FOUNDATION CERTIFICATE IN PLANT GROWTH FOR HORTICULTURE - Level 3

Foundation Certificate in Plant Growth for Horticulture Level 3

• Learn online the principles of plant taxonomy, structure, function and growth,
• Study the management of plant health, and learn more about plant propagation.
• Flexible self paced practical, 200 hour course
• Support from a team of a dozen highly skilled professional horticulturists located in Australia, the UK and New Zealand
• ACS is recognised internationally through IARC and is part of a global network of affiliated colleges spanning 5 countries.

Lesson Structure

There are 15 lessons in this course:

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Demonstrate knowledge of the major divisions of the plant kingdom and an understanding of the taxonomic hierarchy and its relevance to horticultural practice.
• Identify and describe the different types of plant cells and tissues, their structure, and function.
• To understand the role and function of the reproductive parts of the plant and the seed in the plant life cycle.
• Understand the mechanism and role of photosynthesis and respiration in the metabolism of plants, the role of water in the plant, and the movement of water, solutes, and assimilates through the plant.
• To develop an understanding of the effects of tropisms and other plant movements on growth and development.
• Understand the physical properties of growing media and their significance in relation to plant growth.
• To understand basic chemistry of soils and other growing media, and the relationship between their air and water content and plant growth.
• To understand the role of living organisms in the biological processes of soils and other growing media.
• To understand how nutrients affect plant growth and describe a range of fertilisers and their applications.
• To determine appropriate management programs for different soils in horticultural situations.

Course Duration : 200 hours

What Does the Horticulture Industry Need?

Skilled knowledgeable workers: the industry is in need of people with knowledge to back up their skills. So many people working in horticulture tend to develop skills in a very narrow area. Take propagation - there are many skilled propagators out there but they may not have great plant knowledge, they may not even know the botanical names of the plants they are propagating and have little knowledge of why they use certain propagating mixes and so on. Quite often these people do not advance in their jobs - it becomes like production line work. If you want to move ahead in this industry then your knowledge needs to be diverse, you need to be able to transfer your skills and knowledge across industry sectors so that your ambitions or work advancement potential is far greater. Studying a Certificate such as this which is  based on developing problem solving skills along with gathering knowledge rather than just ticking you off against a limited set of competencies - will give you a very sound education and is a great starting point, as a professional, in this industry.