Nursery Production Exam II

What are the shrinks and swells in nurseries?

Swell: February to May aka Spring increase
Swell: September to November aka Fall increase

Shrink: May/June to August aka Summer decrease
Shrink: November to February aka Winter decrease

Laborers needed for a __ nursery:

• propagation

• irrigation

• fertilization

• weed control

• chemical and mechanical growth modification

• pest scouting

• pesticide application

• labeling

• inventory

• order collection

• shipping

Wholesale

Laborers needed for __ nurseries:

• branch manager if there are multiple locations

• selling

• answering consumer questions

• designing displays

• irrigation

• fertilization

• weed control

• chemical and mechanical

• pest scouting

• pesticide application

• labeling

• inventory

Retail

Laborers needed for __ nurseries:

• irrigation

• fertilization

• weed control

• chemical and mechanical growth modification

• pest scouting

• pesticide application

• inventory

• order collection

• shipping

Re-wholesale

Laborers needed for __ nurseries:

• propagation

• irrigation

• fertilization

• weed control

• chemical and mechanical growth modifications

• pest scouting

• pesticide application

• labeling

• inventory

• boxing / shipping

Mail or Online Order

Main differences between H-2A and H-2B workers?

H-2A are temporary or seasonal AGRICULTURAL workers

H-2B are temporary NON-AGRICULTURAL workers

What must employers be required to do in order to hire H-2A workers?

Provide housing and transportation for workers. And prove there are no American workers who can fill the jobs or it won’t hurt the current American workers who are employed.

Name 3 key parts for time management for managers or supervisors.

Set responsibilities and expectations:

• identify what you want/need to accomplish, make major tasks and time commitments to accomplish these goals

Set personal goals as a manager and employee:

• analyze how you are spending your time and improve it

• make goals for yourself and your employees

Identify proper time use:

• develop a schedule which better allows you to focus your daily efforts on accomplishing your goals

How do you avoid co-worker conflicts?

Confront the trouble-makers quickly, ask questions to identify what is going wrong, avoid placing them together in future projects, and if needed consider mediation.

How does nursery layout affect the labor efficiency?

Decrease the amount of time workers are walking, make sure movement is efficient, and make sure unprofitable tasks are limited.

What are some steps to organization?

• Plan tomorrow, today (make notes and group similar tasks together

• prioritize daily tasks

• take the time you need to do good work

• 10-minute rule, do something unpleasant for ten minutes a day

• evaluate your time

• limit distractions, say no and get off the phone

What role does training play in labor efficiency?

By training your employees they will prevent conflicts, increase efficiency because they will not need help, and help keep them safe.

Employees and managers should be trained.

__ - compensates employees a set amount for each unit of work completed

Advantages, it provides motivation for employees and can be cost effective for employers

Disadvantages, could lead to a decrease in quality and payroll will be difficult to calculate

Piecework Pay System

__ - the replacement of human power with mechanical power

Mechanization

__ - the replacement of both human power and human judgment by machines and computers

Automation

What are some incentives? (financial and non-financial)

Financial can be bonuses but will be effective short-term. 

Non-financial is simple thanks, providing lunch, give time off, acknowledge employee in front of other workers, and give plants/merch to interested employees. 

__ - heavily dependent on business type

Income taxes

__ - a social security and Medicare tax for the self-employed, must pay if net earnings from self-employment is over $400

Self-employment tax

__ - keep on record for 4-5 years, social security and Medicare, w-2 forms, W-4 forms (federal income tax withholding), and federal and state unemployment tax

Employment tax

__ - must be completed by Jan 31 by the employer, and a copy must be sent to the social security administration

Form W-2

__ - business tax, paid by corporations/LLC’s/Partnerships

Franchise tax, it is not paid by sole proprietorships or unique partnership situations

__ - agricultural appraisal is important, local taxing jurisdictions set these, land classified as agricultural land will lower this

Property tax

__ - only paid by retail nurseries, this must apply if:

• sell or lease tangible personal property in Texas

• sell taxable services in Texas

Retail sales tax

__ - form must be filled out for each employee within 3 days of hire, requires an approved form of ID or documentation, not turned into any governmental branch; employer must keep it on file for 3 years or for 1 year after termination

Employee Eligibility Verification (Form I-9)

When are employers required to declare all newly and re-hired employees?

Within 20 days of hiring

Employers can choose to offer health insurance, small businesses (2-50) employees are not required to give health insurance unless they work more than 30 hours

Less than 50 employees

Employers must offer health insurance, or they run the risk of paying a penalty, 50 employees includes “part-time equivalents”

Greater 50 employees

__ - covers most small businesses and some large businesses, they are not covered if you are a family member of the business operator / self employed / covered by some other legislation

They are a gauntlet of safety and health requirements, many nurseries will submit to voluntary inspections

Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA)

__ - provides worker protection standards, deals heavily with pesticide application and safety.

Environmental Protection Agency

__ requires each entity to register for the stated purpose of maintaining the immunity and protection of plants from diseases and insect pests

• regulate traffic, growing, shipping, selling and leasing of nursery products

• providing the inspection and control of florist items

• regulating city, private, or public parks or shade, tree, shrubbery, and ornamentals along city streets or property or on city residences

Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA)

A nursery dealer or nursery agent must register with the department under this section before offering for sale or lease or otherwise distributing a nursery product.

Nursery Dealers and Agents must apply for __ registration and renew that registration annually!!

TDA

If they are not in compliance, they will have to pay fees.

__ - a person who grows more than 50% of the nursery products or florist items that the person either sells or leases, regardless of the variety sold, leased, or grown

Nursery grower

__ -  person who buys and sells or leases or offers for sale or lease a nursery product and who has facilities that maintain or preserve the nursery product and prevent that product from becoming dry, infested, or diseased

Nursery dealer

__ - a person who sells or leases, offers for sale or lease, or takes mail orders for the sale or lease of a nursery product and:

• is entirely under the control of a nursery grower or nursery dealer with whom the nursery product offered for sale or lease originates

• operates on a cooperative basis for handling a nursery product with a nursery grower or nursery dealer.

Nursery agent

To ensure U.S. import regulations provide adequate protection against the risk posed by plants for planting, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) established a new regulated category called _____ which allows APHIS to more fully protect U.S. agriculture from foreign pests while minimizing adverse economic and trade impacts

Not Authorized Pending Pest Risk Analysis - NAPPRA

What are the two main product types sold by nurseries?

Plant material

• propagative materials

Hard goods

• anything not a plant

__ are typically asexual from cuttings, some tissue culture in large production system

They’re sold in: Liners (2-4” pots) • 1 gallon • 3 gallon • 7 gallon • 15 gallon • B&B – less frequently than broadleaf evergreen trees • Rarely sold as bareroot plants

Broadleaf evergreen shrubs

One example is Holly

__ - seedling propagation common; some species by cuttings, some tissue culture for certain cultivars

Sold as: Liners (2-4” pots) • 1 gallon (this size often skipped for higher value crops) • 3 gallon • 7 gallon • 15 gallon • 25-30 gallon • 45 gallon • 100 gallon • B&B – common in most parts of the country (not the southwest) • Sold as bareroot liners and seedlings

Broadleaf evergreen trees

One example if Magnolia

__ - from cuttings for “rootable” species, seedlings, and some grafting in select species

Sold as: Liners (2-4” pots) • 1 gallon (this size often skipped for higher value crops) • 3 gallon • 7 gallon • 15 gallon • 25-30 gallon • 45 gallon • 100 gallon • B&B – common in most parts of the country (not the southwest) • Sold bareroot as seedlings

Coniferous evergreen trees and shrubs

__ - seedling propagation common; cuttings also common, grafting for certain species (e.g. Pink Dogwood), some tissue culture for certain cultivars

Deciduous flowering trees

__ - seedling propagation common; cuttings also common for some species (especially in less mature plants)

Deciduous shade trees

__- cutting propagation most common; perhaps some seedlings (species dependent); grafting/budding in roses

Sold as: Liners (2-4” pots) • 1 gallon • 3 gallon • 7 gallon • 15 gallon • B&B – rare • Sold as bareroot liners and mature plants (e.g. hybrid tea roses

Deciduous shrubs

__ - seedling propagation common; if available, offshoots (pups) are preferred for some species because they are much quicker

Landscaping Palms

__ - seedling propagation common; cuttings most common method

Usually sold between the times of growing trees, among the quickest nursery crop.

Vines

__ - most fruit/nut trees are grafted/budded; seedlings are used as rootstocks; cuttings of select species are utilized

Grafted / budded Pecans are ready to be sold bareroot in 2-3 years, will not reliably fruit for another 3-5 years

Fruit and Nut Trees and Plants

__ - seedling propagation most common; nurseries will often grow from “plugs”; division is also a common method

Sold as: Plugs (70-140 count propagation flats) /Liners (2-4” pots) • 1 gallon (this size often skipped for higher value crops) • 3 gallon • 7 gallon

Ornamental grasses

__ - seedling propagation and division are both common methods of propagation

Sold as: Pups • 4-6” pots • 1 gallon • 3 gallon • 7 gallon • 15 gallon • Bareroot plants (online especially)

Cacti and succulents

__ - most of these crops propagated by cuttings; new plugs may be propagated by seedlings for some species

Herbaceous perennials

__ - Seed propagation

Very fast growing which makes them quick money crops

Annuals

advantages of __:

• Don’t need as much maintenance as plants

• Therefore your profit margins are more clear-cut

disadvantages of __:

• Can require a lot of space

• Often require specialized equipment for loading and/or delivery

Hard goods

Why should you stay away from dyed mulches?

these dyed mulches are made from woefully under-composted wood OR... Recycled wood that might contain CCA (chromated copper arsenate)

__ - is a seedling produced in a small volume of medium contained in a small cell, of which between 220 up to 800 plants are contained on a single sheet of polystyrene, Styrofoam, or other suitable material.

Plug

__ - plants produced from layering

Layers

__ - plant structure used for regenerating plants through adventitious root formation

Cutting

__ - ANY plant structure used for regenerating plants

Propagule

Pros:

• Certainty of heritability

• Products are genetically identical (can also be a con)

Cons

• Labor intensive

• More difficult to produce in mass quantities

• Products are genetically identical (can also be a pro)

Asexual propagation

Pros:

• Less expensive

• Easier to produce large quantities

• Genetic diversity (can also be a con)

Cons:

• Genetic diversity (can also be a pro)

• Uncertainty of heritability

• Can be difficult to obtain proper seed

Sexual propagation

__ in Intermittent Mist

• Low technology; widely available; inexpensive

• Discarded material from pruning/shaping may be used; stock plant maintenance may be required

• Species vary in ease of rooting

• Species vary in growth resumption after rooting

• Equipment required 

  • Structure (greenhouse, shade house, ground beds)

  • Mist system and controller

  • Controlled (?) environment; bottom heat (?)

  • Clean substrate

  • Growth regulators (auxin analogs; k-IBA, NAA)

Cutting propagation

__ needs:

• Advantageous for difficult to root species

• Takes advantage of principle of juvenility

• Types: simple layering, compound layering, air layering, stool bed (mound), tip layering, runners

• Some species morphologically adapted to natural layering

• Equipment required

  • Stock plant maintenance beds

  • Harvesting equipment

Layering

__ :

• Important in difficult to root species

• Results in compound genetic system

• Rootstock can confer disease/insect resistance, salt or cold tolerance

• Rootstock may cause plant to flower early, flower heavier, and be dwarf

• Equipment required for grafting

  • Skilled grafters

  • Grafting tools/equipment varies

  • Reliable source of clonal or seedling rootstocks of known origin

Grafting and budding

__ also known as micropropagation, in vitro propagation:

• High technology; equipment-, skill-intensive

• Adaptable to many species

• Economically-feasible in limited range of species

• Suited to the creation and maintenance of virus-free plants

• Rates of multiplication from limited explant material in short period of time possible; rapid release of new clones

• __ requirements

  • Highly-trained lab manager

  • Highly-trained personnel in transferring stage

  • Precise environmentally- controlled facility

  • CLEAN facilities; limited traffic flow

  • Laminar flow hoods (HEPA); autoclaves

  • Precise environmental control in acclimation phase in the greenhouse

Tissue culture

What are some unintended consequences of tissue culture?

Chimeral reversion, somaclonal variation, tissue cultured liners need special handling

__ used for some woody ornamentals and many herbaceous annuals

• __ need to be nearly true-to-type to be useful

• Seedlings need to be uniform in growth rate and habit

• Provenance from which seeds are collected is important

• Dormancy requirements (if any) must be manageable

• Must be disease free

Seed propagation

What are the functions of a substrate?

Reservoir for plant nutrients, water, good aeration, provide anchorage and support

Why should you use a soilless substrate instead of soil?

Crops are more profitable in soilless substrate

• Superior physical and chemical characteristics

• Low initial infestation of pathogens

• Ease of disinfestation

Practical

• Weight of soilless v. soil

Environmental

• Harvesting native soils can be harmful

__ - (dry mass per unit volume (moist)) – low _ substrates are lighter, high _ substrates are heavier

bulk density

__ - a method of quantifying substrate texture

particle size distribution

__ - total volume of pore space in a substrate can be divided into air filled porosity and water-holding capacity

total porosity

__ - “air space” or Macropores – typically between 10-30% in substrates

• Must be >20% in rooting substrates •

• Can be a bit lower for bedding plants in shallow containers •

• Can be as low as 10% in deep containers for trees (slowgrowing) •

• AFP is directly correlated with Oxygen Diffusion Rate which allows roots to grow……….stagnant water cannot supply enough oxygen to produce a healthy plant

Air Filled Porosity (AFP)

__ - “water-holding capacity” – maximum volume of water a substrate can retain following irrigation and drainage due to gravity

Container capacity

__ - all containers maintain a PWT at the bottom of the container after drainage (this PWT is larger in fine-textured substrates)

perched water table

__ - the ease with which a fluid can move through pore spaces or fractures. Depends on both the substrate and the fluid

Hydraulic conductivity

__ - the ease with which a fluid can move through pore spaces or fractures BUT just measured on dry substrates. Gives indication of hydrophobic or hydrophilic tendencies

Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity

Why is the C:N ratio so important?

__ - A measure of the capacity of the fixed negative electrical charges in substrate to hold cations

__ = milliequivalents per 100g of dry substrate; 6 – 15 meq/100g is desirable

Cation exchange capacity (CEC)

Which substrates have a high CEC?

clay, peat moss, coir, vermiculite, compost

Which substrates have a low CEC?

sand, perlite, rockwool, polystyrene, peanut hull, and rice hulls

__ - measurement of the amount of Hydrogen ions that are present in a substrate, has significant effects on almost every aspect of plant growth

pH

__ - the ability of a substrate to transmit an electrical current, measure of the amount of salts in soil/substrate

Electrical conductivity (EC)

__ - some substrates contain nutrients before any are added

Nutrient content

__ - surface charge properties significantly effect chemical reactions in the rhizosphere

charge characteristics

name the 3 non-minerals which are obtained from the atmosphere:

Carbon (C): carbon dioxide

Hydrogen (H): water

Oxygen (O): water and dioxide

Name the primary and secondary macro nutrients:

PRIMARY: Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K)

SECONDARY: Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), and Sulfur (S)

Name the 8 micronutrients

Boron (B), Chlorine (Cl), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Molybdenum (Mb), Zinc (Zn), Nickel (Ni)

Available to plants in 2 forms:

Ammonium Nitrogen (NH4 +)

• Adsorbed by soil particles doesn’t leach

• Broken down into the nitrate form

• Ammonium based fertilizers have an acidifying effect

Nitrate Nitrogen (NO3 - )

• Not adsorbed by soil particles and leaches readily

• Nitrate based fertilizers are basic

Aids in Amino Acid formation, essential for cell division (growth), directly involved in photosynthesis

Nitrogen

Available to plants in forms: HPO4 2- , H2PO4 -

• Virtually immobile in soil

• Plays a vital role in energy storage (ADP to ATP)

• Important for seed production and maintenance

• Aids in root development, flower initiation and fruit development

Phosphorus

Available in the form of K+

• Unlike N and P, it doesn’t form any vital organic compounds in plants

• Vital due to its activity as an enzyme activator (promotion of metabolism)

• Controls the stomata of the leaf (water regulation)

• Promotes the translocation of photosynthates for plant growth or storage

Potassium

What is the pH range for soilless media versus soil media?

Soilless - 5.5-6.5

Soil - 6.2 - 6.8

__ - A measure of water’s capacity to neutralize acids

• Generally, acids are utilized to decrease the pH of irrigation water and substrates

  • Citric Acid

  • Nitric Acid

  • Phosphoric Acid

  • Sulfuric Acid

• Sulfuric is the most commonly used due to the combination of safety and price considerations

Alkalinity

Whats the ideal pH range or irrigation versus substrate water?

Irrigation - 5.2 to 6.8

Substrate - 5.4 to 6.3

What are two generalizations of fertilizers and their applications?

Granular and water-soluble

__ - inorganic fertilizers that have been modified (typically by a coating) to release nutrients over a specific period of time

Controlled released fertilizer

__ - can be synthetic or organic and are released based on microbe activity

Slow released fertilizer

What do you use to raise pH?

lime and basic fertilizer

What do you use to lower pH?

Sulfur containing compounds and acidic fertilizer

Whats the acceptable EC range for soilless substrates?

0.5 to 1.5 dS/m

__ substrates that contain high contents of soluble salts

Saline substrates

__ - saline soils that are made so predominately by the presence of sodium

sodic substrates

How do you monitor EC / pH?

Extraction Methods

• Pour-through test

• Saturated media extract test

• 1:2 dilution test

Suction lysimeter (SL)

Remote sensors

• Probes that are designed/calibrated for soilless substrates

Define and know how to calculate for the Rule of 75.

It converts ppm to ounces/100 gallons

(desired ppm/75) = ounces of nutrients