Greenhouse blog - September 21-23, 2018

Tobias and Nicole

Welcome to the exploration of plant life through cultivation, propagation and landscape development. The following blog will follow the journey of two horticulture students and their perspectives on their final year.

We started out our weekend duties with a bit of hesitation, however as we progressed we grew more confident in our decisions, more aware of the changes that affect our crops, and how timing and organization in a greenhouse is key. But should had we ever needed backup and support, we had it in our professor- Sue and our greenhouse supervisor technician- Jeff, both giving us a rundown of our duties beforehand; Wednesday and Friday respectively.

 Being responsible for maintaining our program’s main crop- Euphorbia pulcherrima (Poinsettia) was one thing, however we did have other duties as well that kept us busy, but gave us- the students, a chance to learn. Starting off our weekend, we took on the task to go through the poinsettias, trimming were necessary, making sure they were in good order however we also got to start “blackout” periods.  These “blackout” periods are what get our poinsettias to develop flowers and it characteristic red or white brackets, usually these are mistaken for the flower ! So now if you pop by the greenhouse around 5pm or after you’ll be seeing blackout curtains for the poinsettias to do their thing.   

Starting Friday on our duties we also got a chance to work, while still having someone to guide us around in case, a huge reassurance especially when we were in charge of sales too, along with our tasks for that day. We got lots of yummy squash in from Cuddy’s gardens, our own planters and mums that have started to bloom. But the most interesting and coolest part was the squash was grown from our own compost at Cuddy’s!

Now, although our poinsettia crop is our baby, we had other duties. Spending most of the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) going through the campus, collecting cuttings of stock plants, propagating them for future use as sale plants and ones to be used around campus to create some gorgeous planters. And we had a blast, some were labeled, some not and it kicked us into high gear trying to figure which begonia was which for example. Sometimes confusing but we got there in the end, finding and propagating about 15- 18 plants total.  We also found some beautiful gems hidden through the campus like the Candy Corn plant (Manettia luteorubra), Popcorn Plant (Senna didymobotrya), and the Shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeeana).

Now while we were busy with propagation we also had a few “housekeeping” tasks that were important but not necessarily thought of often in terms of something that needs to be done- recalibration of our p.H and E.C probes.  Why is this so important? Well these probes let us know the p.H of the soil but also the conductivity of the soil which relates to what nutrients the plant is getting and absorbing. This is great to know how our poinsettia crop is doing and if it’s lacking in anything, but also prevents the problem before it happens, so to speak.  We can use the probes to help know what is needed for the soil to be in the right p.H for the plants’ specifications, but also the strength of and how much fertilizer is in the soil, whether needed or indicating we need to “flush” the plants, meaning watering without any fertilizer in the water.

While it may seems we mostly have poinsettias,one can see how quickly and how slowly plant turnaround is, with a consistent long- term crop like poinsettias but also having a constant inflow of new and old stock plant propagation and cultivation for many uses. The greenhouse is always in a state of production in one way or another, which I think after this weekend we can easily appreciate the work that is done and the return we get from it, yes monetarily but also that joy when you see your hard work pay off in the plants’ growth, and usually them finding new homes to spread the joy.