This Blog follows the developments, and training opportunities that are available at Chisholm Institute of TAFE's award winning National Precision Growing Centre. The facility is the only one of its kind in Australia and is designed to facilitate training for the greenhouse crop industry on a Local, Regional, National and International level. The Glasshouse is based on the Cranbourne Campus of Chisholm Institute of TAFE in Victoria. Additional link sites are listed below.
Saturday 28 May 2011
Out with the old, in with the new..................
Although our first crops weren't planted until mid October, we are now preparing to pull these out in preparation for replanting in July. The crops were always going to be something of a trial - and try us they did! - but we are now looking to replant in July to fit in with a more traditional industry based planting time. This will also mean that the crops will more closely align with the student timetables in terms of the structured full time training courses that we offer. So what are we replanting with? We will be replanting Compartment 2 with Truss and Cocktail Tomatoes, and Compartment 1 with Capsicums and a small trial of Aubergines. Our plants are currently being propagated by specialist growers Trandos, and we are using seed from our industry partner Rijk Zwaan. In the next few weeks we will be updating the blog with details of all the varieties that we will be using. Our green waste will be taken to a green waste facility, whilst our Groslabs are going to be used as trial in conjunction with Grodan which will be looking at the composting of the growing medium. This project is also being driven by one of our Outbound Mobility project students, and details can be found on the link on the right of this site.
Saturday 14 May 2011
How are we going so far?
The past few months have seen both the staff members and the students at Chisholm Institute having a fairly steep learning curve in all aspects of the glasshouse management.
Our ability to not only grow crops to a reasonable standard as well as managing the climatic conditions that give optimum growth have greatly improved in the past 7 months. Whilst our first crop was always going to be something of a trial, we have ended up with some quite reasonable results.
Our initial crop was late in being planted (mid October) but we have decided to take this crop out at the end of this month with the aim to being fully replanted by the first week of July. This not only allows us to align ourselves with a more traditional crop production timetable, but also gives us a better alignment with the student timetable.
Whilst the crops are important to the facility, the driving force is the need for industry training. The teaching area is now well set up with student workstations that each have Priva Office on each computer, and a central Starboard that can not only show real time data from the Priva Integro, but will soon be able to be linked to a web cam that is being installed as part of our eGlasshouse project.
We are also planning to bring one of Privas leading climate advisers to Australia in August. Hein Jasperse will be hosting some specialised seminars on climate control and we will update you all on when this event will be taking place.
Our ability to not only grow crops to a reasonable standard as well as managing the climatic conditions that give optimum growth have greatly improved in the past 7 months. Whilst our first crop was always going to be something of a trial, we have ended up with some quite reasonable results.
Our initial crop was late in being planted (mid October) but we have decided to take this crop out at the end of this month with the aim to being fully replanted by the first week of July. This not only allows us to align ourselves with a more traditional crop production timetable, but also gives us a better alignment with the student timetable.
Whilst the crops are important to the facility, the driving force is the need for industry training. The teaching area is now well set up with student workstations that each have Priva Office on each computer, and a central Starboard that can not only show real time data from the Priva Integro, but will soon be able to be linked to a web cam that is being installed as part of our eGlasshouse project.
We are also planning to bring one of Privas leading climate advisers to Australia in August. Hein Jasperse will be hosting some specialised seminars on climate control and we will update you all on when this event will be taking place.
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