawe Greenhouse surrounded by snow which made the Greenhouse look much more like Christmas with all of the vibrant coloured poinsettias popping out and contrasting against the fluffy white bed of snow. After following the daily opening procedures, we decided it would be fun to start the day with doing some postage stamp-style leaf cuttings on some of the various types of Begonias we have in the greenhouse including the ‘Metallica’, ‘River Nile’, as well as the ‘Irene Nuss’ varieties of Begonia.

We had watched a very brief video posted by a previous Fanshawe Horticulture student on some techniques on taking Begonia cuttings, and had learned a technique of applying paper clips to pierce the leaf cutting so that it can be pressed against the media to help it to root-out much better. After all the cuttings were completed, we decided to once again work on some of the spacing within the Greenhouse compacting both variegated varieties of the poinsettia crop onto one bench as to free up even more space for the upcoming hydrangea crop that is going to be introduced into our greenhouse very soon. With more benches open we decided to remove and sanitize the emitters on the free benches preparing them for the upcoming crop. We had also watered our perennial section in the greenhouse giving it some additional fertilizer to boost both the strength and look of these plants so that they appear their best for the upcoming show at Congress located in Toronto. Sunday was our slowest day for customer foot-traffic, but fortunately we sold one of our Christmas styled planters giving us the opportunity to design and build another one to introduce to the store front. We spent a good amount of time on the Sunday cleaning and sanitizing the greenhouse to be ready for the following week.

The end.


:)

Weekend Maintenance Blog – November 24^th – November 26^th, 2017

During this weekends maintenance duty session, there was an excessive amount of grasses that needed to be trimmed down and domed. Many other perennials including; Rudbeckia triloba, Bergenia cordifolia, Iris sibirica, Hemerocallis, and Hylotelephium telephium, needed to be cut down for the winter months.

Day 1

We first started alongside the H building, removed leaf litter, also pruned any dead limbs and interfering branches off of the surrounding shrubs within the area adjacent to H, F and M buildings. After removing most of the grasses, weeded the beds, and cleaning up after ourselves, it was then time for lunch. 

   

After lunch we removed any weeds that were visible and growing within the yews along the wall of H building. Noticeably there were significant numbers of Atropa belladonna (Deadly nightshade) weeds within the hedge of yews. Any garbage found within the gardens was disposed of and all pathways were cleared off alongside F building (where students wait for the #27 bus).  Once we had conquered the gardens bordering H and F building, it was time for our last break.

The crew picked out the dead foliage within the patches of Bergenia cordifolia that are located alongside H and M building. While in that area we removed the leaf litter from the drainage basin that is located across the walkway, opposite the Taxodium distichum’s (Bald Cypress). When we finished the job, it was time to clean up, pack away tools, and lock up all tools and equipment.

        

 NOTE: While James was trimming the grasses, he accidentally hit a sign within the grass and doing so snapped a blade on the hedge trimmer. James went to Jeff and informed him of the mistake and explained what damage had been made. Also, all jobs were completed together and as a team, all crew member participated.

Day 2

The maintenance crew trimmed the Rudbeckia trilobal Black Eyed Susan’s along the East wall of M building. We also pruned the Cotoneaster within the M building garden.

There was a Bergenia cordifolia patch within the garden alongside the south side of M building and needed to be rid of dead foliage.

We then moved onto the next assignment, which was to tackle the woodland garden. First the crew trimmed the Miscanthus sinensis and made sure to leave the Saccharum ravennae Plume Grass and Arundo donax Giant Cane Grasses to leave a winter interest element within the garden.

We then trimmed down the dead material from the Black-Eyed Susan’s, Siberian Iris and sedums.

We removed the dead material and foliage from the Stachys byzantina lamb’s ear that was over creeping onto the walkway. There was a small 20 ft x 5 ft Cotoneaster shrub that was then trimmed, tidied up and had all garbage removed from within and surrounding areas.

Jeff had mentioned to remove a small tree that was growing next and basically within the fence (South side), that surrounded the woodland garden, later to be identified as buckthorn.

The backpack blower was used to remove the excess of leaves that were built up within the red current hedge that is on the north side of the woodland garden. Any weeds including; thistles, dandelions and even a large patch of mint was removed from the gardens.

Day 3

We still had a few jobs to finish up within the woodland garden and decided to begin with removing the Hostas and daylilies from the north side of the gate, into the woodland garden. There was a single variegated Miscanthus grass located within the conifer garden and needed to be removed.

While looking over the work that had been completed within the gardens, we noticed that the fence alongside the East side of the woodland garden was leaning over and onto a mature Spirea shrub, on the East side of the fence. We collected multiple T bars and pounded them into the ground adjacent to the fence, in order to stabilize the fence for the time being.  

We had to make a few corrections to our trimming jobs on the grasses, and simply domed them to a more aesthetic shape.

Nearing the end of the day, the crew began to clean up all areas with a blow-over with the backpack blower and cleared off all benches and pathways within the required areas. We then washed off all tools that were used for the weekend and cleaned the tool room floor as well as the tractor bay.

We then came back to the greenhouse and noticed the greenhouse crew had some compost to dispose of, so we then collected the compost and drove around the working areas and had one last look over the jobs that had been completed over the weekend.

Greenhouse Weekend Duty Blog

Chris, Justin and Rob

Our weekend started on a Friday morning with Jeff informing us of some important information. We then started our day with many Poinsettia sales and deliveries around the campus. We ended up going to the wrong place so we had to make our way over which took some time but we made it. Everyone seemed very excited when we made the deliveries. Many people liked the different cultivars that we have grown and are very happy with the end product.

Next we were instructed to lower one of the lights to prepare some of our plants that we would like to force into flower for Congress Trade Show, which will be held in early January. As a class we will be building a pollinator garden to show our skills that we have acquired over the past year and a half. We are all very excited for this opportunity. Before lunch we also re-potted some of our succulents for sale, also we re-arranged our poinsettias as they were going out the door fairly quickly ensuring that the table looked full. We also took some cuttings from our stock baskets which will hopefully root and thrive. We then alternated our lunch breaks as someone needed to stay for possible plant sales. After lunch potted up some prickly pears before taking our last break. We then had a few guests who were prospective students; we showed them around our greenhouse and answered any questions they had. This concluded our first day of greenhouse duty.

Our second day of greenhouse duty started on an overcast Saturday morning. We arrived and started our work by opening the blackout curtains and checking over the crop. We then went into the school and looked after some of our interior plants. We arrived back at the greenhouse to open for plant sales at 9 am. We got back to it taking cuttings from many of the stock baskets, although some we felt were not big enough to take from. This took most of the afternoon along with doing many sales. Justin spot watered the grasses, perennials and the cuttings on the first table. We had a small rush of people who came and bought many different plants. After closing down the cash register for the day we all took a trip to the compost area to dispose of some unwanted soil and plant material. After arriving back at the greenhouse we gave a quick cleaning to the work area as well as greenhouse before calling it a day. See you tomorrow!!

Our third and final day of greenhouse is here and for the most part we think everything has gone well and we are happy with our work. Plus everything is still alive so that’s good. We began by walking the crop and checking our sticky traps, we noticed that sadly a casualty had happened at some point and a Parasitic Wasp had been captured which is not what we wanted, the wasp was one of our beneficial insects that we use in the greenhouse. After checking the crop we opened the till and prepared an order of Poinsettias for tomorrow morning. Since we had sold 2 of our Poinsettia arrangements we also started the day by making replacements.

 After this we started removal of the blackout curtains as this crucial time for the Poinsettias was over. Chris jumped on the backpack blower and blew the front of the greenhouse as well as sides removing all debris from parking lots and leaves from grass area. After this we took break. After break we had our first customer of the day, which quote said “I did a U-turn in the street skkkrrrttt” (tires screeching) because she saw our sign we had placed on Fanshawe Boulevard. We are convinced that our little “Poinsettia” sign helped convince this woman to turn around and come into the greenhouse. 

After discussing different things we could keep doing to keep us busy, we decided to make two more poinsettia sale signs, Justin and Chris went down to the compost pile to find some things to make up supports for the signs. We came back with large grass stalks hoping that they would be sufficient enough to hold our signs in place. We used grass to tie together stalks and made a good sign for poinsettia sales! 

We hoped by doing this we could bring in more customers by widening the advertising zone. We then alternated lunch breaks and started the cleaning process for the greenhouse after lunch. We had a few more sales and walked the crop ensuring that everything was okay to be left for the night. After doing this we cashed out and closed down the sale portion of our weekend. We then continued cleaning and took back some more compost and finished our reports. Throughout the weekend we notice that the ‘Ice Punch’ cultivar was a popular choice amongst the customers and they really thought that the ‘Gold Rush’ cultivar was really unique. This concluded our weekend duty and we are all happy with the end result.