WEEKEND DUTY BLOG - GREENHOUSE WEEKEND DEC. 9-11

Alison and Liam

It’s been a frosty weekend here at the Fanshawe greenhouse, but that of course does not affect us inside our greenhouse. Poinsettia sales have been going amazingly well and we have only very few left. In our greenhouse class on Wednesday we were allowed to get a little creative and make up Poinsettia baskets and decorate them with bows, pine cones and greenery. A couple came into the greenhouse Saturday and picked out two nice Poinsettia planters for their family and they were so happy to see our work. To begin our weekend on Friday we started our long process of cleaning the propagation chamber inside and out, which took 2 days to finally complete it all and make it sparking clean. 

In our previous maintenance classes we planted tulips around the college grounds for Canada’s 150^th birthday next spring. There were many tulip bulbs left over so we are in the process of beginning to force them. To do this we put them in pots with soil and in the fridge to begin a cold period. Putting the bulbs in the fridge sends them through a stage of their “life” that helps them begin their blooming time early. 

More Poinsettia baskets were done up for a fellow Fanshawe worker to spread our horticultural cheer throughout the holidays. We also began taking off all emitters on benches 4-8 and soaked them in bleach and water for a period of time. 

The majority of the interior plants are large and in big massive pots. Last Friday we did some switching around of pots which let us with many large interior pots to be sanitized and put away for the winter.

We are currently training the Poinsettias that we have leftover to be standard trees for next year’s sales. If you are wondering how to do that, the first step is to get your secateurs ready, and cut off all the lower "stems" until it looks appealing and more like a tree. You have to make sure that all the cuts are made tight to the main stem for proper training. Be sure to check them out next year during our sale or in our woodland garden in the summer months. 

To start our Saturday off we opened the cash for sales, and did our morning greenhouse run down by making sure everything is normal in the greenhouse. To finish off the cleaning of the misting chamber we took the bottom grates out and scrubbed with bleach and water to ensure a good sanitization was complete. After all the emitters and emitter lines were done soaking, we ensured all emitters were put back on lines correctly. The next step was to attach all the emitter lines onto the water lines in the greenhouse which was a very time consuming event but we are now ready for our hydrangeas, arriving next week. To end our morning we filled up the Aquamate and headed into the school to complete the watering for the 6 interior plants we were responsible for.

Next on the list was to vacuum off the benches. 

Our Sunday began with doing a complete opening of the greenhouse, and heading out on the RTV to empty compost and compost soil. The tractor bay was then blown out by the leaf blower to get all the dirt and leaves removed for a sparkling clean floor. We then got out the microscope and e/c reader to do a little fun research in the greenhouse. Pots were put away and cupboards were organized! We then made up bleach and water mixture and put the Dosatron tube into a bucket. We then turned on the 4 benches we cleaned and of course shut off all other water lines and sent the bleach and water mixture through the lines to ensure sanitization was done 100% correctly. Two buckets of bleach and water were sent through the lines which took majority of the day.

Next we tackled the stock baskets and made up a few different baskets with the remaining cuttings we did in class, clipped the hangers on, watered and put them back in the greenhouse for an exciting new life. Lastly we sprayed down the window sills in the greenhouse, emptied drains and wiped off counters. We are now clean and ready for our second semester! 

Fanshawe Greenhouse                                                                                                        Student Blog of December 2^nd to 4^th Weekend

Out with the old and sold and in with the new

This weekend has been calm like the silvery grey clouds that loomed overhead all weekend, keeping the air outside and even the temperature inside a little cool. 21 degrees Celsius has hopefully not disappeared forever but winter approaches swiftly as seen by the beauty of death in the gardens. Withering golds and reds reveal the deepest colors of life as we await Christmas and the rebirth of a warm long day in the sunshine.

On December 2^nd some students conquered outdoor duties while operations were explained and prepared inside. The very last of our blackout curtains was taken down, to reveal the glorious sky once more.  The popular and now dwindling Poinsettia sale crop was watered and re positioned to look their best. Our most vibrant cultivars sold out early but we have over 100 lovelies left. There is Christmas Day Red, red every day like Christmas Feelings Merlot. The feeling comes from the depth of the red in the foliage, a noticeable darker difference. Our Christmas Aurora Red cultivar has a potent vibrancy as well. Candlelight White is our yellowy creamy cultivar which I can only say is one of the best saved for last, much like the confidently variegated Christmas Marble whose gold yellow variegation surrounding soft pink coloring on the leaves creates an image of a new holiday standard for your traditions. If I forgot to tell you about the stunning Red minis then… this wouldn’t be much of a blog at all. Standard Plants are $8.85 and those minis are $4.42

Saturday was more of a maintenance day for the greenhouse crew. On the main table we were building our custom Squirrel-proof planter lids for the campus. It would seem that it may have become survival of the cutest as the fluffy little black Squirrels with beady little eyes have been allowed to ravage our garden beds and have eaten many cents if not dollars’ worth of Tulip Bulbs. In the greenhouse we removed the emitters from table 8, 6, and 5 to be deep cleaned, disinfected and ready for the next crop. Our Kalanchoe crop has produced over 7 trays of leaf cuttings and almost 2 trays of tip cuttings. Kalanchoe is a marvelous grower. A short while after care and effort you may awake to find roots shooting out of stems and leaves just begging to find nutrient rich soil where in it can propagate more beautiful plant stalk.

Sunday we finished up as many of the weekends chores as we could and stiffened our upper lips after a day without a single Poinsettia sale. Five full trays of Green Castor Bean Seed Pods were separated and put into their labelled jars, ready for Fanshawe experimentation and garden design. The word is that eating 4 – 6 may kill you, Students love this fun fact. The cleaned emitters were installed back under the benches and the lines were flushed in preparation for the next crop and of course as our general practice requires. A clean and pest free greenhouse produces the healthiest crops and learning environment.

Weekend Duty Blog

November 25-27, 2017

By: Jenn and Zora

This weekend Jenn and I were running the greenhouse. We were given a list on tasks to complete by our teacher Sue. We were to reorganize Poinsettias, take down shade curtains, take out all emitters and clean them on the last 3 benches, as well as a various others tasks.

On Friday Jeff gave us a run down on where everything was. I had never used the Priva system before so it was interesting to see how it worked. The main task we tried to accomplish was reorganizing the Poinsettias so we could clear off the last 3 benches for the future Hydrangea crop. This took almost all day because we also had to serve customer who wanted to buy poinsettias and prepare a few special orders for that afternoon. On of the orders was for an event in Forwell Hall. They wanted 7 standard Poinsettias and 6 minis to have on stage. 

Saturday was very busy. Jenn and I tackled all the large tasks. In the morning we finished moving all the sold Poinsettias so we could remove all water emitters and lines from the benches. After that was done we proceeded to soak them in bleach and water.  In the afternoon I worked on installing all the lines and emitters, while Jenn took down the shade curtains. After the curtains were taken down we had to make sure we numbers each corner of each curtain so next year they will be easier to install. Installing the emitter and lines was quite tedious work. It took us almost 4 hours to get them installed because we had to reattach everything and crawl under the benches to feed the lines back thought the bench grating. I also watered the interiorscape plants. There were 3 Ficus with poinsettias as the understory planter in front for the bookstore, as well as 3 Gracena in the library. Through out the day we also had and four customers come in to buy Poinsettias. One couple in particular bought a poinsettia so they could try and make it into a poinsettia tree.

Sunday was the day we got all the odd jobs done. In the morning we finished up installing the emitter, washed pots, cleaned the floors. We also did Kalanchoe tip cuttings. We really enjoyed doing tip cutting because it was a break from greenhouse maintenance.

In the afternoon we tested the EC reading and pH levels in each variety of Poinsettia. After we collected Caster seeds and made stock baskets. There was an order of 15 Poinsettia for Monday morning. We put aside 7 reds, and 8 assorted. For the rest of the afternoon we cleaned and organized.

It was a very busy weekend for Jenn and I but we managed to get all of it done. We had a lot of fun, worked well as a team and learned a lot. 

Weekend Blog

November 18-20, 2017

            On this weekend duty Ben Adams and myself Justin Treleaven to take care of the greenhouse. On Friday morning we were given our introduction by Jeff and he just explained to us how the greenhouse works and what we are to do in the morning and at night when we are closing. After we were given our jobs for the morning we got right to work.

            The first thing we did was open the shade curtains as a team. Next we began the opening process of the cash register. This being our first time doing it we ran into some problems like the register not opening. Since Jeff was here with us he had a key to open it so we used that not knowing we would run into the same problem the next two days. After we got everything sorted out with the cash it was smooth sailing till the end of the day. Next I began to transplant the cuttings in the mist system while Ben went to go water the interior plants in front of the bookstore. Since it was too busy to water the plants in the library Jenn just showed Ben where they are and how to treat the one plant. The rest of the day we were busy with sales, finishing the transplanting and helping customers.

When it was 4 o’clock we closed our sales and brought the signs inside. While closing cash we ran into the problem with the debit machine just printing a blank receipt. Jeff told me to run down to the bookstore and see if they knew what was going on but they said it was the battery and the battery was fully charged. Jeff just ended up saying to close down anyways.

Saturday- Today was open house day so before anybody showed up we began the opening process, opening the shade curtains, walking the crop and opening cash for sales. Once everyone started to show up we potted up a few Poinsettias in pots together and decorated them with dog wood and pine cones. For a good part of the day we gave some tours and talked to the open house students about our program.

 When the open house was done I decided to make up some more poinsettia fertilizer. 3 o’clock came around and Sue decided that we should close down the cash since not a lot of people came and bought anything for a good period of time. Sue was there with us while we were closing so everything went smooth and as planned. After closing cash we cleaned the floors and wiped down the table to make sure everything was clean for the rest of the day. By the time we were done cleaning the floors and everything else it was time to close the shade curtains for the night. By the time they were closed it was time for us to leave, lock up and bring the key back to security control.

Sunday- I went to security control to get the keys to unlock the greenhouse. I arrived early so I waited till it was time to sign in. I opened the shade curtains and got the cash ready for our sales. We put up our IPM tags and waited 4 hours to take them down. I counted 47 on one card and 32 on the other card all white flies and 1 fungus gnat. We got the microscope out and looked at them it was pretty interesting to see how many there were.

 After we put the microscope away we headed to the tool room to get the tools we needed to get the Caster Bean. Once we got over there we noticed that the ground was solid and our shovels weren’t doing the trick. So we decided to cut it down at the base as close as we could to the soil. Once we cut it down we had enough to make a run over to the compost and dump what we needed to. After all that is was time to close up cash and be done for the day. We closed the shade curtain and washed and cleaned everything that needed to be done. We locked up the greenhouse and brought the keys to security control and we were done for the weekend. 

November 14^th, 2016                                                                                                                              Soyoung Kim

1^st day of Greenhouse Weekend Duty

Not so cold not so hot with bright sunshine! It was such a perfect day for greenhouse work on Friday. I started first day of work by making sure plants have enough water and clearing debris at the Fanshawe greenhouse. Over 500 plants! It took me longer than I thought to finish my first task, but it was good preparation for more plant check up later in the day; Watering and removing debris from big and little Poinsettias, Poinsettia trees, cuttings, 4” pot plants, misting cuttings in the chamber and at the back of the greenhouse. After that, Jeff and I went through the checklist that shows what I have to make sure during this weekend; it includes Priva system temperature check, actual thermometer temperature check, plant chamber system check, heat pipe check, displaying sign on wet floor check, and cleaning around greenhouse check. It was 12:10pm by the time when I finished those tasks, so I had about an hour lunch time. When I came back, I had to mist plants again at the back of the greenhouse, and Jeff and I prepared wrappers and Fanshawe greeting cards near the sales machine for the beginning of the Poinsettia sale in next week. The heat line in the plant chamber was broken and not providing enough heat for immature plants, so I had to fix that as well. I checked Poinsettias really quickly and misted cuttings both in the chamber and back of the greenhouse. By the time all these tasks are done, it was around 4:20pm so I started cleaning up and closing blackout curtains for Poinsettia blackout period, and signed out and dropped keys at the security office.

2^nd day of Greenhouse Weekend Duty

Picking up keys from security office as first thing to do, I was excited to go back to the greenhouse the next day. I signed in and checked the state of the plants to see how they had done over the night; I watered mature plants, misted immature plants at the back of the greenhouse and in the chamber, and removed debris. I went over the checklist to see if there’s any problem with the greenhouse temperature and systems.  Thankfully, there was no visible error in the system. I made a list for 4” pots and cuttings and cleaned some water on the floor. By the time around 12pm, I had an hour lunch break, and misted immature plants at the back of the greenhouse once again. I went for Poinsettia check up to see if they need water, and collected debris. Since the Poinsettia sale will begin next week, I had to write a sign on the flash board. I was pleased to think about how people will be happy to have those beautiful Poinsettias at their home for cozy holidays. Once again, I quickly checked how plants were doing and misted immature plants both in chamber and the greenhouse, and cleaned up debris and soils on the ground. Lastly, I had to close blackout curtains, sign out and dropped keys at the security office.

 3^rd day of Greenhouse Weekend Duty

My third and the last work day in the greenhouse was bright sunny day again. I signed in and checked if there are any plants that need water and debris that should be removed. I misted immature plants at the back of the greenhouse and in the chamber. After that, I remembered interior plants in front of the bookstore looked they may need water, so I grabbed tools and headed to the bookstore. I checked moisture rate of soils in three pots in front of the bookstore and watered them as they needed, and cleaned up debris. When I came back to the greenhouse, I moved 4” pots and grasses at the back of the green house into proper container boxes. I moved those 4” pots to next to where other 4” pots are, so all 4”pot plants will be organized in one spot. I misted immature plants at the back of the greenhouse for the second time, and I had an hour lunch break after. After a tasty lunch, I started washing pots and placed them in a proper location in the garage, and checked plants to see if they need water. I noticed there were dried plant seed shells next to the window area, so I used little brush to clean it up. I also started cleaning up greenhouse area floor with big brooms and hose. I misted plants at the back of the greenhouse and in the chamber again to make sure they were getting enough water.  I double made sure there was not any water on the greenhouse floor. I noticed it was getting late, so I closed blackout curtains, and made sure the Dosatron was off. For the last thing for my weekend duty, I cleaned up the office area with cloths and brooms. I signed out and dropped keys at the security office. Last three days made me realize how much work and effort it takes to grow and keep plants in healthy shape in greenhouse.

Green house Blog

            On November 4^th, 2016 Ben McConkey and Brandon Velda showed up at 7:50am to start weekend greenhouse duty. When Ben and Brandon arrived, Jeff was waiting for us to go over the expectations for the weekend of November 4, 5, and 6. Jeff showed us how to open up the greenhouse and what to do when we first arrive. Ben and Brandon started off by taking off the black curtains in the greenhouse to let the sun in. After finishing the curtains, we went and got our next task from Jeff. Jeff told us to do a walk-through of the poinsettias to check and see how moist the soil was and if the plants needed more water. We also picked up any debris that we saw lying on the tables when we did our walk-through. After we did our check, we decided that the plants needed some attention. We checked the poinsettia book to see if the plants need fertilizer or just water. The book told us that it was the fifth cycle which meant the plants just needed water and no fertilizer. We went back into the greenhouse and turned on the emitters to water the poinsettias. As the plants were being watered Jeff went over a couple more important things that had to be done during the weekend. Jeff informed us that the emitters should be on for 12-15 minutes. When it was time to shut the system off, we walked the crop again to make sure every plant was getting water. We would pick the odd plant up and check the roots to make sure the soil was wet and that the plants were getting enough water. If we found a plant that was still a little dry we would get a watering can and water the plants that needed more. Next, we watered the mini poinsettias that were on the shelves. The mini poinsettias need a cup and a half (1.5L) of water per tray. We would fill the cups with water and poor them into the trays of mini poinsettias. After all of the poinsettias were watered, we checked everything else in the greenhouse to see if anything needed to be watered. If so, we watered accordingly. 

When everything in the greenhouse was watered we set up the sticky cards for our IPM assignment that had to be completed over the weekend. One of the tasks we were given over the weekend was to make sure everything had a clear label on it. Ben and I (Brandon) did a walk around the greenhouse to see what labels we needed to make. Whichever plant needed a label we would take the old label out, and use it as a reference for the new label. We wrote down how many of each label we needed. Ben and I asked Jeff if he could show us how to print the labels and what exactly had to be on each label. As Brandon was printing off labels, Jeff took Ben to the second floor of F building to take plants out of the planters and added media to the pots and replanted the under story plants, as well as taking Ficus trees out of existing pots and repotting them.  Also Jeff told ben to bring the Aquamate with him so he could water and treat the plants for mealy bugs. After lunch the internet was available in the greenhouse so Jeff showed us how to do the Priva checks and how to finish the opening check list. At the end of the day, Ben and I did the closing checklist, made sure the floors and tables were clean, and put the blackout curtains back up.

November 5^th, 2016

            Ben and I showed up at 7:50am and called to check in. We then went into the greenhouse and moved the blackout curtains. Before we did anything else we made sure our opening checklist was done. Next we did our walk of the crop to check for debris and if there was anything wrong. After that we knew it was the start of a new cycle so we added fertilizer when we watered the poinsettias. Next we watered the other plants in the greenhouse. Ben and I then did a circle check on the RTV so we could go collect more Pennisetum grasses. We collected the grasses from behind the Fanshawe sign at the front of campus on the corner of Oxford St. We brought the grasses back to the greenhouse and cut them and put them into 4inch pots. We filled 4 trays with 15 cuttings in each tray. We took the extra grasses back that we didn’t need and re planted them where we took them from. We brought water with us to put on the grasses to make sure they didn’t die.

Jeff sent us a message to send him some measurements of the greenhouse so we did that right away. Throughout the day we checked on the plants to make sure everything had been watered and taken care of. We also had to make 2-3 compost runs. Also we collected castor beans and put them on flats with newspaper and put them on the shelf in the sun.

At the end of the day we did our closing checklist, made sure everything was tidy, and closed the curtains for the blackout period. We called Jeff at 5pm to let him know we were done for the day.

November 6^th, 2016

            Ben came in early because he forgot to set his clocks back an hour. By the time I (Brandon) got to the greenhouse, Ben already had the opening checklist done and the curtains opened. Ben called in when he arrived to check in and Brandon did when he arrived also. We did a walk of the crop and watered the poinsettias. We checked all the other plants and watered them also. Next we pulled the RTV out of the garage and did a circle check on it. We then cleaned inside the garage and organized all of the pots and sorted them. Jeff asked us to put some different boxes, flats and pots on the skids that are in the garage so we did. We dusted off the shelves and swept up the floor. After lunch we made sure we completed everything that was assigned to us. Ben and I then swept up the floors and emptied the compost bin. Next we proceeded to do a deep clean inside the greenhouse.  We washed and scrubbed the floors and cleaned all the tables. We collected our IPM cards and recorded our results. At the end of the day we finished the closing checklist and put the curtains back. We called in to let Jeff know that we were done for the weekend.

Ben McConkey and Brandon Velda

Greenhouse Weekend Blog

Oct 28, 29, 30. 2016

Friday – In the AM on Friday morning we reported to Jeff for the weekend duty requirements. We started off by going over different things that may come up during out duty, like emergency contacts, different tasks that must be done every day etc. Jeff then took us around the greenhouse to go over the weekend duty checklist which consisted of many different things we had to check on. For example, the heating under the pipes, for breaks in any of the windows, if plants needed watering and much more. As we were finishing that up it was time to do our first crop walk. We started on one end with each of us at either ends of a table and worked our way around the crop checking if the poinsettia’s needed watering, any disease or insects we can spot, cleaning out dead foliage and properly spacing them. Although that took us some time to complete we had a job to do over at Z building with Jeff and another student gardener. We were tasked to help with moving around some of the large planters and adding media to the pots as well. This did not take long which is good because we had many other tasks to complete on our list. When we got back we were sent off by ourselves and we started to compost and take cuttings of the plants located in the holding area. Any plants that needed cuttings we added to the batch of already made cuttings and the rest got composted. We had to make cuttings of Sage, Lemon Thyme and Peppermint and managed to get 8 cuttings out of each plant. Jin went on to start washing the immense amount of pots while I (Amadeo) started to work on putting the Cannas and elephant ears in bulb crates.

The day was coming to an end and we started to clean up around the greenhouse, washing all the floors and taking the compost to the compound.

Saturday – The morning started off fairly warm and the greenhouse was still all in one piece and the crops were doing fine. We started the morning as per usual with the circle check sheet, we went over all the things on the list and everything was in order. The only issue we found was that the temperature in the morning was sitting below the recommended level but increased over time to the proper levels. We did a standard plant walk and continued on with our list of jobs to be done. First on the list was to water the mini poinsettias. Each tray got 1 litre and a half of fertilized water which we left in the trays for a while to let the poinsettias soak up. Once we made a judgement that they drank enough we emptied all the trays. Today was a watering day and we were watering almost everything in and outside of the greenhouse. After the minis we misted the cuttings in the greenhouse and in the propagation chamber (we do this 3 times a day everyday), then grabbed the Aquamate and headed into the school for some interiorscape watering and general cleanup. First on the list was to water the 3 large planters in front of the bookstore, we used almost all the water for the 3 since they were so large but had enough left over to water the rest. We moved onto the B café planters and checked them, then to T building hallway and checked all the tropical down the hall. This took us majority of our time considering all the walking we had to do. Once we got back, we called security control to send someone over to open the Presidents secretaries’ office because we had to swap out a Ficus with another healthier one. Didn’t take long for them to be there and we were in and out fairly quickly. It was getting close to the end of the day and we started to clean out the greenhouse again. We added in cleaning the tractor bay to the list since it needed it.

Then moved onto washing the floors and doing the closing checklist.

Sunday – The final day of our weekend duty was a slow day, but was a full blown cleaning day. We started as usual with our checklist and crop walk, spot watering poinsettias, misting the cuttings and watering anything else that needed it. At this point we forgot we had to do one final task as Z building which was washing down a planted because it was infested with mealy bug. We got to Z building and it was locked preventing us from doing so, so we had to drive back and leave it for someone else. We got back and immediately started cleaning up the place, starting in the greenhouse by washing and sweeping the whole area making it spotless. We didn’t have much else to do so we did 8 more cuttings of the grasses as that was what could fit on the heating mat. We finished off with the checklist and closed up for the last time.