Learn to Grow Crops in a Greenhouse
Extend crop production throughout the year. Study structures for protected cropping, learn how to manage environmental controls, and develop strong practices for growing vegetables, cut flowers, and herbs. Suitable for beginners.
Course Duration: 100 hours
Course Structure
This course consists of 10 lessons.
- Structures For Protected Cropping
- Greenhouses as a business
- Greenhouse system
- Components of a greenhouse facility
- Deciding on what you need
- Siting greenhouses
- Suitability of different structures for specific cropping, depending on natural light transmission
- Cleanliness in the glasshouse
- Types of greenhouses
- Greenhouse checklist
- Framing materials
- Covering materials
- Components
- Commonly used greenhouse designs
- Shade houses
- Greenhouse or Conservatory
- Shade-house Designs
- Cold frames
- Environmental Control
- Control of the Environment
- Measurement of environmental factors
- Moisture
- Problems with greenhouses
- Heating & ventilation systems
- Thermal screens
- Insulation
- Lighting equipment
- Types of lights
- Artificial light
- Photosynthesis
- Environmental factors which effect photosynthesis
- The meaning of C3 & C4
- Day-length manipulation
- Heated propagators
- Irrigation & nutrition control
- Optimum growth requirements for certain plants
- Cladding Materials And Their Properties
- Factors affecting light transmission: shape and orientation
- Covering Materials
- Rigid & Film plastics
- Heat Insulation and Cost Effectiveness
- Light transmission properties
- Irrigation
- The Nursery irrigation program
- Irrigation practices
- Irrigation systems
- Plants and Water
- Equipment and Methods
- Automatic systems
- Sprinklers
- Overhead spray lines
- Flood benches
- Capillary benches
- Capillary watering
- Trickle irrigation
- Watering container plants
- Precision application techniques
- Water supply and quality
- Liquid feed systems
- Water treatment
- Water Sources
- Scheduling Irrigation
- Maintenance of watering systems
- Nursery Nutrition
- Fertilisers in the greenhouse
- Plant Nutrients
- The Nutrient Elements
- Major Elements
- Minor Elements
- Total Salts
- Diagnoses of nutritional problems
- Nutrition Management
- Soils, media and nutrition
- Pore space in soils and growing media
- Percolation rates
- Buffering capacity
- Cation exchange capacity
- Soil temperature
- Soil pH
- Laboratory testing of soils
- Soil sampling
- Nutrient availability & pH
- Measuring Salinity
- Methods of Measuring pH
- Types of Fertilizers
- Applying Fertilizers
- Applying nutrients at the propagation stage
- Fertilizing problems
- Factors affecting fertilizer application
- Application of liquid fertilisers
- Carbon dioxide enrichment in the greenhouse
- Relationship Between Production Techniques And Horticultural Practices
- Which crops are grown under cover?
- Potting mixes
- Propagation media
- Mixes/substrates for starting cuttings/seeds
- Pots and containers
- Containers for propagation
- Potting up plants
- Shrubs and trees
- Transplanting Between Pots
- Tomato production notes
- Lettuce production notes (Lactuca sativa)
- Notes for the production of potted Begonias
- General environmental requirements
- Growing on areas for container plants
- Hydroponics
- The variables of a system
- Why practice hydroponics?
- Growth control: chemical and cultural
- Hormone forms
- Other chemical treatments
- Other treatments to improve cutting success
- Producing VAM inoculum
- Improving strike rate
- Sexual propagation
- Storing seed
- Difficult seeds
- Dormancy factors affecting seeds
- How to sow seeds in containers
- Germination
- Planting and crop establishment
- Horticultural Management In A Greenhouse: Pests And Diseases
- Fungi
- Common fungal problems
- Pest, disease and disorder control (chemical and cultural)
- Cultural Controls
- Current Legislation
- Biological Control and Integrated Pest Management
- Beneficial agents
- Economic thresholds
- Methods of introduction
- Major pests, diseases and disorders of crops identified
- Pests
- Diseases
- Diagnosis of problems
- Finding out what the problem is
- Tell-tale symptoms
- Conducting an Inspection
- IPM (Integrated Pest Management)
- Non-chemical pest control methods
- Diagnosis of plant disorders
- Harvest & Post Harvest Technology
- Crop Harvesting
- Post-harvest Treatments
- Grading Standards
- Conditioning for Market
- Marketing to the Wholesale Market
- Culture and Management Requirements of Some Greenhouse Crops
- Harvest and Post-harvest of Selected Orchids
- Post-harvest Requirements of Mushrooms
- Grading Systems
- Fruit grading in the USA
- Equipment that may be needed in a grading shed
- Greenhouse Plants
- What is a greenhouse plant?
- What is suited to greenhouse growing?
- How to grow specific crops
- Examples of crops
- Lilium (Lilies, Fam. Liliaceae)
- The most commonly grown lilies
- Most commonly grown species
- Lily cultivation
- Rosa spp. (Roses, Fam. Rosaceae)
- Growing conditions and culture: General requirements
- Greenhouse roses
- Tomato
- Risk Assessment
- Identifying risk in the workplace
- Identification of safe working practices
- Risk Control Methods
- Risk assessment of protected crop production
- Using machines to do the heavy work
- Earthworks
- Cleaning and Sharpening Tools
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Course Aim
Learn to Manage Humidity and Other Factors Inside a Greenhouse
Growing in a greenhouse opens up a lot of possibilities for controlling aspects of the crop production; but it can also create an unnatural environment that may have detrimental aspects unless you exercise control properly over the environment.
- Greenhouse temperatures may not always be optimum for plant growth. They may rise too high or drop too low.
- Levels of carbon dioxide, oxygen and other gases in the air can become inappropriate for a plant
- In a sealed off environment humidity can rise beyond what is ideal for crop growth.
- Light levels may be diminished, or magnified in some greenhouses.
All of these factors are manageable; but managing them requires knowledge and experience.
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