GREENHOUSE MANAGEMENT

Manage the Greenhouse Environment

• temperature
• light
• moisture
• ventilation

Why Study this Course?

• Manage the environmental conditions better in a greenhouse
• Increase plant productivity at a nursery, hydroponic farm or other greenhouse enterprise – grow plants faster, better quality
• Allow growing plant species that might otherwise not be able to be grown successfully in a particular locality.

Lesson Structure

There are 9 lessons in this course:

1. Types of Greenhouses
   • Greenhouse Designs for Commercial Nursery Production
   • Greenhouse Construction Methods and Materials
   • What Type of Greenhouse is Appropriate for Your Nursery?
   • Siting Greenhouses
   • Greenhouse Benching
   • What Can You Grow?
   • Environmental Control in Greenhouses
   • Computerised Environmental Control
2. Growing Systems and Equipment
   • How to Grow Plants
   • Measuring Conditions Inside a Greenhouse
   • Environmental Control Systems
   • Getting Plants to Flower Out of Season
3. Pest and Disease Management in Greenhouses
   • How to Stop Pests and Diseases Entering the Greenhouse
   • Detecting and Controlling Pests and Diseases in the Greenhouse
   • Common Greenhouse Diseases
   • Disease Control
4. Temperature Management
   • Temperature Control in a Greenhouse
   • Heating Systems
   • Ventilation Systems
5. Water Management
   • Greenhouse Irrigation
   • Soil and Water
   • When to Irrigate
   • The Nursery Irrigation Program
   • Plants and Water
   • Equipment and Methods
   • Maintenance of Watering Systems
6. Nutrition Management
   • Irrigation and Nutrition Control
   • Liquid Feed Systems
7. Managing Light
   • Importance of Lighting in a Greenhouse
   • Artificial Lighting
   • Measuring Light
   • Controlling Light in the Greenhouse
   • Photoperiod Manipulation
   • Growth Rooms
   • Efficient Lighting Control
8. Managing Gasses
   • Carbon Dioxide Enrichment
   • Pollutant Gases
   • Temperature Control Systems (Ventilation)
9. Automation and Robotic Applications for Greenhouse Production
   • Automation in Vegetable Nurseries

What is Different about this course?

This course is more technical and focussed of creating and controlling an ideal plant growing environment (compared with Protected Plant Production and Greenhouse Cut Flowers..

Greenhouses and environmental equipment used with them, allow us to grow plants faster and better; optimising the environment, and isolating plants from  pest and disease exposure. If used properly more can be produced faster, and of a better quality, per square metre; than what can be produced in an uncontrolled environment. The cost of installing and running a modern greenhouse can be high, but this can be offset by higher productivity per square metre which can be very worthwhile for some high value crops.

Successful greenhouse production of crops involves a mixture of science and technology. Today, we can use computer systems and sensors to help us monitor and control all the environmental variables within the greenhouse growing system. We also have more advanced knowledge about the chemical and physical processes underlying plant growth.

This course exposes students to the world of possibilities for greenhouse crop production by showing them what can be achieved.