Summer blog – August 26, 2018 by Geoff T.

September is right around the corner and we have one week remaining of the student co-op. There have been many opportunities to learn this summer - I am lucky enough to feel like I never left school. The Emerald Ash Borer has decimated the Ash tree population in Southern Ontario over the past decade. This week we were fortunate to see Olympic Tree Care apply treatment to the campus’ Ash trees. They use a product called TreeAzin which is injected directly into the vascular tissue of the tree. Derived from the seeds of the Neem tree which has natural defense to the Emerald Ash Borer, TreeAzin disrupts the borer larvae feeding on the tree and prevents them from developing to more mature states of being. The Ash trees on campus are lovely and with effort there is hope they will live a long healthy life.

Earlier this week the time had come for us to pinch the poinsettia crop. Sue demonstrated and explained why it was time to pinch and why we do it. Our main goal with the pinch of the poinsettia was to promote more lateral branching. Without the pinch most of the poinsettias would keep growing upwards without much branching. We pinched now to have the poinsettias desired form ready for Christmas. We performed a soft pinch by removing just the apical bud. It will be exciting to see the poinsettias grow and begin to colour up in the coming months.

The chrysanthemum crop is also coming along nicely as the flower buds are starting to form.

We spent the past week working in high priority areas getting the campus prepared to welcome the students’ return to the upcoming academic year.