The Gardens of Fanshawe College

2019-11-12T05:53:00.000-08:00

Fanshawe College Weekend Greenhouse Duty

November 8^th-10^th, 2019

Hayden, Jacob and Nicole

After some concise explanations given to us by our instructors on what was expected of us this coming semester, we were divided into groups and given specific weekends including the Fridays before them and tasked with completing exercises with educational and business tones around the college.

This blog describes and logs the experiences we had the pleasure and great fortune of receiving.

Friday, November 8th

Our morning started with our instructor taking us through all the necessary policies and procedures associated with running a green houses day to day operations. We reviewed the previous nights recorded temperatures along with other measurements that ensure good quality yield from the facility.

Afterwards, we spent the rest of the morning scouting out plants, culling weak and infirm specimens and preparing the plants for use for the following afternoon exercise. This included pruning off dead or weak limbs off plants, inspecting the stock for any health issues and organizing them once the latter two activities were carried out.

After a brief reprieve from our delegated duties, we began the production of hanging baskets. This included choosing choice specimens from our stock and potting them in large baskets of threes.

After the baskets were prepared, we labelled them twice. Once in the pot for reference if the basket were taken down and one on the bottom of the basket to see from below. The baskets were then thoroughly watered and hung above to catch the last of the golden rays of our November sun shine.

The day ended as quickly as it started. Parts of the duties of making sure a greenhouse is closed properly is to know what kind of light and dark cycle a plant requires. From 8:00 am – 5:00 pm, the poinsettias we grow require intense day light. However, they also require a long dark period and we close the shade curtains when we leave and lock up. This concluded our first day of our weekend.

Saturday, September 14^th

The following morning after sleeping in and eating a hearty breakfast, we joined up bright eyed and ready to have a productive day. As per usual, the opening procedures were followed. Shade curtains drawn open. Monitoring and scouting conducted to college standards. Coffee, two sugars, two cream.

After we finished our initial opening procedure, we continued our original task of re-potting and preparing flower baskets. This took up until noon. We finished the task and took our lunch before we regrouped and prepared a plan for the rest of the day.

We were tasked earlier by our instructor inspect the bug scan cards hanging in the green house. These cards are hung and bright in color. They will attract a variety of green house pests. These pests will fly and get trapped on the adhesive surface of the plant. After a period of time, we take them down and count the number of insects and species. These counts are logged and recorded for future use to determine pest concentration and what pests are present in the green house. Afterwards, we replace the traps with fresh ones.

This practice took up the rest of the day concluding our day as we finished our closing procedures for the green house.

Sunday, September 15^th

Sunday was our last day at the greenhouse. Despite the bonding, the learning and the experience we were glad to finally complete our tasks given to us on the weekend.

Though we watered the Poinsettias Saturday we found that two of the plants on bench 4 were insufficiently watered. Luckily it was not a big problem and could be dealt with quickly and efficiently. With the spot watering done, we were able to get back on track to do our tasks.

First was the EC and the pH measurements were needed to be done along with touching up on the IPM. The EC and pH were measured and each fell between 5.8 and 6.4 which were all in the acceptable range of acidic/alkaline.

The IPM was done next and to our surprise the work done to find each pest on the sticky cards found that there were a lot of Fungus gnats that are affecting the poinsettias.

As these were done, we decided to do more walks of the crop, checking for wilting, dead leaves and etc. to ensure that all was well in the greenhouse.

With that done we finish for the day making final checks to the crop, the germination and propagation chambers, and finally closing the curtains for both for the greenhouse and for our time spent there.

2019-11-12T05:17:00.000-08:00

Weekend Duty Greenhouse Blog November 1-3, 2019

Dylan K. , Hilary E. & Steven N.

Friday, November 1, 2019

We arrived to the greenhouse dark and with snow blasted Friday morning to receive a brief introduction from technician Jeff Rowley who was also able to answer any questions we may have had. After completing our opening checklist, the three of us set out on our first task of repairing a few irrigation lines. Some of the drip lines for the poinsettia crop had become squished under the bench. As a result, the plants effected showed signs of under watering. In order to replace the damaged lines we had to carefully crawl underneath the benches, avoiding the heating pipes, and install the new lines. Once we were finished, the stunted plants could be placed back on the benches with their drippers.

Our next task was to mix some more stock solution to last us the weekend. Afterwards, we got to work on identifying a few trays of stock plants to be transferred into the greenhouse. We quickly identified one of them as Billie Jean Begonias. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in identifying the second plant.

Upon completing our afternoon crop walk, we decided to do some deflowering of the stock plants as well as remove any dead plants from the benches to clear up some space. Afterwards, we spent the rest of the afternoon propagating some Billie Jean Begonia stems that had rooted inside of the propagation chamber. They were placed inside alone without soil and had developed roots from each node, so we were able to place the cuttings inside the greenhouse right away. Our final task of

the day was to prepare and store some Cannas from Clintar to be planted in the springtime.

After completing our closing checklist and closing the shade curtains, we called it a day at 5:00 and headed home for the night.

Saturday, November 2, 2019

We got to the school early to grab the keys from the security desk at 7:40 am, it was cold and dark. We got to the greenhouse shortly after and then went through the checklist. We also at that time opened up the greenhouse and took off the shade curtains. After we completed the mandatory checklist. We made cuttings of Calio Plant ‘Purple Knight’ and Cobaea Scandens.

We then went through all the cuttings and potted plants to see which plant needed to be propagated or transferred into pots if they have established a root system.

That took us the whole morning. After lunch we tidied up the area, then fertilized the poinsettias. This took two different fertilizers. One fertilizer was just for Golden GLO which is 20-20-20 @ 300 ppm which we had to turn off all the bench drippers then the one bench that had the Golden GLO off. Then we had to change over the fertilizer to 20-20-20 @ 250ppm for the rest of the poinsettia crops and turn off the Golden GLO dripper and turn on all the other ones.

We then look down all the odd bench sticky traps. For each sticky card we counted the bugs and identified the bugs to log down. These wasn’t much bugs but the majority of the bugs were fungus gnats. This took us most of the afternoon to do this since we had to count them under a microscope. We then replaced the sticky cards and then tidied up. At this point it was time to close down for the day so we put up the shade curtains and then went through our closing checklist.

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Clocks went back an hour. Arrive and open greenhouse at 7:40 am and it’s actually a bright morning for a change. We begun the checklist like a well-oiled machine at this point. Shade curtains pulled back and ready to rip into our last day with a vengeance.

We began to water the smaller poinsettias on the side bench by way of bottom watering using the flood table. From the bottom, water wicks up through the media and helps encourage roots to grow downward to the outsides. On to E.C. (electrical conductivity) and pH testing. We use this device with an electrode to measure the runoff of one of each of the cultivars of our poinsettia crop. This took better part of the morning and the measurements we took looked good and weren’t outside the ranges we wanted.

We continuously went to task throughout the day on surveying the benches and plants for anything we could notice that was out of place or needing attention without many surprises. We went ahead with composting some of the elephant ears that were not sold, as they get big, we needed space.

After a weekend of greenhouse activity, a thorough cleanup is in order in addition to the general tidying done throughout. Sanitation is next to godliness in a greenhouse and it pays to make sure any algae and debris are removed. This took up rest of the time, in addition to a final closing walk through and shutter closing time bringing our weekend to a close as the cipher continues on.

2019-11-06T07:41:00.000-08:00

Greenhouse Weekend Blog

Colby, Luke and William

October 25-27, 2019

Friday

On Friday we did not arrive to the greenhouse until approximately 1:30 in the afternoon because we had our C.L.T test that morning. Luke and Colby arrived first, and Jeff gave us a list of jobs to do for the rest of the day. We began by going through the greenhouse and making sure everything was in good condition. After that, we sorted the elephant ears (Colocasia) from the healthy to the unhealthy ones while winterizing variegated Pretoria Cannas.

Colby and Luke went to the compound to dispose of the unwanted foliage. When they returned, we took our quick break and then finished the Cannas. Jeff gave us a brief summary on the greenhouse expectations assigned for this weekend. He then proceeded to show us the plants we were going to propagate over the next two days. These plants included Plectranthus fosteri 'Green on Green' and Tradescantia sillamontana. We ended our shift at five as instructed.

Saturday

We arrived on Saturday morning at 8:00 am. Luke opened the shade curtains upon arrival while Colby inspected the greenhouse for any damage or debris that could have been caused overnight. Will checked the PRIVA conditions to make sure the greenhouse was at the appropriate standards. We then proceeded to remove the cuttings off the Plectranthus fosteri 'Green on Green' plants in the Woodland garden. Unfortunately there was a significant amount of damage to the mother plants due to frost overnight. We pruned off the best possible cuttings that were least damaged from the frost. Following the first two trays we exited the room to go to the propagation chamber. Luke switched and started to transplant the plants that were finished rooting from the propagation chamber into pots, as well as watering them before putting them onto the heat mats in the greenhouse.

We ended up having ninety-three Plectranthus in the propagation chamber and then started our hour lunch break. When we returned, Colby went and got the Tradscantia sillamontana while Will and Luke were preparing trays for the cuttings. When we finished filling all the trays, we put a clear dome on and placed the trays into the greenhouse on the heat mat. We printed tags and placed them into the trays and started to clean up. Will closed the shade curtains in the green house at 4:20 pm while Luke and Colby began cleaning the floors and tables. Colby then started to go over the PRIVA system making sure the greenhouse would be left in good condition for the rest of the night. We left at five at the end of our shift.

Sunday

Sunday morning prior to 8:00 am, Will opened up the greenhouse. He then opened the shade curtains at 8:00 am and checked PRIVA. During this time Colby went around and checked the greenhouse. Last night we decided that the plants did not need to be watered until today, so Colby went around and started making sure the lines were turned on properly. He left them on for approximately twenty minutes. Will was completing the blog, so Colby started putting Tradescantia cuttings into the trays while Luke watered them and then they put them onto heat mats. After our break, Will started doing the IMP Sticky Trap Report on each even numbered bench and counted how many bugs there were on each sticky trap. During this time, Colby and Luke started on the pH (parts hydrogen) and EC (electrical conductivity) testing making sure that there at the appropriate level after they flushed the plants. Luke and Colby finished the pH and E.C. ratings and Will finished the IMP Sticky Trap Report. Will closed the shade curtains at 4:20 pm and cleaned the grates while Luke washed the floor and checked around the building. Colby organized and put away the rest of the remaining pots and supplies. Another weekend completed.

2019-11-06T05:20:00.001-08:00

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!

2019-11-06T05:10:00.000-08:00

Greenhouse weekend blog

Patrick F., Jarrod G. and Nicole H.

October 4-6, 2019

FRIDAY

Our first year of the Horticulture Technician Program was mostly theoretical learning in the classroom. Our chance to shine by applying skills we have learned from theory was handed to us in the form of three days of weekend duty at Fanshawe’s one and only greenhouse. This is our first weekend duty of three to come, and we could not have been happier to work in the greenhouse.

We researched how to germinate the Quercus acorns, which we figured out were Quercus robur but were told they were the Cultivar of ‘Fastigiata’. We found that they need to be cold stratified for 30-60 days. However, we wondered whether the acorns would take since the ‘Fastigiata’ is a cultivar and we have learned that cultivars are generally sterile without human intervention.

Friday morning our stomachs were filled with figurative butterflies because our list of duties seemed daunting. With the guidance of greenhouse master Jeff Rowley, we started our day with the morning checklist. The checklist includes things such as walking the crop, inspecting the exterior of the greenhouse, and recording temperature trends via Priva graphs and an infrared thermometer.

Since the fertilizer was running low, we made up ten litres of 250 parts per million (ppm) along with a brand new mixture of 300 ppm. We watered the staple crop of Poinsettias two different ways. Bench 4 got a fertilizer mix of 300 ppm while the rest of the benches got the standard drink of 250 parts per million.

Poinsettias nice and perky after a delicious drink of fertilizer water!

We then moved onto transplanting cuttings from Cuddy Gardens. We, as Fanshawe students, are extremely fortunate to have access to such a facility. It is quite hard to find a school that has their own botanical garden, let alone a botanical garden we are able to utilize in a variety of ways. While on the topic of Cuddy Gardens, a few of the activities we are lucky to be able to participate in includes things like going on plant walks for Plant Identification, performing maintenance duties for Landscape Maintenance, performing greenhouse tasks in hoop houses for Greenhouse Plant Production, or even climbing trees for Arboriculture.

After we transplanted some cuttings, it was time for, in our opinion, the highlight of our weekend: leading a workshop for Fashion Design students. We were extremely fortunate to be put on weekend duty this particular weekend, as this was the only activity of the sort planned. We used succulents and cacti as teaching tools for the students; we spoke about the areas that such plants come from and how their environment impacts how they look and how they need to be cared for. Succulents have thick, fleshy leaves in order to retain moisture in the unforgiving environment of the dessert. Some succulents also have developed silver hairs to help them regulate temperatures from direct sunlight. Some cacti even have what looks to be beards or spider-webs covering them. Another interesting feature cacti have include spines that help protect them from thirsty dessert animals. Some succulents, we explained, were even in the same family (Euphorbiaceae) as the Poinsettias we have growing in the greenhouse! A common characteristic of this family is a sticky white sap that bleeds from cuts and can also be an irritant. Even after the story of Jeff accidentally rubbing leftover sap into his eyes, one of us was unfortunate and experienced the same thing that very night!

We showed the students how to properly pot the succulents and cacti, either as a single or a grouping of three. We explained that a “lip” should be left so that water has a chance to do its job and not spill all over the ground. We used tongs to protect our hands from the cacti. We got so caught up in the activities that all three of us forgot to take pictures. We spent the rest of our day transplanting cuttings and performing the end of day checklist.

SATURDAY

Bright and early Saturday morning we collectively decided to get all of the cuttings out of our hair. We powered through and worked late into the afternoon in order to finish off the cuttings. There were a couple cuttings we were unsure of the names, so we labelled them “Unknowns”.

Propagation Chamber – Empty of loose cuttings!

Transplanted existing cuttings on the heat bench!

Our chance for physical activity came at around 3 p.m. – we went outside to dig up and winterize the Canna Stuttgart and Elephant Ears. To our letdown, the Elephant Ears were indeed plugs as Jeff said they might be. We had to compost the Elephant Ears and the tops of the Canna. As students and others walked by, we wondered if anyone would have the curiosity to ask us what we were doing digging up such big, beautiful plants. No such luck! We dug undisturbed. We found what at first looked like an alarm clock in the garden, but it turned out to be some sort of broken light fixture. We hoped that it was a leftover light from a greenhouse activity and not some random person disposing of their garbage in our luxurious garden. We then put the remnants of the Stuttgart into media to make them dormant.

The front of the greenhouse, sans Canna Stuttgart and Elephant Ears!

Canna Stuttgart in its new home for the winter! Goodnight Stuttgart!

We finished our day with the closing checklist and a friendly smile to one another along with reassurance that we would indeed see each other the next day.

We knew that the “hard” tasks would need to be completed on Sunday. We delegated work to each other and worked on different tasks. While one person did IPM checks, another did EC and pH. While two people worked on transplanting the rest of the succulents, the third worked on the paperwork we needed to hand in.

Performing EC and pH checks on 8 different cultivars from 3 of each kind

Our goal was to get done everything on our list of things to accomplish, but as the end of the day neared we realized we needed to prioritize. We still had succulents to transplant but we also had Variegated Geraniums to dig up. Since we knew that transplanting cuttings was more of a priority, we sadly decided to leave the Geraniums.

Overall, we had a stellar weekend. Not only did we learn valuable hands on skills, we also had the chance to show Fanshawe that we can be independent and not need 24/7 supervision. The best part of our weekend was getting to know each other better. We went into this weekend being acquaintances and we like to believe that we left as friends.

2019-10-09T11:01:00.001-07:00

Fanshawe Main Campus Blog

By: Meghan, Colby, and Brooke

Submitted: Sunday October 6th 2019

As Autumn kicks off, maintenance duty is in its prime. Fall cleanup is a peak time for those who pursue landscape maintenance as a way to earn cash because of all the dropped leaves, pruning, planting, and harvesting that needs done before the frost does its damage. This weekend (October 4th, 5th, and 6th) our little ad hog group was assigned to perform various fall cleanup tasks on campus.

Our adventure starts bright and early Friday morning at the greenhouse where we met with the all knowing overseer, Jeff Rowley, to discuss what our weekend will consist of. He gave us a list to complete in no particular order and also accompanied us around campus to explain his list in further detail. We finished our walk at Louise Weekes garden where Jeff asked us what we would suggest to a paying customer if she wanted to clean the garden up’ and how much we would quote labour at. He told us to think about it and start our work day, so that we did.

We began working on the north east corner of R1 where there was a damaged bed due to a solar panel installation. The group was asked to plant 3 different species of plant in the bed with intention and finish the job off with mulch. We were not given an exact map of the layout that much was up to us. We weeded, edged, and cultivated the bed in preparation for new plantings. We decided on using the Hydrangea as the centerpiece as it has the most pop versus the The following pictures are the before and after of the bed we worked on.

The self proclaimed beautiful bed took a good chunk of our day, so we filled the rest of the day with smaller tasks that we knew we would be able to finish. The first was to plant a Prunus laurocerasus TIITAN@ ‘Rentan’ that happened to be missed by other students when they were redoing a bed by H1033. This was immediately followed by us explaining the plan we had created for the Louise Weekes garden to Jeff Rowley. As a group we discussed the following points need to be addressed:

-edging

-weeding

-deadheading daylilies

-removing dead branches and foliage

-cutting back Wisteria and Sneezeweed

-filling in groundhog holes

-removing thistles

-replanting daylilies

-pruning branches obstructing bench

-removing old wooden stake

-removing leaf debris

-gathering ginger for Cuddy’s

We decided that all these items would take about 7.5 hours each to complete which came out to about $450 for labour. Jeff Rowley was fairly pleased with our list and asked us to then complete all those items on the list we created by the end of the weekend.

We then finished the day off by planting an Acer palmatum 'Twombly's Red Sentinel’ beside the entrance of R2. We made sure to always stake our trees with the stakes perpendicular to the prevailing winds to allow for reactionary growth on the tree. Once both these specimens were in the ground, it was time to clean up and head home for the day.

Meghan digging for the Prunus laurocerasus TIITAN@ ‘Rentan’ R: The Acer palmatum 'Twombly's Red Sentinel’

Saturday began just as early as Friday, except this time Rowley wasn’t there to greet us. The team got right to work in the Louise Weekes Garden and spent from 8 AM until 4 PM completing everything on our list above. The garden ended up looking much cleaner after our elbow grease and love went into the cleanup. There were a few challenges along the way such as a need to share the RTV with those who work on campus, but it all worked out in the end. Here are some before and afters of the most hectic spots:

After this we cleaned up and put all the tools away. Then we returned to the greenhouse to do a bit of paperwork before hometime.

Finally the Sabbath arrived. Sunday was filled with similar tasks to Friday. We began at the entrance of R3 where a few Hypericum frondosum ‘Sunburst’ and a couple other yet to be identified, used to be shrubs needed to be removed so we could make room for some Thuja occindentalis ‘Fire Chief’ ‘Congabe’ and Miscanthus sinensis. We prepped the bed in the same way as we did on Friday and mulched afterwards also. Again, design was left up to the crew, so we went with a staggered look. We made sure to always research the plants we were putting in the ground to ensure that the distance between them was appropriate for how large each species would become. The final look was a nice pop of green against a brown mulch and a huge improvement from what was there before.

This took just over half the day, so the rest we filled with jobs we could confidently finish before the end of the last day. We may collectively refer to this as the final countdown. The team started after break with planting a couple Cornus alternafolia in the Woodland garden near the outdoor storage area. Followed by ripping out two dead Cornus chinensis ‘kousa’ directly across from them. Then immediately after we headed just a few meters East where we planted 3 Spiraea japonica 'NCSX1’. We then moved just a few yards north to K building where a couple plants in a bed needed rearranged to complete that small task. By the time those tasks were completed, it was time to clean up, put everything away and return to the greenhouse to finish off paperwork and head home.

This weekend was packed full of learning opportunities and hard work. Our group found it very rewarding to be able to put all of the knowledge we have gained over the last year and a bit to the test and see where we stand in terms of being able to lead a crew in landscape maintenance.

2019-10-08T11:45:00.003-07:00

Fanshawe College Greenhouse Weekend Duty Blog

By: Jared T, Jed H, Julia R.

It is always refreshing to walk in from the crisp - and rather cool - late September air into
the beautiful Fanshawe greenhouse, the poinsettia crop is looking refreshed having just been woken up from their 16 hour photoperiod (simulated 16 hour nights) and eagerly waiting for the sun to grace our beautiful campus. We, started this weekend off strong and dove right into the work we were given, completing the usual list of essential tasks to do when you first enter the greenhouse we noticed that the crop was looking a little dim, some bench’s seemed the be drooping and others weren’t looking as tip top as they could, we decided to give the plants an hour or so and see if
they would require watering that day, or the following, when we returned the sun was shining and the fans were running, it was time to water them, we took to the Dosatron, making sure it was set to the
right fertilizer (20-20-20 @ 250 ppm) and opened the flood gates, we let the water run for approximately 26 minutes, during this process we filtered in and out of benches to check on both dripper locations (within the pots) and overall saturation, we figured it best to let it run for a few extra minutes as assurance that everything was properly watered. Over the course of our first day we found endless opportunities to entertain ourselves, from collecting begonia cuttings and propagating them to potting up cuttings from the previous greenhouse weekend duty crews to make room for our own and then we had a quick meeting with Jeff R about an integrated pest management project he wanted us to do beyond just the usual. This rounded up our first day in the greenhouse.

Saturday the 28th was a special day in the greenhouse since we could just tell that there was some
sort of party going on, people were walking around drinking when we were just getting to campus at
around 7:30, we came to find upwards of 10 beer cans in the garden beds and strewn upon the grass
around the greenhouse, while Fanshawe and Western students alike were partying, we were spot watering some poinsettias that needed it and taking care of the succulents that also looked like they could use some water, we mutually decided we were in the right place after hearing in on various conversations from people passing the greenhouse, where ever they were going was brimming with police, unsurprisingly. Our second day went by just as fast as the first one, after some extra
cleaning in the tractor bay and outdoor greenhouse nursery marked that we had finished up all the tasks on our general list of things to do and went on to a couple tasks given to us by Jeff R., this involved taking to the sidewalk and hunting for acorns from a specific Oak tree, and when we came back we started our IPM research assignment, this involved a lot of counting tiny bugs under a microscope and recording there populations! At least we only had to do half the greenhouse, each time we took one down we put a fresh sticky sheet up, and then we started up our closing checklist and headed home ready for our next day in the greenhouse.

One of the sticky sheets we were counting insects on

Our last day in the greenhouse, Sunday September 29th, started out a little choppy, a few more beer cans, and we seemed to have lost a member of our crew to what we can only assume was the
aforementioned party, but we wont know till we see her again, she was out of reach. So we just took to the day hoping she would appear and started with what we had planned on the day prior and hopped right into the PH and EC readings. unaware of what the readings were supposed to be, about halfway through we found the sheet indicating what it should be and discovered our readings to fall quite a bit short of the specifications EC-wise, unsure of whether it’s a problem on our part or not we made note of it and moved on the next task, break. Once we got back we hopped into cleaning, we took another look at the tractor bay and moved some plants around and made sure everything had plenty of water and moved inside to clean the greenhouse floor. A sweep and a quick weed to the outdoor garden beds had the place shining when we started our closing checklist and headed on home, bringing a nice close to our weekend at the Fanshawe Greenhouse.

Just a nice picture of our amazing greenhouse

We all had a good time at the greenhouse and were looking forward to our next weekend duties around campus and at Fanshawe’s satellite campus, The Cuddy Gardens, until next time!

2019-10-08T11:33:00.003-07:00

Weekend Maintenance Blog

September 27-29, 2019

William, Hayden and Robert

Day 1:

An important part of college is the hands on aspect, especially when it comes to greenhouse and landscape work. Luckily for us, we have an amazing program that gives us the first hand experience of work, while also learning new skills on our beautiful college campus.

The start of the work weekend starts off with a small refresher on how to work the radios and how to properly sign in and out of work duties. Afterwards the jobs began; William on the tractor, Robert on the RTV and I on plant duty. Since Fanshawe College is a registered botanical garden, I was to write information on the plants before we planted them as to keep proper records. Once the proper plants had been found, we got to work.

We dug up and transplanted Irises in the proper garden. Once done, we transplanted hydrangeas into the proper garden bed. Then we moved outside of K building and began planting some more. Robert was able to prune the Norway maple shading the area we wished to plant. Another garden done leads to another in desperate need of weeding and new plants.

We began planting different trees like the Eastern Redbud, Cedar and Spruce. Then near the end of the day we helped Matt unload some school uniforms into the main classroom in H1033. It was not a part of the weekend duty, but it was still a nice thing to do. Especially for our program coordinator! From there, we ended our first day of weekend duty and cleaned up.

Day 2:

This day we were more prepared as we used the knowledge we learned the previous day and got straight to work: circle checks on equipment and vehicles, plant checks, and off to the gardens. It was a relatively nice morning, despite the spitting rain. Even if the plants were not completely watered the day before, they were on Saturday as it continued to rain throughout the day.

We did some work in the front of the school planting and staking three Catalpa trees. With the skills we learned from Arboriculture and from the assistance of google we put our skills to the test. There was plenty of sun and space for the Catalpa to grow, and I have high hopes for them in the future.

With that out of the way, we got started on the garden beds in the front of the school. Here we planted some Berberis and some Echinacea. The soil was incredibly compacted as it was mostly made from clay, and was used as a walkway for quite some time. We hope the garden beds will stay nice out in front with all the smokers, but we have our doubts. We are not entirely sure that the plants will be okay with growing in such harsh soil conditions, but the Berberis will sure keep students from stepping on the garden with its incredible pointed spines on each branch.

We got them planted and ventured across the road to the other garden. It was mostly finished, and only needed help with mulching. We headed over to the other side to help the school employees finishing raking the mulch. Unfortunately we weren't able to finish the other side.

Day 3:

On the third day we started it off as the previous two days but without the assistance of Jeff. We started the day by doing the circle checks to the machines we were going to use through the day. It was a cold morning, but it helped us get moving. We started finishing the mulching that we didn't get to finish the day before. After we finished the mulching for the garden, we put mulch mountain in the back if the trailer. The day before, we asked Jeff why he had so much of it and he replied with “because it was free”. The mulch was especially heavy from the rain the day before. Eventually after a few minutes of using the forks to start lifting the mulch into the back of the trailer Robert came up with the great idea to take the trailer off the tractor and use the tractor to lift the mulch into the trailer which saved us a lot of time. After successfully filling the trailer to the top with mulch we took our lunch. Right when we got done our lunch, we started the plantings of the Russian peonies around some ornamental grass in front of F building. While we were planting the peonies, Robert went around cleaning up the extra mulch and soil left with a backpack blower. Making sure nothing is a mess while also putting away tools and staying organized are essential parts of landscaping. Robert came back 20 minutes later with the Dublin peonies. Hayden and I started planting the newly dropped of peonies as Robert headed over to R2 building to weed eastern garden bed. Before we knew it, the day was over and we started to get everything p

cleaned up and all the equipment checked back in. We actually stayed a little extra time to make sure everything was in its proper place before we left.

2019-10-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

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

2019-10-08T11:14:00.002-07:00

Weekend Duty Blog - September 20-22, 2019

Avery & Quinn

After being trained on how to drive and operate vehicles such as the RTV and Tractor with a trailer or counter weight attached, we were all set for our weekend duties around the Fanshawe campus. After meeting up with Jeff early Friday morning, a tour took place of the gardens and areas which were to be maintained for the weekend. After carefully listening to and consulting with Jeff we were on our own. No one left to fall back on but each other. Off to C block to fetch the RTV and Tractor trailer, which will aid us in transporting equipment and plant matter. Once we had the automobiles we could finally grab the required tools for the day which consisted of hand saws, shovels, garden hoes, metal stakes, twine, rakes and more. To start off the day we took a journey to the corner of a building near the bus stops. This area was in need of a combination of plants and shrubs to fill in its gaps and empty spaces. A second garden bed was also needing to be created on the opposite side of the walk way to the building. Using Sand Cherries, Golden Birch and Rino Rose we effectively gave to garden a fuller look.

After dealing with the A building garden bed a tree was needed to give an empty garden life at the opposite side of the bus stop area. We calculated which way the wind would blow the most frequently and staked the tree accordingly.

Now that the tree had been set and centered, an area behind the R2 residence had to be mulched, so we headed over with the trailer!

A section of garden near D building courtyard area needed to be altered heavily due to the possibility of a hiding spot for criminal activity. We removed several Taxus and a handful of dead spruce from the lower part of the garden. After that we pruned the above tree so the foliage was about shoulder height giving it a nice open concept

Now that our list of duties had been completed, we head back to the green house to fill out accession sheets of all the plants we had planted during or time at the school. Overall this was a great hands on experience of what it is like in the real world work force.

2019-10-01T11:32:00.001-07:00

Greenhouse weekend duty - September 13-15, 2019

For our greenhouse duties on the weekend of Sept 13 to Sept 15, we had 3 main tasks to do. On Friday, we decided to collect cuttings from the stock plants around the greenhouse area. We propagated approximately 6 full trays of cuttings from plants including Geraniums and many different types of Coleus. Cuttings were planted in a mix of Pro Mix HP and perlite. This mixture has more pores for water and air to get trapped in, providing a nice moist atmosphere for new root growth.

On Saturday we collected the sticky traps above the odd numbered benches in the greenhouse to monitor for pests that could be damaging our crop of poinsettias. We do this as part of an IPM (integrated pest management) strategy which aims to reduce the number of pests affecting the crop. Poinsettias are known for being attacked by White Fly which damage the plant by sucking out sap in order to continue to grow from the larva stage to the adult stage. In order to deal with White Fly we use parasitic wasps that hunt and attack the larva, laying eggs in their stomachs to kill the larva upon birth. Another pest we had noticed was a Sciarid Fly which can be damaging as its larva will feed on roots. They cannot find anything else such as decaying matter. We believe this issue may be related to inconsistent watering cycles.

We also measured the pH (parts of Hydrogen) and EC (electrical conductivity). Measuring the pH allows us to see how available each element is to the plant, as different pH values can essentially “lock out” nutrients in certain ranges. This measurement was completed using the pour through test. In this test, we will pour completely neutral distilled water through each plant to be tested. Once that is done, we collect the water that drains out the plant and we test it using a pH meter. Our crop tested at an average of 6.7, which is outside of our ideal range for this crop. At the same time, we also measure each plant for soluble salts. These salts accumulate in the soilless media as we fertilize the crop. Nutrients are bound to salt molecules, so as we increase the fertilizer amounts, the more salts that will build up in the media. Excess salt is flushed every 5^th watering. The crop had been flushed at some point before our duties for the weekend commenced, so our EC readings were well below our goal, most of them being around 0.5 or lower.

2019-09-26T10:23:00.004-07:00

Fanshawe College Weekend Maintenance Duty

September 13 th -15 th , 2019

Dylan, Hilary and Jacob

Fanshawe weekend duties have arrived for us second year students who ever continued with the

program in 2019. After some concise explanations given to us by our instructors on what was expected of us this coming semester, we were divided into groups and given specific weekends including the Fridays before them and tasked with completing exercises with educational and business tones around the college.

Ours was the first weekend duty and we had the pleasure and great fortune of starting on Friday the
13th. We started having some of the best weather of September. The London Air Show was starting as well creating a fair amount of traffic for people that decided to use the shuttles that operated off
campus grounds.

Friday September 13 th

We began our weekend duties by speaking with our resident green house guru Jeff Rowley. After a brief run down on what was expected of us; Jeff took us around the campus to look at the job sites we would be working on. We were expected to fix a poorly laid sod job and regraded another site of another job sod area. On top of that, we went through a lecture on CPTED. An acronym for Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. Lastly, we travelled to the front of T building near the bus stops where we were charged with removing a nectarine tree and deal with an overgrown garden bed.

Consulting amongst ourselves; we endeavored to first deal with the simple and time-consuming job of fixing the sites of sod.

The first site was a mishmash of oddly shaped sod rolls. These were the cuttings taken from the other
sites. Placed in a jig saw fashion, we tidied the area up by laying string lines and cutting off oddly shaped ends and corners. We then edged the area and relayed some of the pieces that were deemed
acceptable. The finishing touches was to try and level off the edges that seemed to suddenly drop in
severe angles and grades. A side note: we were also asked to give an estimate and bill of the site as
though we were professional contractors.

After dealing with site number one, we left for site two. The site was substantially larger and required
top soil to be added to fix dips in the uneven grade of the sod. It also had small sliver pieces within itself and exposed top soil surrounding it. This was easily fixed with a bit of elbow grease and grass seed. We seeded the edges and areas that would not prove favourable for strips of sod to root successfully. This was the last task before we finished our first day of weekend duties.

Saturday September 14 th

The morning sun struck the green house at 8 PM giving it a brilliant glittering glow when we and the
green house team met to start the beginning of our day. After a brief time discussing our plan of action and conducting safety checks on our equipment, we took off to the Fanshawe tool shed to equip ourselves for dealing with our next task: the nectarine tree.

Typical arboriculture equipment would be required and as lovely as it would have been to have access to a chain saw, we were only authorized to use hand tools. We ended up using pruning saws and extended pole blades.

Zipping around the campus grounds in our RTV (Rough Terrain Vehicle), we ended up at the front of
school and unloading to take this tree to task. We had predicted that this would be a physically
challenging task but the tree was a soft wooded one and the tools were new all lending to a very quick and efficient tree removal.

With the tree gone and out of the way, we began tackling the garden adjacent to the now vacant site
that the tree once occupied. The blood grass had overtaken the gardens it was planted in and required
some serious work done. Below is a picture we took that shows how the grass propagates itself through rhizomes.

The blood grass was substantial. We managed to make a serious dent in it but with the days end
approaching, we decided as a group to take the compost back and start our end of day. We would finish this tomorrow.

Sunday September 15 th

We started the day again at 8 AM. With morning coffees into us, the safety checks and preparation were done and over with quickly for tackling the last bit of the garden at T building. After a significant time was spent on pulling out weeds and shaping the garden, we completed most of our third task with bits and pieces of landscaping yet to be finished.

It was lunch time so after a brief respite, we came together to discuss the plan for the second part of the day.

We split up with one of us watering plants, the other landscaping at T building and the other working on this blog post. Although a simple process, our remaining tasks ate up the last bit of time spent here on the Sunday.

With the post done and out of the way, we spent the remainder of our time weeding and looking for any plants with identifiable problems.

2019-04-17T07:47:00.003-07:00

Maintenance Weekend Duty

By: Felix and Rob

Thursday April 11th 2018

As the sound of birds chirping and the refreshing smell of the rain drifts by our noses. We begin to admire and realize that our plants on Fanshawe College require our attention. It is mid-spring, and as we prepare for a new season of prosperous growth, we start to notice our campus blooms and shrubs need the utmost care to provide the beautiful flowers for the

season. To keep the plants flourishing for the upcoming seasons regular maintenance such as pruning is essential. Plants that generally require pruning are perennials, small trees, shrubs, and certain specimens. That may require pruning of non-living branches and twigs to the point of origin.

Also the ability to identify some of the plants that one may have in their garden can play a significant role on the time of year to prune. Certain plants require different seasons for optimal pruning times. For example, here on campus we have Euonymus, viburnum, hydrangeas that need to be pruned back in order to exhibit new healthy growth and to ensure that we don't kill the buds at the wrong time.

Aside from plant health care, we also have to take in consideration the location of the plant and if it is becoming a hazard or obstructing a desired view from a window. Some important things to keep in mind when pruning is to be confident in the cuts you make and respect the growing habit and form of the plant. The best way to determine if a branch or twig need to be removed or cut out is if the stem or bark is dying or diseased. Peeling back the bark with secateurs or hand pruners can also reveal whether the part still has green growth or is hollowed out.

With many plants and tasks, breaking it down into steps can help us efficiently manage time to thin out and remove interfering branches from the Hydrangeas and Viburnums to allow air movement and light towards the center of the crown. For the hydrangeas looking down the tips of the stems you can see where the old wood has stopped spreading. This is where you will make your cut above the node where new growth or buds have begun to form.

Saturday April 13^th 2019

The day greeted us with much more favourable weather relative to Thursday with its winter-like temperatures and strong winds. After performing a circle check on the RTV, and gathering the required tools and equipment; we set to continue the task of pruning the ornamental plants around Merlin house. We continued where we left off from the previous day; starting with thinning out the juniper shrubs on the south side of the residence. Those particular shrubs were crowded to a great degree which may have developed into a potential issue with air circulation through the plant as well as significantly reduced light reaching the lower foliage. We continued moving along the south side of the building removing dead wood and interfering branches from the Hydrangea paniculata shrubs as well as cutting them back to promote new flower growth.

Once this was accomplished Felix and I focused on pruning the specific plants assigned to us. The plant I was charged with was: Physocarpus opulifolius 'Diablo' or Diablo Ninebark which is a moderately sized deciduous shrub. This hearty shrub was in want of pruning due to many dead and interfering branches, and was cleared of many basal shoots that sprouted from the center of the plant. The warming weather and task of pruning reminded us that we were in the middle of spring; one of the great examples of change and rejuvenation. This ancient cycle greatly precedes us and may outlast us; we can only currently be stewards of nature’s transitory change.

Sunday April 14th 2019

Cool rainy winds continue to sweep across our gardens in Fanshawe College providing our plants with water, which is an essential component for life and new growth. Our third day of maintenance was coming to an end, but there was plenty left to prune around the perimeter of our gardens and the rainy weather was not going to deter us from our mission. By making sure that our pruners were sanitized and in good working condition we prevent the tear of branches and ensure swift and accurate cuts. Today we decided to take another approach on a different set of shrubs located on the side of E building.

There were a few Dwarf Korean Lilacs that needed a fair amount of pruning on dead wood and many suckers that were growing at the base of the plant. With these specific shrubs we found the best way to prune the stems thoroughly and to avoid confusion with all the scrambling branches was to start at the base and work on individual segments of branches. Starting at the bottom helped us find suckers that were becoming huge stems causing congestion and lack of air movement throughout the center of the plant. Cutting back to the point of origin on some of these interfering branches and suckers insures that the plants focus their energy towards growth on the desired structure of branches and stems. Finally, as all the shrubs assigned were successfully pruned of dead wood we finished the day by reviewing all our work and paying close attention to detail. We were able to spot many more twigs and branches to prune out and we continued removing anything that seemed like it would obstruct maintenance workers when performing maintenance on the lawn. Following these simple guidelines and educating yourselves on the plant you are pruning will benefit you significantly when deciding what should and needs to be pruned. Your gardens will also need the maintenance care they deserve to provide you with magnificent and stunning new growth.

2019-04-15T08:04:00.004-07:00

Greenhouse weekend duty blog

Thursday, April 11, 2019

On Thursday we started our day in the bustling greenhouse spot watering and monitoring the crop, as right now we are filled wall to wall with plants already sold to contract customers. After our morning walk through and watering we began potting up the last of the Coleus and Begonia plugs into 4 inch pots that were left from the day prior. We than went about organizing these new potted up plugs onto bench 2 and 3 to keep the plants together and organized, as space is very limited. After this we began preparing more 4 inch pot trays and storing them on the metal storage racks to allow for easy use for the herbs we planned on transplanting on Saturday. After this we went about watering the Western Fair baskets as they were beginning to show signs for need of water. I also pulled a few down to allow for spot watering as a couple were very dry due to the drippers not being placed in the pot properly. Next we tackled the stock baskets ensuring we had two of each stock basket and changing the stock inventory online to ensure it was correct, we than went about moving the 4 inch tray pots of the plants we were using for stock baskets to the upper bench and condensed them to allow for maximum space on the benches. We finished the day with some spot watering of the apprentice plant bench and some of the Proven Winners plants throughout the greenhouse. We finished up washing the floors and the tables in our work area and ensured we cleaned up the greenhouse floor as well of any debris that may have fallen on the floor.

Saturday, April 13, 2019

On Saturday we started our day much like Thursday with some spot watering and monitoring the crops. Mostly we spot watered the succulents and cacti as I planned to water the full crop with the 200 PPM mix fertilizer later, and the 350 PPM for the Banana plant and the elephant ear crops. After we went about putting up our sticky cards for our pest report but we had already noticed a fair bit of whitefly Thursday and into the weekend so we knew what the sticky cards might hold. We also noticed the stock baskets were looking very dry so we also watered them with the 200 PPM fertilizer mix until the pots were well saturated. From there we started potting up herbs like Basil, Thyme, Parsley and Chives.

We started by using the pots we had prepared on Thursday but they quickly ran out as we had so many wonderful smelling herbs to pot so we ended up making a lot more during the process. During this whole process we continued to organize the benches to ensure maximum space for the plants allowing us to keep as many of the herbs together as possible. We had lots of sun throughout the day and we noticed a lot of the crop was beginning to dry out so we went about watering the whole crop with the 200 PPM Fertilizer mix except the Banana Plant, Elephant ears and the seedling trays. This took more time than expected as we were ensuring the pots were well saturated with the fertilizer mix and we didn’t get all the way through the crop to the Banana Plant, Elephant ears, Apprentice bench and the rolling carts full of the Proven Winners so we planned to wrap up the watering Sunday morning.

Sunday, April 14, 2019

On Sunday we started our day by watering the remainder of the crop we had missed Saturday due to time. We noticed near the end that we were just about out of fertilizer of the 200 PPM mix so we decided to mix up another 10 litres. After this we thought it be best to wash down the floors and clean out the drains in the greenhouse to allow for ample time for the floors to dry throughout the day as to not have excess levels of moisture buildup. From there we went about potting up all the succulent into the succulent and cacti media mix which allow for proper drainage for the plants as compared to our normal pro mix soil. We than organized them on the bench in the walkway next to the Christmas cactus cuttings planted by the first year students.

We then walked the crop and took down the sticky cards so we could write up our pest report for the weekend. After all that we finished our day by cleaning up the work area and washing down the tables and also cleaning out the floor drains to allow for proper drainage and to ensure a clean working environment free of spores and mold.

2019-04-11T11:27:00.004-07:00

Weekend Duty Blog for weekend of April 5-7, 2019

Claire and Tobias

Spring has finally arrived to the greenhouse at Fanshawe College, and with it came many flats of annual plugs to be grown out for our contract customers. With the great success of our hydrangea sale, we finally had some free space in the greenhouse and our main goal over the weekend was to fill as much of this space with the new annuals as possible. We began by consolidating space on the greenhouse benches and setting up an assembly line of filling trays of four-inch pots, watering in, transplanting plugs, and printing labels/labelling. For customers like Clintar and the Western Fair, we raise many varieties of colourful and intriguing annuals - this year, some of the stars of the lineup include vining Sweet Potato Vine and Dichondra, flowering Petunias, and many kinds of colourful Coleus. After several hundred of these plants were potted, greenhouse bench space was really starting to be filled up!

Over Saturday morning, humidity levels dropped sharply and the greenhouse temperature steadily rose. By noon, the temperature had reached nearly twenty-nine degrees, which is over the maximum set temperature by five whole degrees. Upon investigation we found that while the greenhouse top vents were open and the side vents were set to ‘Auto,’ the side vents were failing to open and allow adequate airflow to cool the greenhouse. After setting the vents to ‘Open’ to no avail and alerting the maintenance team, we decided to increase humidity levels in the greenhouse by dousing the floors with water. Theoretically, as the water evaporates into the air and raises the moisture concentration, plants will transpire (lose water) less in an effort to maintain moisture homeostasis and will therefore retain more moisture and be less stressed in the higher temperatures. Sure enough, by twelve-thirty the humidity levels had already increased significantly and the greenhouse temperature had lowered to below its maximum threshold of twenty four degrees! Another watering at approximately two-thirty was able to replicate these results and keep the greenhouse temperature within the appropriate range for the day.

On our final weekend duty day on Sunday, we carried on planting out the trays of annuals. We ended up with over three or four hundred plants for some varieties, such as our Marigolds and purple Petunias. With space dwindling on the benches, we were just able to pot up and squeeze in a few trays of Jade Plant and various succulents along the side wall. Finally, with four rows of hanging baskets along each of two walls and benches that are almost completely filled, the greenhouse is nearly as full as it’s ever been!

2019-04-10T12:15:00.000-07:00

Fanshawe College Weekend Maintenance Duty

March 29-31, 2019

Lisa, Emily and Adam

The first maintenance duty of the New Year was under way this past weekend at Fanshawe College. Our objective was to complete a large portion of corrective pruning and remove dead wood from shrubs, sub shrubs and trees around M and H buildings. Earlier in the week, Tim and Jeff discussed proper pruning techniques with us and focused on following the ‘dead, dying and diseased’ rule as well as the 1/3rd rule, i.e. not removing more than 1/3rd of the plant. Tim gave us an extensive list of items that needed attention, thus we focused on those for the weekend. Each student was also assigned a specific shrub that only they were to prune.

Weekend duty began early Friday morning where we met with Jeff to discuss procedures for the three days. After parting ways, the three of us devised a plan on how we should accomplish our given tasks. We decided that the three of us would work together in a section and thoroughly complete each section before moving onto the next. We were lucky to experience some incredible Spring weather on Friday, allowing us to complete our tasks with ease. However, it would later turn out that were fortunate enough to experience not one, but all four seasons in three days.

The first section contained Adam’s given plant, Forsythia ovata ‘Ottawa.’ He was instructed to remove 3 – 5 canes from these shrubs. This shrub proved difficult to prune as it had many interfering, dead/dying canes. This shrub is also known for its blooms thus it was imperative that flower buds were not pruned off. However, he tackled the task and cleaned the Forsythia up nicely, allowing the shrub to soon exhibit its golden yellow blooms in the Spring.

While Adam worked on his assigned shrubs, Emily and I focussed on cleaning up leaf debris by using the back pack blower and rakes. Once we were satisfied with general cleanup we shifted our focus to the pruning of the Pyrus calleryana ‘Chanticleer.’ Pruning on these trees was minimal, we simply removed a few interfering branches. We moved further alongside M building and focused on pruning the Berberis thungergii ‘Monry.’ This task was tricky due to the thorns on the plant. We took our time but were able to remove much of the dead wood and keep the new growth. We continued pruning all of Friday and focused on plants such as the Hydrangea quercifolia, Cotoneaster apiculatus and Amorpha canescens.

Saturday proved to be a very challenging day both physically and mentally as we were met with large amounts of rain all day long. Rain coupled with cooler temperatures made it difficult to get our to do list for the day complete. However, with quick breaks to warm up and dry out we managed to get quite a bit of work done. We began the day again with collecting leaf debris and pruning some Viburnum that had many epicormic shoots growing throughout the plants. Adam focused on cutting down all of the grasses, trying his best to make sure there were all equal heights and dome shaped. In this section was Emily’s plant, Callicarpa dichotoma ‘Early Amethyst’ also known as a Beautyberry. This sub shrub is known for its beautiful fall berries that typically overwinter, adding winter interest to the landscape. The many beautyberry’s that were in this section needed to have all dead wood removed but the flower stalks needed to remain in case an early frost occurred. While Emily diligently worked away, I focused my attention to pruning back the Fallopia japonica, Exochorda micrantha ‘The Bride,’ and helped with general cleanup of this area, removing leaf debris and some cut grass debris. Unfortunately, we did not have any pictures of our Saturday tasks due to the rainy weather.

Working in a Winter Wonderland

Sunday March 31st, 2019

Winters one last kick arrived this Sunday when all the precipitation left over from Saturday’s rain storm froze and turned everything into ice. Unfortunately for Lisa who had to continue to prune back deadwood around the H Building Loop, she was forced to manually prune each frozen branch. When done properly Pruning can be very time consuming, due to precise determination on which plants are viable and which are dead, dying or diseased.

Callicarpa dichotoma, commonly known as Beauty Berry is a sub-bush from the Lamiaceae family. Sub-bush means that it is a hardy woody perennial, with multiple shared traits. The berries are left for winter interest and are meant to stay on during the Spring until first bud break. My duties involved removing any dead wood and old shoots, in order to stimulate new development. There was so much snow I had to use a snow blower to get close to the ground shoots. It was difficult to collect all the brush and dead branches due to all the snow, but with thorough dedication the Beauty Bushes were looking fresh and ready for a new season of growth.

Ironically Adam’s job for the day included “de-winterizing” the Conifer garden in preparation for the warmer weather. Throughout the winter sensitive shrubs and trees are wrapped with burlap to protect themselves from frost damage and prevailing winds. Most of the trees are stakes and tied up, keeping the branches together to preserve natural thermal heat. If necessary, they can be wrapped in wire cages and layers of burlap. Once removed these were hung up to dry, tightly rolled up, and placed in rodent repellent bags.

The Wisteria in the woodland garden was pruned back in order to create a safe walkway. This involved pruning the buds back from the parent branch to about three to five buds. Final weekend cleanup involved sweeping and organizing to tool room and tractor bay. With a new busy season around the corner it is important to remove leaf litter and leftover summer damages. The tools were organized and cleaned correctly and wheelbarrows removed to do a detailed job. The stakes, wire and burlap were neatly placed in the tool room to defrost until the outer storage area is ready to be opening and regularly used.

2019-04-01T09:51:00.002-07:00

Weekend Garden Maintenance Duty Blog for March 22-24, 2019

Claire & Lauren

Our first task was to prune the wisteria atop one of the garden’s pergolas. Since Wisteria produces its blooms on old growth, we removed all of the unnecessary old ‘whips’ from last year while still leaving a few buds for this season’s growth. As Wisteria is a voracious grower and requires pruning twice per season., Jeff taught us a neat way to remember when and how much to prune back Wisteria - in the third month (March) prune whips back to 3-5 buds, and in the seventh month (July) prune back to 7-9 buds. This will ensure that the plant produces many blooms but then stays at a manageable size. After pruning, we tied down any wisteria vine that was sticking up so that when it blooms, the panicles will fall across the pergola beautifully.

Our next task was to groom the Cotoneaster bed. We started by removing waste which had collected over winter, and used a backpack blower to further free it from leaves and branches. We used power shears to remove tall parts which had been burned by icy winter winds, and despite our warm coats we couldn’t help but feel some very icy winds ourselves! Things were a little warmer the next day when we pulled overwintered plant debris from a selection of planters around the school, but the warmth unfortunately meant we ran into a little mud with our tractor, too!

Our final large undertaking for the weekend was to shear back all the dry ornamental grasses. We found that tying the grass into bundles prior to shearing it allowed us to collect the grass easily and more efficiently. The grass bases that are left were then shaped into attractive hill-shapes. In the end we took nearly two trailer loads plus an RTV load’s worth of grass out of the garden in total! And rather than simply composting them, the canes of the Giant Reed Grass (Arundo donax) were lopped and set aside to be used for cool projects later on.

2019-03-25T09:35:00.004-07:00

Greenhouse Weekend Blog

Ellyn and Harrison

Our weekend duty began on a windy Friday morning. We then began our opening checklist. When we looked into the germination chamber many of the seeds had become seedlings. We then covered them with cheese cloth to help them adapt to their new environment.

As well we have begun planting a variety of perennials and geraniums in preparation for warmer weather, but because of these extra additions to the greenhouse we struggled to find an area to put these plants. Luckily we made a large amount of sales on Friday which opened up bench 7 to house our almost 500 geraniums. Let’s just say moving the geraniums took a while. We also were tasked with watering and fertilizing almost all the plants in the greenhouse. We split up the watering to make it more efficient one person watered the cannas, perennials and seedlings while the other focused on watering the hydrangeas, geraniums and seeds in the germination chamber. As the day began to come to an end, we finished planting some of our perennials, while also dealing with the many customers coming in to look at our beautiful hydrangeas. We then had to change our focus to cleaning up, it was very important for the greenhouse to be spic and span for the Fanshawe Open House the following day. We then made our way home awaiting our next day in the greenhouse.

We came in the following day to a beautifully bright and warm sun that brought a smile to my face. We then started our opening checklist, after that was complete we began tasks to organize the greenhouse for the Open House. This including adding tags to any unlabelled perennials and flipping the tags so they were more uniform and matched one another. We had four 1^st year students join us in the greenhouse to help talk to anyone curious about the horticulture technician program, as well as Michael Pascoe, Sue Millar and Jeff Hicks. Saturday was definitely a very busy day there always seemed to be at least one person in the greenhouse needing information on the program or looking to buy hydrangeas. This made it hard to get many of the tasks that we were assigned done but thanks to the first years’ help we managed to finish planting all the rest of the 60+ perennials and over 100 geraniums. We were selling so many hydrangeas that we had to move almost half a bench of hydrangeas to the front of the benches.

Of the varieties of hydrangeas grown this year, the ‘Tivoli’ was by far the most popular! This style is variegated blue or pink with white edges. People were dazzled by the unusual coloration all weekend and it became the first of our cultivars to sell out! Our blue, pink, and white varieties (called ‘Early Blue’, ‘Rosa’, and ‘Vanilla Sky’) were also very popular, and after talking to many of the customers, it’s apparent just how well loved this plant is! While people bought them for a variety of reasons, including for cut flowers, as a desk plant, and for the garden, I’m sure everyone could agree that the explosion of colour and large flower clusters are perfect for welcoming the official start of spring!

Selling hydrangeas supports the Horticulture program and was a great way of connecting with future students and sharing some of our horticultural knowledge. Having student volunteers in the greenhouse allowed them to get some extra experience, and helped accomplish important tasks. Therefore, the Open House on Saturday was a booming success, and we were proud to help represent the greenhouse and the program.

On Sunday, after the commotion of Open House was over, we had a few large tasks ahead to accomplish. First, we prepared trays of media and watered them to prepare for the planting of lots of different vegetables and flowers. These included African Yellow Marigolds (which we planted hundreds of), tricolour cherry tomatoes, black cherry tomatoes, Bells of Ireland, and more. When planted, the trays were put in the germination chamber, where they will receive regular mistings with warm water. The humidity and warmth will help them germinate and protect the emerging seedlings from the hot, direct sun of the greenhouse. After seeding, the succulents needed to be repotted and organized in preparation for their eventual sale to Landscape Ontario. The soil used for potting the succulents allows for more drainage than regular potting mix because succulents store lots of water and therefore don’t need a lot. Because of this, their roots can’t tolerate constant or even consistent moisture, and drainage is desirable. We found a large bloom on one of the more mature succulents, adding another pink pop of colour to the greenhouse to match the hydrangeas!

Finally, the current propagation chamber was disassembled and hauled away for the incoming installation of a brand new propagation station. After cleaning up the debris from the massive haul, the desks, rolling storage bins, and chairs were moved from the general vicinity to allow easy access to the propagation location in anticipation for the propagation station installation. After completing the final closing checklist, we were at the end of greenhouse weekend duty. Overall, it was a busy weekend with a very successful Open house event, dominated by the graceful beauty of the hydrangeas!

2019-03-19T05:57:00.005-07:00

Greenhouse Weekend Duty March 15-17th/2019

This weekend our tasks were correlated with change: rejuvenation and preparation and Friday presented us with many opportunities to do so. As spring is fast approaching many things are changing in the greenhouse and it was the first weekend of hydrangea sales. Within the last few weeks they have produced some beautiful, large and colourful blooms. Their foliage is also a deep green which is lovely, and no necrosis which is hard to obtain. As the hydrangeas bloomed; so has spring. Our first change/rejuvenation was cleaning up our stock baskets and hanging them up to make room for our new inventory we will be receiving. We then had a change in plans as we were requested to lend our voice to Cuddy Gardens video. It was very interesting as neither of us had recorded in a professional studio before. As the day progressed, we began preparation for the spring by sowing herb seeds (parsley, chives and sweet basil) and filling one gallon pots to prepare for our incoming perennials. We then rejuvenated some Schlumbergera and seedlings by giving them a thorough drink of water. Overall it was a great first day to start our weekend duty.

On Saturday we continued with our tasks. During our opening checklist, I checked the germination chamber and found a lot of the seeds were now seedlings! It was amazing to see them spring up overnight

We then watered and prepared hydrangeas to be put in our F building Ficus planters to rejuvenate them and hopefully attract some sales to the greenhouse. They were then put out and the ficus planters were watered.

In the afternoon we had a few customers come in as the weather was beautiful! As we were preparing and changing for the spring, so was the weather coincidentally. Although this weather was lovely, it meant the hydrangea crop dried out so we decided to water in the early afternoon. After watering we took pH and E.C. readings. We noticed the pH and E.C. was off so decided to fertilize. Because we watered in the afternoon we chose to fertilize the next day. We noticed many customers enjoyed the Tivoli cultivar. In the afternoon we continued to sow herbs and fill pots for perennials.

Sunday was exciting as London was hosting the Junos and it also was St. Patrick’s day: however, it was a pretty relaxed day in the greenhouse. We began the day with our opening checklist, and decided to do our fertilizing early to correct their pH and E.C. levels. Rob finished up potting the perennial mix in 405 one gallon pots and 200 four inch rounds.

We sold some succulents and hydrangeas throughout the day. We then watered most of the greenhouse, including the cannas, seedlings, alocasia, perennial grass, petunias/petunia baskets, and four inch pot stock plants. We spent the rest of the day cleaning up and tying up any loose ends. All in all, there was a clear theme this weekend. The hydrangeas are blooming, and as spring approaches, the greenhouse will produce more crops such as herbs, perennials, cannas, etc. There was lots of change and rejuvenation with the stock baskets. It was a great weekend and I’m excited to see the change into spring.

2019-03-11T10:27:00.002-07:00

Greenhouse Blog for March 8-10, 2019

Emily B. and Mitch M.

One could just walk along the campus of Fanshawe College and just know that is classified as a certified Botanical Garden. The extensive collection of rare and exquisite cultivars that reside upon campus are not native to these parts, yet thrive and grow all over these grounds. These plants have been shipped from across the world, and Fanshawe Spriet Greenhouse has been given the opportunity to sow and grow these exceptional seeds. From botanical gardens in Italy to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton these seeds travel with care to the hands of the Fanshawe Horticulture students. Research and documentation of each seed is mandatory before the plants are to be propagated. Along with paperwork labels involving the botanical name, numerical tag identification, and date of sowing all the way to its day of transplant. This allows the sharing and spread of rare and unusual seeds for research and conservation aspects. Unless stated otherwise a majority of these seeds must go through a stratification process of which before germination are placed in cold temperatures to spark the breaking of the outer seed shell and promote the growth of the seed. During this time they must be kept watered and watched for growth until they can upgrade and be moved to the germination chamber where the environment is specifically designed to encourage root development of seeds.

It is very important to keep track of all seeds that arrive and leave the greenhouse. The product ID, where it originated and the date must all be present in order to certify the “birth certificate” of this plant. Without a proper indication of the purpose of the seed and its original sowing date this plant cannot be legally classified as part of a Botanical Garden. There is a database that is shared around the world that can be updated and legality of seeds can be reviewed.

Multiple Canna varieties were separated and planted individually to restart the growth process. During the winter these rhyzomes go dormant and are placed in a hibernated state buried naked under the warm soil. The coming of spring indicates that these perennial bulbs are ready to re-uptake nutrients and bloom once again. This process involves digging up surviving bulbs, separating and potential viable bulb growths and replanting them with the sprout upwards towards the sky.

Even the indoor tropical planters at Fanshawe are getting ready for Spring through makeovers. In preparation for the Hydrangea crop’s bloom these containers were modified to be able to show them off in all their glory. New Hoya transplants were planted as filler to add to the diversity and texture of this planter overall. Soon the bright new blooms with brighten the hallways of Fanshawe College.

Integrated Pest Management is key to sustaining a healthy crop. Maintaining a sanitized work station and keeping a steady review of the yield allows one to manage the possibility of a pest infestation. Appropriate Personal Protective Equipment must be worn when applying. This weekend consisted of the proper pruning back of 4” annual pots, which in turn involved the correct practices of applying different pest management techniques. Upon which the sanitation and application to correct these possible pests from invading and damaging any further. The potted stock plants that had matured were placed into hanging baskets to further be propagated and used throughout the college.

As the Hydrangea crop grows so does its need for water and fertilizer. This involves different E.C and pH rates in order to specify the colour of the bloom. Each variety involves specific mixtures of nutrients and each are watered differently due to the specifics of the cultivar. This involves a strict agenda and note schedules in order to stay connected to the other actions in the greenhouse. These blooms are brighter than ever and will soon be available to the public.

2019-02-26T08:51:00.002-08:00

Spring Is In the Air
Fanshawe College Greenhouse Weekend Duty
February 22-24, 2019
Carlee H. and Felix C.

Despite all of the freezing rain and ice covering the city, spring is poking its head around the corner. The Fanshawe greenhouse has been hard at work preparing for the incoming warmer seasons. If you happen to come into the greenhouse for a visit you’ll notice that we’re getting pretty full with a nice variety of different plants, almost all of our benches have something interesting to see.

Spring is a busy time for us here at the greenhouse and it takes a lot of preparation. Now is when we start watering our overwintering plants such as our Cannas and Alocasias that had been cut back and stored in the late fall seasons, starting the watering now will have them ready for transplanting into outdoor planters around the school in the spring and summer months. We have also started to see some orders come in from some of our contract customers, such as the Western Fair. For this, students have been busy crafting hanging baskets of Petunias and Dichondra that will look beautiful as they start to fill in more, currently in their baby stages they admittedly look a little bit silly.

The cuttings that we took from parent plants such as different species of Coleus, Geranium, Begonia, etc. back in the fall are filling out nicely and a lot of them have been transplanted in groups of threes into larger hanging baskets where they will continue filling out in preparation for the Summer.

Our hydrangeas are now at the stage where their flowers are beginning to show colour and it has been an incredible experience to watch this develop, the amount of colour from one day to the next can be quite a drastic difference throughout some of the plants. Interestingly, our pink variety of hydrangeas is developing its colour faster than our blue varieties, we have yet to see any of the blue colouring on our plants at this point in time but it should be popping out soon, we are waiting patiently and full of anticipation.

Along with all of the beautiful, ornamental plants mentioned above, we also have a variety of vegetable and bean seedlings being germinated and grown in the greenhouse at the moment. Beans are incredibly quick to sprout and grow, they can make great beginner plant projects for children and adults alike. Over this past weekend we transplanted our cucumber seedlings into larger pots as most have produced their first “true leaf” and will require more space for their root development. Fun fact: The roots of cucumber plants smell like their delicious fruit.
There is so much greenery and life inside the greenhouse at the moment, the air is beautiful. It is a refreshing break from all of the harsh cold (or extreme rain) we’ve still been experiencing outside. We encourage students, staff and surrounding communities to stop in, stroll through and enjoy all of the exciting colours with us. Though the hydrangeas aren’t at the stage which they’re available for purchase just yet we’re working hard to get them there for you. While you wait, we do still have a variety of interesting succulents available for purchase, or if you’d like more than one we’d be happy to assemble a custom succulent planter for you, stop by we may even have on pre-made that captures your heart. Whether a single succulent or one of our custom multi-succulent planters, both will spruce up your desk or coffee table and add a little spring to your space.

2019-02-14T09:57:00.001-08:00

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.

2019-02-14T09:47:00.001-08:00

Hydrangea Weekend Duty

Nicole and Adam

Friday February, 1

Alas the final greenhouse weekend duty arrived. I and Nicole enthusiastically arrive to the greenhouse with nothing but hydrangeas on our minds. We greeted a very happy Jeff, who gave us a brief rundown of what we needed to know before sending us off on our way. Since we’ve been in this program for a while we were feeling pretty prepared for the weekend duty this time round. We started off of course with our opening check list, than checked the germination chamber. Watered everything including the hydrangeas for 15 minutes. I then sprang over to scrub down bench one whilst Nicole made and corrected the inventory list. I then whipped up 3 new batches of fertilizer. I Mixed 10 litres of Rosa Vanilla Sky 21-7-7 at 200PPM, then mixed 5 Litres of interior landscape fertilizer at 21-7-7 100PPM and finally mixed 20Liters of Early Blue fertilizer 12-0-44 at 200PPM. Jeff assisted me with my calculations just to be safe. We have to use multiple fertilizers for this crop because some of the hydrangeas need a lower pH while others need a higher pH. I will talk about this in more detail tomorrow. Anyway we than made ample amounts of cuttings from the 4 inch pots, and stock basket plants. This took longer than expected due to so many of the plants in the 4 inch pots such as the Tradescantia fluminensis (Inch Plant), and the Senecio magrogioasus (Flowering Ivy) having to be cut back drastically. We ended off our beautiful work day by making 4 pristine valentine planters which all got sold before we left for the day. We made these valentine planters by using a glass heart shaped container. Filling the bottom with fine gravel, using succulent/cacti media to put our succulents in, and then placing moss around the small succulents which were craftily placed within the heart containers. We ended our work day with the closing check list, and doing a small cleanup of the greenhouse. Today was a lot of fun, it was nice to keep busy in a nice relaxing atmosphere.

Saturday, February, 2

It was another cloudy morning as we arrived to the greenhouse for day two of our endeavour. When we arrived we opened up the green house and checked the germination chamber. To my pleasant surprise many of the seeds that had been put in on Wednesday had germinated. So I set out the trays with the germinated seeds out on bench one, and put clear covers on top in order to keep the trays moist. I than went around the greenhouse and took E.C/pH readings from each cultivar of hydrangea we have in the crop. The current cultivars of hydrangeas at Fanshawe are Vanilla Sky, Rosa, Tivoli, and Early Blue. Early Blue and Tivoli hydrangeas require a pH of 4.5 to 5.5 to reach their desired color while Vanilla sky and Rosa hydrangeas require a pH of 5.5 to 6.5 to reach their desired color. This reality makes pH testing extra critical for this kind of crop. Unfortunately this weekend when the pH was measured it was far too high. Having a pH to high means less nutrients the plant wants will be available, it also means that the desired color we want our hydrangeas to be is less likely to occur. A few things that can be done to decrease pH is add organic materials such as peat moss, or you could add aluminum sulfate or some sulfur supplements to your soil as well. Another unfortunate result out of this testing was that the EC readings were too low. An EC reading shows approximately how many nutrients are available to the plant. The EC levels can be bumped up by fertilizing. While I was pH/EC testing Nicole continued with the begonia cuttings. I than set up the valentine planters, than went out to the school to water the plants in the library, and the 3 large ones just outside of the library. When I got back from the school, I put succulents into the 8 valentine planters set up, and Nicole layered them with moss. When I started printing off tags for my cuttings I noted that many of the labels had a question marks on it instead of the Fanshawe logo. So I very tediously went through and replaced nearly all the labels with ones having the Fanshawe logo on it. After that we packed up and left, feeling very accomplished for having a very successful day 2 on our weekend duty.

Sunday, February, 3

We arrived for our last day determined to finish off this weekend duty going along strong. We designated this day as our main cleanup day. When we arrived we opened up, and checked the germination chamber again. It was low on water so we filled it up, and to my surprise there were many more trays full of seeds which had germinated, so I put those trays out on bench one with the clear covers on those trays as well. Nicole cleaned under the side bench in the greenhouse while I attempted to go on a compost run. Unfortunately when I drove out for the compost run, I got stuck in the snow out in the soccer field. So I had to dig the RTV out, and return back to the greenhouse without dumping any compost. When I did get back to the greenhouse I cleaned the floor in the tractor bay, then the main room, and then cleaned the entire floor in the greenhouse meticulously making sure to get everything. I also went around the greenhouse cleaning things that made the place look more dirty. Things such as the grey heating vents, and the middle section of the main table in the main room. Towards the end of the day we worked on the insect/disease monitoring report, filled in the culture chart, and added the cuttings we made to the inventory list. We than spot watered any hydrangeas that may have been missed, and then closed down the greenhouse. We left feeling confident and proud of ourselves in completing another successful weekend duty.

2018-12-04T07:06:00.003-08:00

Greenhouse Weekend Duty Blog

November 30 - December 2, 2018

Rob and Adam

Friday:

It was a cool cloudy morning, as we pulled up to the Fanshawe Greenhouse, we felt very nervous for our first day, as we wanted more than anything in the world to leave the greenhouse better than when we arrived, and to impress Sue with our talented efforts. When we arrived, Jeff Rowley greeted us and gave us the low down on what we had to do and the protocols to follow for the weekend. We had a list for the weekend, and many other task we wanted to get done. After Jeff walked us through our stuff Rob did the open checklist, and I reconfigured the poinsettias and cleaned up most of the leaves.

Throughout the day we had a slow but steady stream of customers requesting a variety of things from Christmas planters to succulents. After we reconfigured the poinsettias, we hung up the Asparagus Ferns in the pots along the roof above the main aisle way in the greenhouse. I then did a hard pinch on the first bench, took cutting off of the succulents, and really cleaned off the benches. I cleaned out the dead plants from bench one and transplanted 6 plants out of the propagation house to 4 inch pots. Afterwards we cleaned up, and Jeff showed us how to shut down the cash register, and how to properly count up the money. At the end of our first day of the weekend duty we had accomplished a lot, and felt quite accomplished with what we had got done. We had sold around $500 dollars in poinsettias, and had got done many of the task Sue had given us prior to our weekend duty.

Saturday:

It was yet another cool cloudy morning as we began the second day of our weekend duty. Rob performed the opening checklist while I opened the blackout curtains and continued to reconfigure poinsettias. I decided to thoroughly reconfigure the poinsettias which ended up clearing off two benches entirely. We than took all the emitters off of one of the benches and thoroughly cleaned them through.

Today we still had a flow of customers, but much less than on the Friday. After the emitters got cleaned I made up two Christmas baskets as a request from yesterday.

In the afternoon we helped out some customers, hand watered everything in the greenhouse, put the emitters back, than packed up, and cleaned up the greenhouse. I closed the cash register which became quite the process, while Rob closed the blackout curtains. We earned roughly $250 in sales today, and completed a number of tasks that needed doing. We than headed home after another successful day at the greenhouse.

Sunday:

Finally a sunny morning, smiled upon us as me and Rob happily pulled up to the greenhouse for our final day of weekend duty. Another work day never felt so good, as the sun shined down on our beautiful faces. We rolled into the greenhouse amped up as we did our opening routine. I performed the opening check list whilst Rob flew through the Greenhouse opening up the shade curtains, and cash register. Once we opened up the greenhouse we took a look at our list and felt that we didn’t have much left to do, so we decided to go above and beyond the call of duty and do more than what was on our list so we can make the greenhouse the best it has ever been. I walked around the greenhouse, and not only picked up the bottles and garbage around but also weeded the front, and the nursery area in the back. Rob and I than thoroughly cleaned out the greenhouse from top to bottom. We wiped down everything in the main room, cleaned the greenhouse floor until it was spotless, washed down the RTV, and even washed down the floor in the RTV room. With all this cleaning being performed, we began to panic as we felt our efforts were becoming meaningless. Rob decided he’d create the culture chart, and take pH/E.C readings for every cultivar. I also cleaned out another table of emitters.

During the afternoon we re-configured the poinsettias, cleaned off every bench, further inspected the crop for pests, and then did our typical closing procedures.

When 5 o'clock struck we looked at each other with dread in our eyes, the fact that we weren’t coming on Monday for another full work day broke our hearts. My hope is that when everyone else comes back to the Greenhouse, they well be thoroughly impressed by the work we accomplished, and the improved atmosphere will be a better place for everyone to work in continuing forward.

2018-11-26T10:18:00.003-08:00

Weekend greenhouse blog - Carlee and Harrison

November 23-25, 2018

With the week beginning with chilly snowy weather, we arrived at the greenhouse on Friday morning with a warmer breeze in the air. We arrived at 7:50 and began getting organized to accomplish the specific set of tasks we had been assigned. Jeff gave us an outline of what was expected of us for the weekend and answered the questions that we had for him. He also informed us that there was probably going to be lots of sales because he had been noticing larger and larger numbers of customers throughout the week. He also gave us a list of poinsettia deliveries that needed to be done. We then jumped into starting our opening checklist. I began opening the blackout curtains while Carlee walked the crop, inspected for any problems in the greenhouse and determined if the crop needed watering by feeling the soil. We then checked the culture chart to see if the poinsettias had been watered with fertilizer. We determined that it did need to be watered with fertilizer so Carlee began mixing 5L of all-purpose 20-20-20 fertilizer at 250 ppm. We activated the dosatron and as I checked the drip lines to ensure all the poinsettias were getting watered, Carlee began creating custom planters. After I was done examining the drip lines and repairing the broken lines I found, I began to prepare for sales. I placed the two signs out, grabbed the cart with the wreaths and checked to ensure we had a one-hundred dollar float. A couple minutes after we started getting a large number of customers coming into the greenhouse, we then spent a good majority of our time helping customers and wrapping poinsettias while also simultaneously trying to work away at our tasks. In the afternoon on Friday I began delivering roughly 21 poinsettias to two separate offices on campus while Carlee kept making sales and working on custom planters for customers.

As the day began to draw to a close we started to clean up, finished up the closing checklist and cashed out our sales.

We arrived at the greenhouse on Saturday with a dark gloom of showers outside. We started by walking the crop and opening the blackout curtains. We then did the E.C and pH readings which can be found in our poinsettia culture chart. Then I began moving the valentine from the last bench to a more centered spot in the greenhouse.

Then I moved 23 Christmas Wish Red and 22 Marbella which are for delivery in December to the last bench.

While Harrison rearranged the poinsettias inside the greenhouse, I set to work trying to assemble the large wreath for Cuddy’s, this turned out to be much more difficult than I had anticipated and will more than likely need some 3rd party adjustments. It also took up a majority of the day. While I plucked away at the wreath Harrison was busy making some ornaments to be used on the smaller wreaths, and turning cuttings from 4” pots in to stock baskets.
After lunch we did our interiorscape and planted some poinsettias into the planters out front of the bookstore to help advertise them in the greenhouse. We wanted to use some of our more unique cultivars like ‘Red Glitter’ and ‘Marbella’ but with the combination of sales and orders the unique cultivars are dwindling quickly. The rest of the day was spent battling the large wreath, making some stock baskets and tidying up.

Sunday came and went with a moderate pace. We came in and opened more quickly than before having gotten used to the routine over the previous couple days. While Harrison spot watered anything that looked overly dry, I spent the morning reorganizing some of the sale succulents and poinsettia standards and minis on the unmoving, perimeter bench. As previously mentioned, the ‘Red Glitter’ and ‘Marbella’ Poinsettias are lowering in numbers but we do still have quite a few of the interesting ‘Valentine’ Poinsettias, which look like a mix between a poinsettia and a rose bush.

During Harrison’s reorganization over the weekend we were able to bring some of the ‘Valentine’ poinsettias closer to the front of the greenhouse in hopes that these special guys will get some more attention. Harrison and I took some time in the afternoon to move some of the cuttings from our germination station and put them into 4” pots to be used later for our stock baskets. After lunch we both made an attempt at putting together some wreaths which we will have available for sale in the greenhouse along with the others that are already complete.

Overall it was a good weekend in the greenhouse and one of the last greenhouse weekend duties for our class this semester. We are beyond excited and proud to see our poinsettia crop selling as well as they have been so far and hope they continue to do so. Our class has put a lot of time, effort and most importantly love into these plants, and we are so excited to share them with you.