Fanshawe College Greenhouse Weekend Duty

February 7 – 10, 2019

            It was a cold and icy morning on Thursday as I began my drive into London for my final Greenhouse Weekend Duty at Fanshawe. Upon arrival, Jeff and I went over the protocols and procedures to be followed for the weekend as I was to be working alone in the greenhouse. As per usual, we discussed the tasks that Sue had assigned me earlier in the week and went over the schedule for the day as there was going to be a First-Year class and Apprenticeship classes coming in and out of the greenhouse all day.

I prioritized my tasks and figured out the logistics as well, as I did not want to be in the way of lectures going on in the greenhouse. I started with the Opening Checklist and noted that the Hydrangea crop did not need to be watered or fertilized, as they were still moist from their previous watering. I then paid special attention to the recently germinated vegetable seedlings we have in the germination chamber and on the heat mats in the greenhouse. These seedlings will be used at the Canada Blooms show, where children and their parents can transplant the seedlings together. It is hoped that this experience will get more families involved in the growing of their own vegetables. I honestly could not be more thrilled to have been meticulously taking care of these seedlings all weekend. I was checking them every hour on the hour to see if more had germinated or needed water - this is a wonderful initiative that Canada Blooms is taking part in! The rest of my morning consisted of organizing, re-potting, labeling and pricing our extensive succulent collection that we have.

With such a large group of people in the greenhouse in the afternoon, I decided to head into the school to work on my Interiorscape duties. The plants needed very little water but needed to be cleaned up a little bit as some dead foliage was present. When I headed back into the greenhouse I focused again on the seedlings and the succulents. Some of the larger succulents needed to be moved to larger trays and some of our Valentine’s Day planters needed a few more succulents added into them. Heading late into the afternoon, I had the pleasure of being interviewed for our program in the greenhouse. I got to talk about all the things I love about our program and a bit about where I am headed after school here at Fanshawe.

  On Saturday, I knew that I had quite a few little tasks to complete so I quickly got the Opening Checklist completed and jumped right into work. General watering of the stock baskets and 4” pots was completed, followed by taking the pH and EC readings of the Hydrangea crop. My findings were entered into the Culture Chart that we use to keep track of watering and fertilizing. Taking cuttings and updating the stock plant inventory chart kept me busy right up until lunch.

           

After lunch, I performed some general pest management practices and thoroughly walked through the crop. I then focused again on the vegetable seedlings, making sure they were well watered before I left for the evening. I also checked the germination chamber for any trays that had germinated as I did not want them in the chamber over night because they could stretch if left for too long. Any trays that germinated seeds were brought to the heat mats. My night was wrapped up with the Closing Checklist.

Sunday morning came early, but I was eager to get to the greenhouse to finish up my assigned tasks. My morning began with the Opening Checklist and the vegetable seedlings again. It is quite incredible to see the day to day changes in the seedlings! I watered and fertilized the Hydrangea crop, ensuring that the right fertilizer was used for the correct cultivars (something you really do not want to mess up). I decided to do some general cleanup of the potting room and then was fortunate enough (or so I thought), to collect some Ginkgo biloba seeds outside. Well, this was probably one of the grossest tasks I have encountered. If you have never smelled the fruit of a female Ginkgo tree, I would suggest you keep it that way. To take the seed out of its flesh I had to squish the fruit in my hands and extract the seed which was then put into a tray lined with paper towel to dry out. Gross!

fter lunch I thought it would be a good idea to get some cleaning out of the way. I started with the greenhouse floors, carefully sweeping out each aisle between benches. I moved into the potting room where the media bins were pulled out, swept under and wiped down. Switching gears, I headed back into the greenhouse to look at some of the grasses (Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’) that we are currently growing. I focused on finding smaller grasses that could be potted up together. I was able to make a tray of eight grasses, each pot containing 2-3 smaller grasses. My last task of the day was to water the vegetable seedlings and do my Closing duty checklist.

As my final weekend duty came to a close, I got thinking about all of the things that I love about working in the greenhouse. Seems how we are in the month of February and with Valentine’s Day coming up, I couldn’t help but think of Horticulture being a ‘labour of love.’ More often than not, our profession is not glamorous – its getting dirty but also maintaining a clean environment, its finding pests and realizing they’ve decimated your crop but also finding solutions like using biologicals, its meticulously caring for seedlings and realizing only half of them germinated, its harvesting the tiniest of seeds but also witnessing those seeds grow, it is so many things but so incredibly rewarding and as a student I am truly lucky to get the opportunity to experience it all.