Commercial Vegetable Production 100 Hours Certificate Course

There are 8 lessons:

1 Introduction to Vegetable Growing

• Making the farm Pay
• Understanding economic principles - supply and demand, scale of economy, etc.
• Planning for the farm
• Production planning
• Financial planning and management
• Land care and land management
• Marketing
• Personal welfare
• Risk management - spreading risk, quality management, contingency planning, liquidity
• Creating a sustainable farm enterprise
• Planning for sustainability
• Planning for drought
• Crop selection
• Monocultures
• Alternating crops, broad acre or row crops
• Growing Brassicas -Cabbage, Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts, Pak Choi, Broccoli, Radish, Turnip
• Growing Legumes -Beans, Broad Beans, Peas
• Growing Lettuce, Onions, Potatoes

Cultural Practices for Vegetables

• Explain general cultural practices used for vegetable production.
• Crop rotation
• Soils
• Plant foods
• Cover Crops
• Legumes and inoculation
• Growing various cover crops -Barley, Buckwheat, Canola, Lucerne, Field pea, Lupins, Oats, Sorgham, Clover, etc.
• Ways of using a cover crop
• Cultivation techniques
• Compost
• Crop Scheduling
• Planting Vegetables -seed, hybrid seed, storing seed, sowing seed
• Understanding Soils
• Dealing with Soil Problems
• Plant nutrition and feeding

3 Pest, Disease & Weed Control

• Weed control -hand weeding, mechanical, chemical and biological weed control methods
• Integrated Pest Management
• Non chemical pest control
• Understanding Pesticide labels
• Understanding the law in relation to agricultural chemicals
• Plant Pathology introduction
• Understanding Fungi
• Understanding insects, virus and other pathogens
• Insect control -quarantine, clean far5ming, chemicals, biological controls
• Review of common diseases
• Review common pests
• Review common environmental problems
• Review common weeds

Hydroponic & Greenhouse Growing

• Introduction to hydroponics
• Types of systems
• Nutrient solutions
• NFT and other systems for vegetable production
• Growing in a greenhouse (in the ground or hydroponics)
• Components of a Greenhouse System
• Types of Greenhouses and common greenhouse designs (venlo, mansard, wide span, multi span, poly tunnel, Sawtooth, Retractable roof, etc)
• Shade houses, Cold Frames
• Environmental Control -heating, ventilation, lighting, etc
• Controlling moisture (misting, fog, etc)
• Review of various vegetables - Cucurbits (Cucumber, Melon, Pumpkin, Watermelon, Zucchini)

Growing Selected Vegetable Varieties

• Determine specific cultural practices for selected vegetable varieties.
• Tropical Vegetables - Sweet Potato and Taro
• Less common vegetables - Globe Artichoke, Jerusalem Artichoke, Asparagus, Chicory, Endive, Garlic, Leek, Okra, Rhubarb
• Other Crops -Beetroot (Red Beet), Capsicum, Carrot, Celery, Sweet Corn, Eggplant, Parsnip, Spinach

Irrigation

• Water and Irrigation
• Infiltration
• Internal Drainage
• Flood, Sprinkler and Trickle irrigation
• The objective of irrigation
• Transpiration and Wilting Point
• When to irrigate Timing irrigations
• Detecting water deficiency or excess
• Understanding soil moisture
• Pumps, sprinklers and other equipment
• Water hammer
• Improving Drainage
• Managing erosion

Harvest & Post-Harvest

• Introduction to harvesting
• Post harvest treatment of vegetables
• Cooling harvested produce
• Harvesting tips
• Storing vegetables

Marketing Vegetables

• Introduction
• Standards for cost efficiency, quality and quantity
• Options for Marketing Produce
• Market Research
• How to sell successfully

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.

• Compile a resource file of sources of information regarding vegetable varieties.
• Describe the classification of different vegetables into major groups.
• Prepare a collection of plant reviews of different vegetable varieties.
• Determine three appropriate cultivars from each of different species of vegetables to be grown on a specified site.
• Prepare a planting schedule of vegetable varieties, to be planted over a twelve month period, in your locality.
• Differentiate between soil management practices for different vegetable varieties.
• Explain the establishment of vegetables by seed.
• Explain how to establish three different vegetables from seedlings.
• Prepare a table or chart showing the planting distances, and planting depth of seed for different vegetable varieties.
• Describe the application of pruning techniques to the production of specified vegetables.
• Prepare a crop schedule (ie. production timetable) for a specified vegetable crop.
• Prepare a pressed weed collection of different weeds.
• Differentiate between different specific techniques for weed control in vegetable crops, including different chemical and different non-chemical methods.
• Determine pest and disease problems common to different specified types of vegetables.
• Identify appropriate control methods for the pest and disease problems you determined (above).
• Develop pest and disease control programs, for the lifespans of different vegetables.
• Determine the environmental disorders occurring with vegetable crops inspected by you.
• Explain the methods that can be used to prevent and/or overcome different environmental disorders affecting vegetables.
• Determine the potential benefits of greenhouse vegetable production in a specified locality.
• Differentiate between the characteristics of different types of greenhouses.
• Compare vegetable growing applications for different environmental control mechanisms used in greenhouses, including:
• Different types of heaters
  • Shading
  • Lighting
  • Different types of coolers
  • Vents
  • Fans
• Describe how a specified commercial vegetable crop might be grown in a greenhouse visited by you.
• Compare vegetable growing applications for the major types of hydroponic systems
  • Open and closed systems
  • Aggregate
  • Water
  • Aeroponic culture
• Determine reasons for choosing to grow vegetables in hydroponics rather than in the open ground.
• Explain how a specified vegetable can be grown in an hydroponic system.
• Determine two commercially viable varieties suited to growing in a specified locality, from each of the following different types of vegetables:
  • Brassicas
  • Cucurbits
  • Tomatoes
  • Lettuce
  • Onions
  • Potatoes
  • Legumes
• Determine specific cultural requirements for growing each of the vegetable varieties selected (above) on a specified site.
• Describe the culture of less commonly grown vegetables chosen by you.
• Produce a log book, recording all work undertaken to grow a crop of different vegetable varieties, suited to your locality.
• Describe different harvesting methods, including both manual and mechanical techniques, used in vegetable production, for specified vegetables.
• Identify the appropriate stage of growth at which different types of vegetables should be harvested.
• Evaluate commonly used harvesting techniques of vegetables.
• Evaluate commonly used post-harvest treatments of vegetables.
• Determine post-harvest treatments to slow the deterioration of different specified vegetables.
• Develop guidelines for post harvest handling, during storage, transportation and marketing, of a specified vegetable variety.
• Analyse vegetable marketing systems in your locality.
• Explain the importance of produce standards to marketing in different vegetable marketing systems.
• Explain the impact of quarantine regulations on transport of different types of vegetables, in your locality.
• Explain an appropriate procedure for packaging a specified vegetable for long distance transport.
• Develop marketing strategies for different specified vegetables.

The quality of this course is second to none, from the in-depth learning you will get to the expert individual mentoring you will receive throughout your studies. The mentors for this course are:

Susan Stephenson
BSc in Applied Plant Biology (Botany) Univ. London 1983.
City and guilds: Garden Centre Management, Management and Interior Decor (1984)
Management qualifications in training with retail store. Diploma in Hort level 2 (RHS General) Distinction.

Susan Stephenson is a passionate and experienced horticulturist and garden designer. She has authored three books, lectures at 2 Further and Higher Education Colleges, teaching people of all ages and backgrounds about the wonders of plants and garden design, and tutors many students by correspondence from all over the world.

Susan studied botany at Royal Holloway College (Univ of London) and worked in the trading industry before returning to her first love plants and garden design. She is therefore, well placed to combine business knowledge with horticulture and design skills. Her experience is wide and varied and she has designed gardens for families and individuals. Susan is a mentor for garden designers who are just starting out, offering her support and advice and she also writes, delivers and assesses courses for colleges, introducing and encouraging people into horticulture and garden design.

In 2010, Susan authored a complete module for a Foundation degree (FDSC) in Arboriculture.

Susan holds the RHS General with Distinction. She continues to actively learn about horticulture and plants and (as her students will tell you) remains passionate and interested in design and horticulture.

Steven Whitaker

Diploma in Garden Design (Distinction) – The Blackford Centre, Gold Certificate of Achievement in Horticulture, Level 2 NVQ in Amenity Horticulture, Level 1 NOCN Introduction to Gardening, – Joseph Priestly College, BTEC Diploma in Hotel, Catering and Institutional Operations (Merit), Trainer Skills 1, & 2, Group trainer, Interview and Selection Skills – Kirby College of Further Education

Steven has a wealth of Horticultural knowledge, having ran his own Design and Build service, Landscaping company, and been a Head Gardener. His awards include five Gold awards at Leeds in Bloom, two Gold awards at Yorkshire in Bloom and The Yorkshire Rose Award for Permanent Landscaping. Steven has worked with TV’s Phil Spencer as his garden advisor on the Channel 4 TV Programme, “Secret Agent”.

He is qualified to Level 2 NVQ in Amenity Horticulture and has a Diploma in Garden Design which he passed with Distinction. Steven’s Tutor and Mentor was the Chelsea Flower Show Gold Award-winning Garden Designer, Tracy Foster. He also works for a major Horticultural Commercial Grower in the field of Propagation and Craft Gardening. Steven lives in Leeds where he is a Freelance Garden Designer and Garden Advice Consultant.

Hydroponics: an introduction

Hydroponics is the process used to grow plants without soil and literally word means ‘working water’. The grower is taking ‘control’ of the plant's root environment and losing the benefit of ‘mother nature's’ finely tuned mechanisms which normally control that part of the plant's environment.

Hydroponics is not an easier way to grow plants. It is a more controlled way of growing plants!

Growing in hydroponics can offer the following advantages:

• It can reduce the physical work involved in growing.
• It can reduce the amount of water used in growing.
• It can save on space - more can be grown in the same area.

There are six basic types of hydroponic systems:

1. Wick
2. Water Culture
3. Ebb and Flow (or flood and drain system)
4. Drip (with either a recovery or non recovery process)
5. NFT (Nutrient Film Technique)

Over time the basic models have evolved and resulted in hundreds of different variations.

The Wick System

This is passive with no moving parts, and is also the simplest type of hydroponic system. The nutrient solution is drawn into the growing medium from the reservoir with a wick. The grower using this system can use a variety of growing medium such as perlite, vermiculite, coconut fibre, and so on. However, large plants tend to draw and use the nutrient water at a faster rate than the wick can supply it

The Water Culture System

This is the simplest active system to use. A styrofoam platform floating on the nutrient solution holds the plants. Oxygen is supplied to the roots of the plants through a bubbling air stone that is attached to an air pump . Water culture is the system is most often used...