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In this week’s lab, we reviewed for our exam and studied the changes that have occured to the mums.  Also, no EC/pH readings were taken on any plants.  This week I took home my tomatos, cosmos, alyssum, and basil six packs.  A new plant that was already potted up in a 4.5″ pot was placed on my bench, this plant is called Huechera.   

This week I found a few new pests on my sticky card.  There were four new thrips added to the others from previous weeks. 

All plants had a good growth increase over the past week.  They all look healthy and are continuing to grow at a good rate.  The Tango Zonal Geranium was at a new height of 17.5cm and a width of 25cm.  This plant had an increase of 1cm in height and 2cm in width.  The Sophie Cascade Ivy Geranium grew 1cm in height and 17cm in width.  It is at a new height of 27cm and a width of 80cm.  The Miramar Mum has grown 2.5cm in height and 5cm in width in the past week.  The Mum is now standing at 22.5cm in height and 40cm in width.  The Snapdragon Mix is at a new height of 88.5cm and at a width of 47cm.  From last week the mix has grown to 16.5cm in height and 1cm in width.    

There were few cultural treatments made to the plants this week.  One treatment we were to do was to trim the Ipomoea out of the center of the pot.  I also had to trim up one of the leaves of the Heliotropium.  These trimmings were to let light in around the center of the pot.  The peppers were trimmed down to one seedling per cell; while the petunias were to have only three seedlings per cell.  Two basil cells from the six pack were transplanted into two 4.5″ pots and placed on our bench.  All watering requirements are still the same.  

For lab this week, I was able to take home my Easter Lilies, Azaleas, and Chives. Before we left lab, we were shown how to emasculate the Easter Lilies. The Easter Lilies had a final height of 36cm and a width of 30cm. The week we received our Azaleas I took a measurement on the Scarlet Azalea. It had a final height of 35cm and a width of 51cm. I also took a last measurement of the Chives which had a height of 32cm and a width of 11cm.

In lab, I found more pests on my sticky card. There were 11 thrips along with 3 fungus gnats. No pests were seen on or around any of my other plants.

This week I was to take EC/pH readings on the Tango Zonal Geranium and the Roanoke Mum.  The Tango Geranium had an average EC of 2.2 and an average pH of 6.5.  No corrective action needs to be taken on this plant at the time.  The Roanoke Mum had an average EC reading of 4.5 and average pH of 5.8.  The EC reading for the Mum seems to be a little high, but we may want to keep an eye on it in case it remains at this level.  Then we may have to use the leaching process in order to find out why it is this way.

New growth measurements were taken on the four crop portfolio plants this week. There was a great increase in height and width over the last couple of weeks.  The Tango Zonal Geranium grew 2.5cm in height and 4cm in width. It now has a new height of 16.5cm and a width of 23cm.  The Sophie Cascade Ivy Geranium grew 5cm in height and 3cm in width.  This Ivy is now 26cm tall and 63cm wide.  The next plant to be measured was the Miramar Mum, which grew 3cm in height and 5cm in width. Now standing at 20cm in height and 35cm in width.  My Snapdragon Mix is now 72cm in height and 46cm in width.  There was a growth of 26cm in height and 3cm in width. 

This week I had to make some cultural adjustments to a various amounts of plants.  The Zinnias and the Heliotrope were to be disbudded, while only one Mum plant was as well.  The other five Mums were to have center bud removal done on them.  The Marigolds were to be thinned out and sprayed with B-nine at 2500 ppm.  Thinning out was also done on the tomatoes, peppers, and cosmos.  These plants were to have only one seedling per cell.  While the basil and petunias were to have only three seedlings per cell.  The alyssum was to be thinned out to have only five seedling per cell.  The same watering treatments are still being used on all plants at the moment.  

In lab this week, we were able to sow six differents varieties of seeds. The first three sowed were a pack of tomato, cosmos, and basil seeds. Once planted these seeds were then covered with more media. The next set of seeds we planted were the petunia, ornamental pepper, and alyssum. These seeds are to be left uncovered once planted. There were 2 seeds per cell in each six pack that was planted. The media used for these streets was Metro Mix 200. The six packs were seperated by plant type, then placed on a table and covered with plastic.

The next set of plants that I planted were the ’Durango Bolero’ Marigolds. I planted a full flat of this seed type with two seeds per cell. The Metro Mix 200 media was also used with planting these seeds. A light layer of media was also used to cover these seeds once planted.

I also planted four Zinnia ‘Profusion White’. The Zinnia were planted in five inch pots with Sunshine #1 media.   Only one plug was used per pot and they were watered with 20-10-20 at 200ppm. The average height of the Zinnia is 3cm and has a width of 6cm.

This week i found 2 more fungus gnats on my sticky card, along with a tiny spider. Other than that there were the same gnats and thrips from previous weeks.

I took EC/pH readings on two new crops. The first crop I took a reading on was the Sophie Cascade Ivy Geranium. The average reading for the EC was 1.05 and the pH was a 6.4. No corrective action needs to be taken at this time. The second crop I took a reading on was the Easter Lily. The average EC reading was a .96 and the pH was a 7. Although the EC for the Easter Lilies may be a little low, I believe that no corrective steps need to be taken at this time.

I took new height and width measurements on all my crop portfolion plants. The Tango Zonal Geranium grew .5cm in height 1cm in width. It now has a new height of 12cm and width of 18.5cm. The Sophie Cascade Ivy Geranium has grown 1.5cm in height and 5cm in width. This plant now has a new height of 20.5cm and a width of 58cm. The Miramar Geranium grew 2.5cm in height and 1cm in width. There is a new height of 16cm and a width of 28.5cm. The Snapdragon Mix has grown 5cm in height and 2cm in width from last week. The Mix is now 37cm in height and 42cm in width.

In lab, we changed fertilizer rates for many of the plants. The Chives, Geraniums, and Snapdragons are now being fertilized with 20-10-20 at 200ppm. On the Ivy, Miramar, and Roanoke Geraniums I removed all the flower buds and dead leaves.  This week for the Snapdragon Mixes another string grid was to be tied. It was in the same square pattern as the previous week. The blind shoots had to be removed from the three Azalea plants. The Easter Lily pots were to be rotated on the table and the buds were to be remeasured. The longest bud on my Easter Lilies was 9cm, this means there is only 9 to 8 days until they bloom.

This week I found two more bugs on my sticky card. The two bugs that I found were fungus gnats. I still have the fungus gnats from previous weeks, along with the thrips.

I also took new EC/pH readings on some of my plants. The plants that I took these reading on were my Snapdragon Mix and Boston Jr. Fern. The EC average for my Snapdragon Mix was .75 and the pH average was 6.7. The Boston Jr. Fern had an average EC reading of 2.45 and an average pH readings of 6.2. No corrective treatment is needed for these two different varieties of plants.

This week in class there was a good growth increase for all of our plants. The Tango Zonal Geranium had a growth increase of .5cm in height and 2.5cm in width. It has a new height of 11.5cm and 17.5cm. The Sophie Cascade Ivy Geranium had an increasing growth of 1cm in height and 9cm in width. This left me with a new height of 19cm and a new width of 44cm. The Miramar Mum grew 5cm in height and .5cm in width; which leads to a new height of 14.5cm and a width of 27.5cm. The Snapdragon mix grew tremendously. It had an increase in height of 9cm and a width of 4cm. This mix is now 32cm in height and 40cm in width.

In lab this week, we practiced a variety of cultural treatments. For all the mums, Miramar and Roanoke, we sprayed B-nine at 2500ppm. The geraniums received another treatment of pgr Florel at 350ppm. They were disbudded and all dead leaves were removed from each plant. Another string grid was to be tied around our Snapdragon mix. This grid was to be three inches higher than the last grid that was tied. We removed all blind shoots from the three Azalea plants. The Easter Lilies were watered with 200ppm of a 15-0-15 fertilizer, while the Mums were watered with 400ppm of a 20-10-20 fertilizer. The Ferns and Azaleas on my bench received plain water. The Geraniums, Chives, and Snapdragons all were watered at 200ppm with a 15-16-17 fertilizer.

In lab this week, I received three new Azalea plants. The three I chose were the Prize, the Scarlet, and the Pink Angora.

On my sticky card I still had the same seven fungus gnats as last week, along with a new bug. The new insect found on my card was a thrip. It was small with an orange colored body. I counted approximately 32 to 35 thrips.

I also took new EC/pH readings on two different sets of plants this week. The plants that I took the readings on were the Roanoke Mum and the Miramar Mum. The Roanoke Mum had an average EC reading of .6. I thought this reading to be low, but our plants were leached at the beginning of the week. They were leached because the readings on the mums have been high the past couple of weeks. The average pH for the Roanoke Mum was a 6.4. At the moment, I believe no corrective steps should be taken. The Miramar Mum had an average EC reading of 1.3 and an average pH of 6.2. Still, no corrective steps need to be taken on these mums.

This week in lab I took new measurements on my four crop portfolio plants. The Sophie Cascade Ivy Geranium grew 3.5 cm in height and 9 cm in width. This left me with a new height of 18 cm and a width of 44 cm. The next plant I took measurements on was the Tango Zonal Geranium. The geranium grew 1 cm in height and 4.2 cm in width, coming out with a new height of 11 cm and a width of 15cm. I also took the height of the Miramar Mum, which grew 1.5 cm in height and 3 cm in width. This led us back to 9.5 cm in height, because of the pinching, and 27 cm in width. The last measurements taken were on the Snapdragon Mix. The mix grew 6 cm in height and 1 cm in width. The new height of the mix is 23 cm and the width is 36 cm.

I moved both sets of mums, Roanoke and Miramar, back to my bench this week. This was to stop the n.i. lighting and start the SD lighting. On the Sophie Cascade Geranium, a soft pinch was required. The pinch was only taken from the main branch of each of the 6 plants in the pot. Disbudding was also done to the Ivy Geranium, as well as applying our hangers to each of the baskets. For our new Azaleas, we had to do a blind shoot removal. Some of the blind shoots were really small, so I mainly removed most of the noticable larger shoots. On the Easter Lilies, we were to take a measurement of the visible bud if possible. My biggest bud was 3 cm in length, which leaves 25 days to flowering. The average temperature should be set at 70 degrees F. A gnatrol sprench was also applied to the top inch of the soil. This sprench is used to help control fungus gnats.  The bench was also respaced according to a spacing chart. The Ivy Geranium was to have 24 inch centers. While the two other Geraniums, the Mums, the Azaleas, and Easter Lilies were all spaced with 12 inch centers. The ferns and chives were spaced with 6 inch centers.

In lab this week, I planted potted onion chives. There was four 4.5 inch pots that had to be planted. In each pot there were 5 cuttings to be planted. The media used for the onion chives was the sunshine #1 media. The plants were fertilized with 200 ppm with 15-16-17 ratio.

During lab I found seven bugs on my sticky card. These bugs seemed to be fungus gnats. I did not see any bugs flying around my plants though.

I had to take EC/pH readings this week as well. The plants that i had to take these readings on were the Miramar Mum and the Avendia Geranium. The average EC reading for the Miramar Mum was 5. These EC readings on the mums were off the charts, but the book states a mum can have an EC reading that ranges from 5.4 to 6.5. In this case, no steps will have to be taken in order to change the EC readings. The average pH reading for the Miramar Mum was a 5.6. This reading is right around the expected pH for mums. The average EC readings for the Avendia Geranium was a 3.1. The average pH for the geranium was a 5.7. No corrective action was needed for either  EC/pH reading for the geranium.

I took the height and width of the four crops being used in our portfolios and the onion chives. The onion chives had a height of 20 cm with a width of 8.5 cm. The first plant I took a measurement on was the Tango Dark Red Zonal Geranium. The Tango Geranium grew 8 tenths of a cm in height and 2 cm in width from last week. This left us with 10.8 cm in height and 13 cm in width. The Sophie Cascade Ivy Geranium grew 1.5 cm in height and 2 cm in width. The new recording for the Ivy Geranium is 15.5 cm in height and 35 cm in width. The next plant measured was the ‘Miramar’ Chrysanthemum. It was shorter in height than last week, because we pinched these before measuring. It had a height of 8.5 cm and a width of 24 cm, which it grew in width by 4 cm. The Snapdragon Mix was the last plant to be measured, it grew in height by 5 cm and in width by 2 cm. The new measurement of mix is 17 cm in height and 35 cm in width.

This week the Sophie Cascade Ivy Geraniums, the Tango Zonal Geranium, and the Avendia Geranium all had to be disbudded. The dead leaves were also to be removed from these plants. These plants were also sprayed with pgr Florel at 350 ppm. Our Miramar Mums and the Roanoke Mums had to be pinched. Each plant had 7 nodes pinched off of it and we were to remove dead leaves with scissors. The mums were also to continue with the n.i. lighting. The Snapdragon Mixes needed a string grid tied for support. I took two strings across the pot one way and two more crossed those strings going the opposite direction.

This week in lab I planted nine new cultivars of plants. Four of these cultivars were of ferns and five of them were of snapdragons. The different fern cultivars used were ‘Boston Junior’, ‘Emerald Vase Fern’, ‘Southern Maidenhair Fern’, and ‘Rosy Maidenhair Fern’. The ferns were potted in eight different pots, with one plant in each 5 inch pot. The snapdragon cultivars that were planted were Potomac Appleblossom, Cherry Rose, Early Orange, Early Pink, and Early Rose. There was two 14 inch pots used with 10 plugs per pot.  In each pot there were 2 plugs per cultivar in each of the pots. During class we learned the Easter Lily leaf counting demonstration. For this demonstration we found out that we had 59 leaves unfolded from 45 days to selling point. This gave us a rate of  1.3 L/d. We also found out that there were 24 leaves yet to unfold and 16 days to until VB. This told us that we needed unfold 1.5 L/d. We came to the conclusion that we would have to turn up the temperature in order to hit the cut-off day for the Easter Lillies.

I found two pests on my sticky card. These two pests were white flies. I did not see any other pests on the card or around my plants.

This week I had to take EC/pH readings on two different cultivars of plants. The first cultivar of plants was the ’Tango Deep Red’. The EC readings for my three plants were a 8.2, 7.4, and 8.6. This gave me an average of  8.1. The pH readings for the Tango Geranium was 6, 6, and 6; which left me with an average of 6. The second set of readings that I took were on the Roanoke Mum. The EC readings for the three plants were all 5, which left me with an average of 5. These readings were very high for this plant. The pH of these palnts was all 5.8 and had an average of 5.8.

The height of the ‘ Boston Junior’ was 4.5 cm with a width of 23 cm. The ‘Emerald Vase Fern’ had a height of 15 cm and a width of 9 cm. The ‘Southern Maidenhair Fern’ had a height of 3.5 cm and a width of 7 cm. The height of the ‘Rosy Maidenhair Fern’ was of 4.5 cm and a width of 17 cm. The height of one of the snapdragon pots was 11.5 cm and had a width of 33 cm. I also took new height measurements on the plants that were planted last week in lab. The height of the ‘Sophie Cascade’ hanging basket was 14 cm with a width of 33 cm. The planted ‘Tango Deep Red’ had a height of 10 cm with a width of 11 cm. The ‘Avendia Mosaic Red’ had a new height of 15 cm with a width of 23 cm. The Easter Lilies had a height of 24 cm and a width of 22 cm. The height of the  ’Miramar’ mums was 9.5 cm with a width of 20 cm. While the ‘Roanoke’ mums had a height of 14.5 cm with a width of 24.5 cm.

This week we had to disbud all of our geranium plants. This included the ‘Tango Deep Red’, the ‘Avendia Mosaic Red’, and the ‘Sophie Cascade’ hanging basket. I also had to check and remove the brown leaves from these plants if there were any. Staking was used on the two snapdragon pots. I cut 30 cm off the ends of two tomato cages to make sure they fit in the 14 inch snapdragon pots. Our plants were watered for us before class on Wednesday because we had to take EC and pH readings during lab. The only plants that we did water were the ferns and these plants received plain water.  

During the first week of lab I planted 5 different types of plants and received the one set that was already planted. All the plants were planted in an all purpose media mix. I took my first set of measurements of all the plants. I set up my sticky card and prepared my table in the proper set-up, as well as watering them before I left. 

The first set of plants that I planted was the potted mums. There were two different culitivars of mums that were planted. ‘Roanoke’ was the first set of three and ‘Miramar’ was the second set of three to be planted. They were all planted in 6″ in pots. Each pot had five rooted cuttings of equal height in it and were planted in an outward angle position. Once potter the mums were also placed on a seperate table under lights. The ‘Roanoke’ had a height of 13 cm and a width of 23 cm. While the ‘Miramar’ had a height of 8 cm and a width of 18 cm. 

The second set of plants that I planted was the geraniums. There were two cultivars to be planted in this group. The first cultivar was the ‘Tango Deep Red’ and the second cultivar was the ‘Avendia Mosaic Red.’ In this group the ‘Tango Deep Red’ were planted in three 5” pots. The ‘Avendia Mosaic Red’ were planted in three 6″ pots. Only one rooted cutting was used for each of the pots. They were planted in the center of the pot. Once planted they were placed back on our bench. The ‘Tango Deep Red’ had a height of 9 cm and a width of 6.5 cm. The ‘Avendia Mosaic Red’ had height of 12 cm and a width of 14 cm.

The third group of plants that I planted was the potted ivy geraniums. This cultivar was the ‘Sophie Cascade’ and would be planted in 10″ hanging baskets. There were two different hanging baskets with six rooted cuttings in each. They were planted in a triangular shape in the basket. These were also placed back on our bench once planted. One of the hanging baskets was measured and it had a height of 13 cm and a width of 30 cm.

The last group of plants I received that day were Easter Lilies. These were already planted in pots. I got to pick three of these potted plants. They were also placed on our bench, but were not watered because they were watered before. The measurement of one of the Easter Lilies was 19 cm in height and 19 cm in width.    

My name is Randi Nicole Freeman. I am a senior at the university. I am from Freer, TX, which is about 4 to 5 hours south of here. I love to be outdoors! My favorite things to do our to hunt, fish, play sports, or just hang out. I recently learned how to snowboard and it was awesome. I do not have any experience in the greenhouse, but I did work for the Garden Center at Producer’s Cooperative. So, I do know some about plants and other materials. My career goal is to find an awesome job in a Landscape Design and Management industry. I want it to be somewhere where the industry is growing and can allow me to grow as well.