Learn to work in a Production Plant Nursery

This is a course teaches the skills for day to day work in a production nursery.

There are eleven lessons involving: The Nursery Industry – operational flow charts, nursery standards, plant variety rights, transport regulations;plant identification, nursery structures, buildings, heating & cooling systems; potting mixes, seed propagation, cutting propagation, other propagation techniques, plant nutrition, pest & disease control, other nursery tasks and marketing and sale.

Course Aims:

• Understand plant propagation techniques and efficiency and quality control measures for the nursery.
• Understand means of identifying and naming plants through International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.
• Describe pros and cons of different nursery structures and understand effective management techniques.
• Describe different types of potting mix, their uses and pros and cons.
• Discuss different sources, maintenance of genetic identity, hybridisation techniques, storage and germination; of seeds.
• Understand different means of propagating cuttings.
• Understand alternative methods of propagation and their appropriate uses.
• Discuss the importance of major and minor elements to plant health and the effect of their deficiencies upon plant nutrition.
• Understand the effects of pests and diseases on the livelihood of the nursery and the importance of good hygiene standards in their control.
• Understand different methods of controlling plant growth.