Weekend Greenhouse Blog

By: Meghan, Suzy, and Brooke

Submitted: Sunday September 21st 2019

Just as starting first year can be a daunting experience, second year comes with its very own anxieties, stressors, and unknowns. The idea that all of our knowledge gained in our last year is going to be put to the test in a more practical setting can make one worry about just how much information we truly retained; turns out it was a lot.

As it is near the beginning of the year, my team was amongst the first group of our class to
complete a greenhouse weekend duty. This gave a couple of us some anxiety as we didn’t know what to expect, however, things went well so the stress was for nothing. We were well prepared if we paid
attention to both our last year and the lectures leading up to greenhouse duty.

On Thursday after our classes, we had a(n extremely) brief meeting with Jeff Hicks to discuss
some things that would need to be accomplished during our 3 days in the greenhouse. He mentioned
the propagation that needed done and reminded us of what we had learned in our last greenhouse
class.

Friday morning we all arrived to the greenhouse bright and early to start our adventure. After
Meghan unlocked the greenhouse, we did our opening checklist. This is comprised of a basic walk
through to ensure the crop is still there and healthy and the greenhouse isn’t damaged or experiencing
any emergencies. During our walk through, we noticed that the poinsettia crop could use some
attention. We watered the crop using 20-20-20 @ 250 PPM and applied biological insect management
sheets that contained E. formosa and E. eremicus to help with the white fly population.

                                                                  Biological Card


Immediately after our water party with poinsettias, we received a shipment of various plants
that we were asked to sign for check for any problems. We looked at the quantity on the invoice and
compared it to what was in front of us along with checking for pests and diseases like root rot. This is a super important part of ordering plants as any issues found after 24 HRS are considered caused by the buyer and won’t be resolved by the seller.

Whilst Meghan fought the new propagation chamber that we just bought over the summer and
installed over time (there were a few issues with the electrical units being made of plastic instead of
metal and this did not meet Canadian standards so we had to postpone many times), Suzy and Brooke
started taking cutting from the annual bed outside of H building. The plants that we were propagating
included Impatiens walleriana ‘Variegata’, Justicia carnea, Pelargonium ‘Variegata’, Plectranthus
amboinicus, Plectranthus argentatus, Solenostemon scutellarioides ‘Big Chief’, Solenostemon
scutellarioides ‘Electric Lime’, Solenostemon scutellarioides ‘Wasabi’, Solenostemon scutellarioides
‘Chocolate Covered Cherry’, Tradescanthis sillamontana, Plectranthus coleoides ‘Variegata’ and Justicia brandegeena. Propagation is a favourite of the tasks amongst students in the Horticulture Technician program as it is a task that is applicable to all student’s futures where as some tasks like building a fence may not be needed across the board. The process for taking cuttings was simple enough; cut a portion of the mother plant big enough for at least 24 3” cuttings and bring it inside. Next separate the big cutting you took into individual 3 inch pieces, ensuring that you are making cuts at the nodes and removing any foliage that will touch the growing media. Next, we dip the cuttings into 'STIM ROOT' which is a rooting hormone to help encourage root growth and place them in pre-moistened media in 2401 trays. We then place the trays in the propagation chamber which has heat mats and automatic misters to provide the perfect environment to encourage root growth without high levels of evapotranspiration. Finally, all the trays are labelled and counted in inventory and left alone to grow. When cutting were finished it was time to clean up and head home and sleep for our next shift.

                                                  Cuttings in the propagation chamber


The next morning went smoothly. The opening checklist took way less time as the poinsettias
had already been watered and we had done the checklist once before. After the checklist was done,
Brooke went off to water the Chrysanthemums. She did this with 20-20-20 at 200 ppm without a head
on the wand because Chrysanthemums don't like wet foliage. Whilst Brooke was watering away, Suzy and Meghan took this time to cut back the Blood Grasses that are overcrowding the RTV bay to one inch above the growing media line. We did this to help establish a better root system in the grasses. When we cut the foliage back, it allows more energy to be focused on root development. Brooke was still watering the 'mums' and the nursery stocked (which was so full you couldn't even walk in there) so Suzy and Meghan moved on to 'overwintering' the Cannas. This consisted of taking the crates of Cannas that had been removed from planters around campus. cutting them all the way back to their bulb, and placing said bulb in a newspaper lined crate filled with moist media. We then covered the bulbs up with more moist media, labelled them, and placed them underneath the south side bench against the window. We placed them on top of upside down crates to allow any excess moisture to dry from underneath the crates after watering.


Next, the three musketeers (that would be Meghan, Brooke, and Suzy) took on the quest of IPM
monitoring. To do so, we took down the sticky traps that were hanging above any of the even numbered benches, put them under a microscope, identified which pests were on the sticky trap, and then counted how many of each insect was there. We tallied all of this information into an excel spreadsheet and replaced the sticky cards we took down so that next weekend a similar task can be done and we will have a comprehensive set of numbers to compare pest populations. This task was fairly time consuming and took us the rest of Saturday right into Sunday morning. We really enjoyed this task as it was a great way to learn about pests in the greenhouse in a very hands on way.

                   
                                                                 Yellow sticky trap

                                                              Pests on the sticky trap


Sunday morning checklist was completed by the group and we noticed that the poinsettias were
dry again. Meghan was hesitant to water the crop again as we just did it on Friday and Jeff Rowley had mentioned that root rot and fungus gnats an be a problem when overwatering, but the crop was
showing signs of drought stress so we went ahead and watered. As previously mentioned, a good part of the morning was spent finishing up with our sticky traps and IPM monitoring.

After lunch, we started measuring the Electrical Conductivity (EC) and potential Hydrogen (pH)
of the crop. We took 3 samples of each cultivar from different locations on the benches to get an
accurate range of what the EC and pH were. we then poured 75 ml of distilled water through each pot
and measured the runoff water for EC and pH. We recorded these findings in another Excel spreadsheet and uploaded it to FOL. This task got a little frustrating a few times as we spilled the neutral solutions more than once, but we made it through and got an average EC and pH for each cultivar that we had in the greenhouse. As it turns out, our readings were not optimal and this was mentioned in our report.

                                                          Pour Thru method in action

                                             Brooke and Meghan measuring EC and pH


When this was complete, the group moved on to their final task for the weekend. We took
some of the plants that were delivered on Friday and planted them with the Hoyas and Ficus' outside of the bookstore and watered them in. We were glad to do this task because we had been told about
planting in 3's in class and the planters were looking bare before. They had a "thriller" and a "spiller" but no "filler" so it looks much better after being filled in. It was then back to the greenhouse to clean, finish our last checklist, and close up, bringing our weekend duty to an end.


Weekend duty is a good way to find out if greenhouse is truly your thing. Putting everything we
learned to the test with the knowledge that if we mess up its thousands of dollars out the window puts
the pressure on in just the right way. It was a long weekend, but full of many learning opportunities we wouldn’t have if an instructor was around to show us step by step what we should do. It helps shine light on your strengths and weaknesses as both a horticulturalist, and a problem-solving team member. We are grateful for the experience and hope you learned something reading about our weekend