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.
Course Outline
1. Introduction to the Nursery Industry
2. Plant Identification and Taxonomy
3. Nursery Structures and Buildings
4. Potting Mixes
5. Seed Propagation
6. Cutting Propagation
7. Other Propagation Techniques
8. Plant Nutrition in the Nursery
9. Pests and Diseases Control
10. Other Nursery Tasks
11. Marketing and Sales