The Glass Prism

Pests: This week I found 17 fungus gnats on my sticky card, 2 flies, 21 thrips, and 4 unknown insects. I think that these unknown insects could possibly be thrips but they are dark instead of orange as the rest of the thrips I counted. I looked on the insect chart to identify them but could not come to any conclusion.

Nutrition: We did not take any EC/ pH measurements this week. There are only two types of water being used on the plants, however, plain water and the mums are receiving 200ppm 20-10-20 water.

Growth: The Tango Dark Red Zonal Geranium was 18.5 cm high and 24 cm wide. The Sophie Cascade Ivy Geranium was 23 cm high and 53 cm wide. The ‘Miramar’ Chrysanthemum was 20 cm high and 36 cm wide. Finally the Snapdragon Mix was 82 cm high and 45 cm wide. 

Cultural Treatments: This week was very limited on what I did with my crops. The bench is getting much less crowded now. I looked at my Ipomoea, in my Mixed Container, to see if it needed trimming out of the center of the pot, in order to let the other plants grow. However, I found there was no problem and no need to trim it. Many of the seedlings were taken home, including the tomatoes, cosmos and alyssum. I transplanted 2 basil cells to 4.5” pots and took home the other 4 basil plants. The peppers were thinned to 1 seedling per cell and the petunias were thinned to 3 seedlings per cell but both remain on my bench in the greenhouse. I picked out 2 huechera pots and placed them on my bench as well. There is a problem with one of my Geraniums. It leaves are turning orange. I’m not really sure why this is happening. Maybe there is a root rot problem or nutritional problem.

I love taking all of the plants home. Now I just hope they all keep growing so beautifully outside! 

Pests: Since I didn’t get to count insects over Spring Break this week I found 18 fungus gnats, 16 thrips, and 2 flies. That means there were 4 more thrips, 14 more fungus gnats and the 2 flies new.

Nutrition: I measured the pH and EC for the Snapdragons and Boston Jr. Fern. The pH for the Snapdragons was 7.15 and EC was 0.75. The pH for the Boston Jr. Ferns was 7.3 and EC was 0.65.

Growth: All of my plants have grown so much over the last 2 weeks. My Tango Dark Red Zonal Geranium is 15.5 cm high and 25 cm wide. The Sophie Cascade Ivy Geranium is 21 cm high and 50 cm wide. The ‘Miramar’ Chrysanthemum is 19 cm high and 35.5 cm wide. Finally, the Snapdragon mix is 64 cm high and 45 cm wide.

Cultural Treatments: This week there was so much to see with my plants. It is amazing how much they all grew over just one week of Spring Break. For my Mums I did Central Bud Removal on both the Roanoke and Miramars. I did though choose one plant and disbudded all of the buds other than the main bud. I disbudded the Heliotrope in the Mixed Container as well. I thinned out the Marigolds to one per cell and then sprayed them with B-nine 2500 ppm. For the other seedlings I also thinned out, leaving only one seedling per cell for the tomatoes, peppers, and cosmos but leaving 3 per cell for the basil and petunias. The alyssum is supposed to have only 5 seedlings per cell now but due to the fact that my alyssum is so small, it was difficult to make sure that only 5 remained, so I will need to go back and thin out the alyssum again. The Zinnias are coming along nicely and were disbudded. But most excitingly I got to take home my Easter Lilies, Azaleas and Chives. The Easter Lilies need to be emasculated as their buds open to remove the pollen.  

I just loved coming back into the greenhouse for the first time after Spring Break and seeing so much color! It was so neat and I loved getting to show my family some of the beautiful plants I am growing. They all really loved the Easter Lilies and couldn’t believe the difference in quality from my plants and plants they normally see in stores.

Pests: This week I counted 4 fungus gnats and 12 thrips on my sticky card. That would mean that there are…. new insects on the card.

Nutrition: The pH measured for the Tango Dark Red Zonal Geranium was 6.97 and EC measured 0.8. The pH measured for the Roanoke Mum was 6.67 and the measured EC was 0.8.  

Growth: The height for the Tango Dark Red Zonal Geranium was 13 cm and the width was 24. The height for the Sophie Cascade Ivy Geranium was 21 cm and the width was 46 cm. The height for the ‘Miramar’ Chrysanthemum was 15 cm and the width was 30 cm. The height for the Snapdragon mix was 42 cm and the width was 42 cm. The height for the Rudbeckia was 5 cm and width was 16 cm.

Cultural Treatments: This week I planted two new types of pots. I planted Rudbeckia ‘Indian Summer,’ one plug per 1-qt. nursery container in 4 different pots. I used Sunshine #1 media and watered the plants with 200ppm 20-10-20. Two pots were placed on my bench while 2 were placed on another bench where they will receive LD night interruption lighting. This is an experiment to find out whether the plants respond better the LD lighting or not. I also planted a vegetative annual mixed container. Using the Sunshine #1 mix and a 10” decorative pot I planted one rotted cutting of ‘Margarita’ Ipomoea, ‘Nagano’ Heliotropium, ‘Rustic Orange’ Coleus, ‘Angelface Blue’ Angelonia and ‘Tequila Sunrise’ Calibrachoa. I also thinned out my seedlings with scissors choosing the healthiest and most mature to remain. I tied another support grid for my Snapdragons and disbudded all of the Geraniums. For the Ivy Geraniums this was the last time they will be disbudded. I removed the Azalea blind shoots and measured the buds for the Easter Lilies. The buds according to the chart will bloom in 4 days.

Since all of this was done before Spring Break I am sure that my Easter Lilies have already bloomed and my Azaleas were all starting to bloom before I left as well. I can’t wait to see all of the new color on my bench! 

Pests: There were 10 thrips and 3 fungus gnats on my sticky card this week.

Nutrition: This week we changed the fertilizer for the chives, ivy geraniums, geraniums, and snapdragons to 200ppm 20-10-20. I also measured the pH and EC for my Miramar Mums and Avendia Geraniums. The average pH for the Miramar Mums was 6.27. The average EC for the Miramar Mums was 1.8. The average pH for the Avendia Geraniums was 6.93. The average EC for the Avendia Geraniums was 0.88.

Growth: The height and width for the Tango Deep Red Zonal Geraniums this week was 12.5 cm and 22.5 cm. The height and width for the Sophie Cascade Ivy Geraniums was 21 cm and 36.5 cm. The height and width for the
Miramar mum was 14.5 cm and 30 cm. The height and width for the Snapdragon mix was 36 cm and 36 cm. We also planted Zinnias this week and the height and width for that plant was 3 cm and 7 cm.

Cultural Treatments: This week we planted seeds and plugs. We sowed 1 6-pack of tomato, cosmos, basil, petunia, ornamental pepper, and alyssum all with Metro Mix 200 media. The tomato, cosmos, and basil seeds were covered over lightly with media while the petunia, ornamental pepper, and alyssum were left uncovered. All were then placed together by plant type on a bench in greenhouse B and covered with plastic to help with germination of the seeds. I also planted Durango Tangerine Marigolds in a flat with the Metro Mix 200 media, covered lightly with media. These were also put under the plastic to help with germination. I planted Zinnia ‘Profusion White’ with one plug per 5-inch pot, having a total of 4 pots. I used Sunshine #1 media and these will be watered with 200ppm 20-10-20. Then I removed flower buds and dead leaves from the Geraniums, removed blind shoots from the Azaleas, and tied a string grid for the support of the Snapdragons. I also measured the Easter Lilies which should bloom in 11 days and rotated the pots of the lilies because they are leaning for some reason.

All in all there is good growth for each of my plants and I am so excited to have all these different types of plants.

Pests: There were no new pests on my sticky card this week for some reason. I did however change my card so that next week I will have a fresh count. 

Nutrition: The pH and EC of the Sophie Cascade Ivy Geraniums and Easter Lilies were measured this week. For the Geraniums I measured an average pH of 6.7 and an average EC of 0.87. For the Easter Lilies I measure an average pH of 6 and an average EC of 1.6. 

Growth: This week the Tango Dark Red Zonal Geranium measured 11cm in height and 18 cm in width. The Sophie Cascade Ivy Geraniums measured 19 cm in height and 36 cm in width. The Miramar Chrysanthemum measured 13 cm in height and 24 in width. The Snapdragon mix measured 31 cm in height and 34.5 cm in width. This shows that overall there has been growth for all the plants. 

Cultural treatments:  This week I sprayed my mums with B-nine in 2500 ppm. The geraniums were also all sprayed but with Florel 350ppm. Before spraying they were all disbudded and dead leaves were removed. For the Snapdragons I tied string grids for support, as they were becoming more floppy and not straight. I removed blind shoots from the Azaleas. I also measured the buds for the Easter lilies, which according to the graph should bloom in 19 days.  I want my flowers to all bloom! At least the Easter lilies I can tell are getting closer but I feel like the other plants are taking so long to flower.

Pests: This week I counted 6 new fungus gnats, 1 fly, and 6 thrips on my sticky card. The bench next to me had a considerable amount of thrips supposedly. I don’t know if this has something to do with me having thrips as well or not.

Nutrition: I measured the EC and pH for my Snapdragons and Boston Jr. Ferns this week. The Boston Jr. Ferns had an average pH of 6.25 and an average EC of 1.7. The average pH of the Snapdragons was 6.3 and the average EC was 3.3 but of the 3 Snapdragons that were measured the EC of 2 were in the 4 range while the third was 1.5. Also, last Monday the mums were leeched in order to lower the EC of the mums. While I didn’t measure the EC of any of my mums this week, supposedly the EC levels were lower after the leeching. The Azaleas, new this week, are to be watered with plain water.

Growth: For some reason all of my plants seem smaller in their width this week. This could be due to measuring a different width of the plant, and perhaps not seeing the widest area but also some like the ivy geraniums were pinched, possibly reducing their width. The Tango geranium measured 15.5 cm high and 12 cm wide. The Sophie geranium measured 20 cm high and 34 cm wide. The
Miramar mum measured 10 cm high and 22 cm wide. The Snapdragons measured 24 cm high and 32 cm wide. Also this week I got 3 new Azalea plants. The height of one was 21cm and the width was 41.5 cm.

Cultural Treatments: This week we received new Azaleas. I picked out 1 Prize, 1 Scarlet and 1 Remembrance Azalea plant. The dead, fallen leaves were removed from the pots and the blind shoots were removed. I moved my Mums from Greenhouse B and placed them on my own bench. Short days will now start and night interruption lighting will stop. The Ivy geraniums received a soft pinch on the main branch of each plant and the hangers were attached to each pot. All the geraniums were disbudded as usual. The Easter lilies were measured for visible bud and I found that my Easter lilies will bloom in about 27 days. A Gnatrol sprench to control fungus gnat larvae was applied to all the Easter lilies at the rate 32oz/100gal. All the plants were spaced out on my bench to allow for the best growth. Because of the presence of aphids and thrips all the plants, except the ferns and chives, were sprayed with a mix of Azatin and Decathlon.  Azatin was used at the rate of 16oz/100gal and Decathlon was used at a rate of 1.9oz/100gal.   Azatin is an insect growth regulator and controls the nymph stages of aphids as well as the pupal and larvel stages of thrips.  Decathlon is a synthetic pyrethroid that controls the nymph and adult stages of aphids, adult and larval stages of thrips, and the adult stages of fungus gnats.

I can’t wait for the flowering of all of my plants. Some of the Azaleas were already flowering on other people’s plants. I am especially excited for all the different color blossoms instead of just green.

This week, in addition to taking care of the plants we already have we planted some onion chives.

Pests- This week I counted 16 fungus gnats. Subtracting those from last week, I have a new count of 13 for this week.

Nutrition- This week I measured the EC and pH for the Tango Zonal Geraniums and the Roanoke Mums. The average EC for the Geraniums was 1.7 and the average pH was 6.2. The average EC for the Mums was beyond what the scale measured, more than 5, and the pH was 5.78. We did not discuss what we were going to do about the EC being so high. However we did discuss the possibility of leeching out the salts with plain water.

Growth- This week all of my plants seem to have grown a great deal. The height and width of the Tango Dark Red Zonal Geranium was 11.7 cm and 25 cm respectively. The height and width of the Sophie Cascade Ivy Geranium was 14 cm and 32.5 cm. The height and width of the Miramar Chrysanthemum was 7 cm and 23.4 cm. The height and width of the Snapdragon Mix was 18 cm and 35.7 cm. The height and width of the onion chives was 10.5 cm and 11.5 cm.

Cultural Treatments- We planted 4 pots of onion chives this week. For each pot we planted 5 cuttings evenly spaced in 4.5” pots with Sunshine #1 media and they were watered in with plain water and then fertilized with 200ppm 15-16-17. The Ivy geranium baskets were sprayed with Florel 350ppm after all flower bud and dead leaves were removed. It is because the zonal geraniums tend to grow towards their first bloom, causing the plant to appear lopsided and uneven that the flower buds were removed. For the mums each pot was pinched just above the 7^th node and the dead leaves were removed as well and will be studied for mold and fungus over the next week or so. The mums are still separate from my other plants, receiving night interruption lighting. The geraniums were spaced this week and their flower buds and dead leaves were also removed. In addition they were also sprayed with Florel 350ppm. The snapdragons pots were tied with a string grid for support for the plants as they grow, trying to have the plants spaced evenly, with about 1 plant per grid square. In addition the snapdragons were also moved outside this week. The plants also received preventative treatment for infestation of some of the most common greenhouse insects, with Marathon, and infection of the most common root rot diseases, with Banrot, on the 4^th of February. The zonal geraniums, mums, and Easter lilies all received 1/3 tsp/pot of Marathon and the ivy geraniums received 2/3 tsp/pot. The granular systemic insecticide was applied to the media surface and then watered in. The geraniums, mums, Easter lilies, snapdragons, and ferns were all treated with Banrot, a systemic fungicide drench, applied at 8 oz/100 gal.

I am getting excited about having all of these different types of plants and I can’t wait for all of the flowers to be in bloom.

Pests: I counted 3 fungus gnats on my sticky card this week. However, I came by on Monday and noticed that even though there were many bugs flying around my plants there were none on my sticky card and so I adjusted the card to be located closer to my plants. Therefore the count of the bugs could be rather low and inaccurate regarding the actual number of pests on my plants.

Nutrition: I measured the EC/pH of the Sophie Ivy Geranium and Easter Lily. The average EC measured for the Sophie Ivy Geranium was 3.375 mS/cm. The pH for the Sophie Ivy Geranium measured 5.8. The average EC measured for the Easter Lily was 1.25 mS/cm. The average pH measured 5.37. In order to be able to take these measurements the plants were watered with fertilizer 1 hour prior to the lab and then I watered them with plain water so that I could take a sample of the water to measure the EC and pH.

Growth: All of my plants which were planted last week have grown in some manner. Some grew both in height and width, but some only grew in width and “shrunk” in height. I think this “shrinking” is due to the fact that I added media to some of the pots to fill in the holes created by watering and also the fact that the rulers do not begin at 0.0. Since the measurement marking starts a little further up the ruler, not at the tip, it makes it difficult to get accurate readings. The first week I think I probably pushed down more into the soil to get the measurements but this week I was more careful, not wanting to harm the plant its new roots. This week the width of the Roanoke Mum was 26 cm and the height was 12 cm. The width of the Miramar Mum geranium was 19.5 cm and the height was 8 cm. The width of the Tango Deep Red geranium was 11.6 cm and the height was 7.6 cm. The width of the Avendia Mosaic Red geranium was 13.5 cm and the height was 18 cm. The width of the Sophie Cascade ivy Geranium was 30 cm and the height was 13 cm. The width of the Easter Lily was 24 cm and the height was 25 cm. Since I planted some ferns and snapdragons, I have many new starting widths and heights. The starting width of the Southern Maidenhair Fern is 5.3 cm while the starting height is 10.4 cm. The starting width of the Rosy Maidenhair Fern is 12 cm while the starting height is 4.5 cm. The starting width of the Emerald Vase Fern is 11.2 cm while the starting height is 9.5 cm. The starting width of the Boston Junior Fern is 17.4 cm while the starting height is 7.5 cm. The starting width of the snapdragon pot is 35.6 cm, the width of the pot. The starting height is 13 cm.

Cultural Treatments: This week we planted some fern cultivars and some snapdragon cultivars. I planted 2 pots of each 4 cultivars of fern, including ‘Boston Junior’, ‘Emerald Vase Fern’, ‘Southern Maidenhair Fern’, and ‘Rosy Maidenhair Fern.’ For each pot I planted 1 plug in the center of the 5” pot with the top of the base being even with the media, not buried underneath the soil. The media used was SunShine LC1 which has no vermiculite and therefore has better drainage. The ferns were watered in with clear water, which they are also watered with during the week. However on the weekend they were watered with 200ppm 20-10-20. These plants do need shade but as I was given no directions on any special treatment for them they are just arranged on my bench.

I also planted 2 pots of Snapdragons. I used 5 cultivars, Potomac Appleblossom, Cherry Rose, Early Orange, Early Pink, and Early Rose. I potted 2 of each cultivar in each of the 2 pots, interspersing them throughout the pots, evenly spaced. There were a total of 10 plugs in each 14” pot. I used the Sunshine #1 media and watered them with 200ppm 15-16-17. I also cut down two tomato cages and placed one in each pot for support for the plants as they grow.

This week I disbudded and removed brown leaves from the geraniums and added media to a few of the pots which had hole in the media, probably just due to watering.

In class we also counted the leaves of an Easter Lily. We determined that 59 leaves had unfolded which when we divide this number by the number of days from emergence to now, 45, we find that 1.3 leaves unfold per day. Also the number of leaves yet to unfold is 24 which when divided by the number of days until visible bud, 16, we find that we need for 1.5 leaves to unfold per day from now on if we want to meet our target market date, which is a week before Easter. However, in class we determined that since we just want our Easter Lilies to flower for Easter, not before, since we are not marketing them, we will probably not adjust the temperature in the greenhouse, which would make the leaves unfold at a faster rate.

January 28, 2008

Pests:  Because this week was the first week in the greenhouse, I placed a new sticky card out, hung right above my plants, in order to catch insects and pests, which I will be able to count next week.

Nutrition:  The zonal geraniums, which include the cultivars “Tango Deep Red” and “Avendia Mosaic Red,” as well as the ivy geranium, cultivar “Sopie Cascade,” were watered with the 200ppm 15-16-17 fertilizer . 

There was a misunderstanding and I accidentally watered the Easter Lilies with the 200ppm 15-16-17 fertilizer. These, however, should be watered with the 200 ppm 15-0-15 fertilizer.

The Chrysanthemums were watered with 300ppm 20-10-20 fertilizer.  I have been notified that from now on they will be watered with 400ppm 20-10-20 instead.