Weekend Duty Feb. 2-4, 2018

By: Jennifer H. and Colton G.

Friday

Colton and I arrived at the Greenhouse for the morning and met Jeff for 8 am sharp. It had snowed the night before so it was nice to walk into the warmth of the greenhouse that morning. We were given a few extra tasks but otherwise it promised to be a laidback weekend. We have our new crop of Hydrangeas and lots of young cuttings from our stock baskets, or ‘residents’, to watch over. We got many of our specific tasks done today with watering the Canna Lilies, lying dormant under our benches, making sure the Priva bulb was wet (it measures the relative humidity in the greenhouse for us), and switching over our wrapping from the Poinsettias to the new ones for the Hydrangeas. We walked the Hydrangeas to make sure they were all watered and looked healthy. Right now they are growing their flower buds and focussing on growing bigger. Since they all looked well we started to inventory our stock baskets and cuttings. Over the last few weeks the students have been furiously creating new cuttings, for some of our customers and to help rejuvenate our hardworking baskets. Colton and I went through and counted and checked all the baskets, 4” pots, and cuttings to make sure our inventory was right. Colton took any cuttings that were well rooted and created a few new stock baskets with them. We also printed out new labels for baskets that didn’t have any and had to I.D. a few plants. Overall it was a pretty productive day.

Saturday

It was a nice clear winter morning when we arrived today. Colton picked up the keys this morning and then we checked in for the day. We were greeted by some alarm notifications on our Priva system when we did the opening checks. It looked like something happened within the system and it restarted itself at 4:21 am. Fortunately whatever was wrong was righted when it restarted and everything went on as scheduled. If the temperature went too cold in the night it would have been dangerous for our Hydrangeas: they like the temperature between 14 to 15 degrees.  Today we focussed on doing some more stock basket management and some extra interiorscaping. We took some more cuttings and even did about 24 cuttings of the Pothos Ivy from Fanshawes Library. We took the Aquamate and took care of a few hallways of plants in the school, pruning, watering, and dusting. One was very low in soil so we topped it up. When we walked the Hydrangeas, they still looked well so we left them alone for the day. There were a few baskets that had some pests from past weeks, they were treated but unfortunately were still infested, so we treated them again and left them in quarantine (image below is how we identify any pests and our poor plants in quarantine). Lastly we did some cleaning, wiped down the heat mats and reduced some clutter around the greenhouse. We headed home after the closing checklist and locking up.

 Sunday

The weather was cold and blizzardly outside this morning, so the Greenhouse felt like our own warm, private, summer oasis. We had a quiet morning, after completing the opening checks we did some extra cleaning. Keeping a clean, uncluttered greenhouse is important because it helps to remove any ideal places for pests and disease to live, keeps things safe and easier to work with, and helps to reduce the transfer of any diseases (first image below shows Colton sanitizing his secateurs). Greenhouses are the perfect habitat for most pests so you have to do everything you can to deter them. We fully swept the floors under the benches and then watered the Hydrangeas. Colton had put up yellow sticky cards on Friday to monitor for pests and today he took them down and analyzed them. He found very few insects, maybe a few Fungus Gnats, but otherwise it looked pretty clear. About an hour after we watered (Colton below is turning on all the valves for watering), we brought in a few Hydrangeas and checked their EC (Electrical Conductivity) and pH levels. We accidently moved the dials on the probe so we needed to re-calibrate it before using it. The results were all relatively normal except for the Blue Hydrangeas which had high pH levels (it was at 6 when we needed under 5.5). They have just started being fertilized so this should correct itself soon. At the end of the day we again did some more cleaning, completed our closing tasks and finished our last Greenhouse Duty for the year!