Greenhouse Weekend Duty Blog

By Raven H. and Josh B.

Friday, October 18^th, 2019

Friday morning, we came into the greenhouse and went through orientation with Jeff. We then went over our checklist and began to open the blackout curtains to let the beautiful sun beat onto the poinsettias. After we got that handled, we began to pot a bunch of cuttings that had grown aerial roots and were ready to be transplanted into larger pots. This took us until lunch, and they look fantastic in their new homes for the time being!

All of the new transplanted cuttings (not all were ours, but all are beautiful)!

After lunch, we finished up the remaining cuttings and then cleaned up. At this time, we decided that the poinsettias needed watering as they started drooping when only in the morning, they looked healthy as can be (that’s why you check on plants constantly, they change their minds easily). The poinsettia crop has to be watered in 2 stages because of the different ppm needs of varieties in the greenhouse so it took a little bit of time. When this was done, we had a chat with our guru Jeff about EC and pH readings for the poinsettias and about IPM on the sticky cards. Not too long after that, it was time to begin cleaning up a bit and make the greenhouse look good for us to return in the morning. We did our checklist, closed the curtains and left until our return in the morning.

Saturday, October 19^th, 2019

In the morning, we came in and did our normal checklist and opening of the curtains. After walking the crop and observing what the plants may need for the day, we decided that all the cuttings, succulents, and anything that wasn’t connected to the drip irrigation needed watering. Hand-watering was done with care making sure everything got enough water to get through until the next watering.

EC and pH readings were next on the agenda to do for the day. I spent most of the remainder of the morning doing this to get our readings for all 8 varieties to then be put in the culture chart for the poinsettia crop (that’s important so we know the fluctuation of readings and when the crop is fertilized).  When that was all done, documented, and cleaned up, we moved onto traying up cuttings provided to us to then be put in the propagation chamber. We did as many as we could fit in the chamber and then cleaned up for our lunch.

They seem to be loving the misting and humidity of the chamber!

After lunch, we began our afternoon of succulents. We reorganized all the succulents in the greenhouse to separate areas of what isn’t to be sold yet and what can be. When they were all organized, we needed to make decorative pots of succulents and repot the rest to larger pots. The decorative pots we made up were nice and easy (after lots of deliberating of what went together aesthetically) and we began giving the rest of the succulents larger pots for more space and root growth area.

Watch out for your chance to get your hand on these cute decorative pots!

When all succulents were happy in new pots and everything was cleaned up, we did some quick inventory for Jeff and moved onto our IPM sticky card counts. Sticky card counts are actually very important because it allows you to see what populations you have of what insects and also what areas may be hot spots for those insects. It was a very sticky job, but we got through it with a little bit of time left to clean the work room and do our checklist before closing the curtains and closing up.

Sunday, October 20^th, 2019

We arrived eagerly to finish our last day and make sure everything was fine for everyone to return on Monday. We began with our checklist and opened the blackout curtains. We made the executive decision that the poinsettias needed watering but not just yet; we wanted the sun to hit them first and dry them out a bit. While we waited for that to occur, we made more fertilizer in preparation for the watering and cleaned up. During this time, we spent part of our morning walking the crop for debris, dead leaves, and signs of insects and also cleaned any and all pots sitting in the sink from our transplanting on Saturday. Making sure everything was thoroughly cleaned was a big enough job just to make sure no previous soil is left for the next time the pots are used. This is for contamination reasons but also just hygiene.

Right before lunch, we decided it was time for the poinsettias to receive some water so that was done and made them the nutrients they needed like we were going to get our nutrients at our lunch following.

They’re so happy with their nutrients and beautiful sun radiating down!

After lunch, we took it slow by cleaning everything up, putting away all the dry pots from the morning, and working on the poinsettia sale poster that Jeff asked us to do. We may have been Martha and Marty Stewart with the succulents but we aren’t Picasso, so we tried our best with the poster!

Along with the poster, we walked the crop again to make sure all was good in the world of poinsettias before we came back in the work room to wash the floor and clean. We did our normal checklist and closing of the curtains and said farewell to the poinsettias until we see them again!