Open Day keeps us busy!

We have a unique situation in that we not only offer people opportunities to train for the commercial greenhouse crop industry, but we also act as a visitor centre for many people who want to see how commercial crops are grown.

Our Open Days allow both potential students and interested visitors the chance to see what happens at te national Precision Growing Centre.

Today we welcomed several groups of school based students as part of our Open Day activities, including a group of students from Elizabeth Murdoch College. This visit was facilitated by Jake Frecklington of Rural Skills Australia as well as College staff members to capitalise on the Open Day.

The students heard about how the glasshouse was built and the systems that operate, before putting on their overshoes and tyvek overcoats to conform with our hygiene protocols. Once inside the crop area the students were shown the two separate crops that are growing, with one Tomato crop having around 20 days left of its life, while the other crop is becoming well established as it heads in to the Winter.

For many of the students this was the first time they had ever seen commercial crops growing in a greenhouse environment.

With social media playing such a large part in peoples lives today, there was also a rush to 'like' the greenhouse on the National Precision Growing Centre facebook page by the students!, as well as an opportunity to look at our blog. The day was promoted as a 'Horticulture Taster' day so it was only fitting that the students were able to try out some of our fresh tomatoes before they left.

 Staff member Tony Bundock explains how the irrigation system works

Last call for the Introduction to Computerised Climate Control course

We now have limited places left for this popular course which will be running next Friday the 31st of May.  To secure your position, give Tony a call on 03 5990 7663

Our new online brochure

 On the main blog site you will now find a link to an e version of our online brochure. This will give you a generic overview of the training opportunities that we can offer at the National Precision Growing Centre.

If you would like an e version or a hard copy of this document, please e mail Tony Bundock and he will be only to pleased to send this out to you. 

Tony can be contacted at tony.bundock@chisholm.edu.au

We will also be exhibiting at the forthcoming Protected Cropping Australia conference in Melbourne in July so we will be posting more details of this event in the next few days.

Assisting overseas students

Our primary aim as an education establishment is to assist our students to achieve their own personal goals in learning, and equip them with skills to proceed in to the broader industry.

And this aim is also extended to other students that we also come in to contact with. This week we have been approached by a Dutch student who is looking for short term employment in Australia for a 20 week internship as part of her studies at the HAS University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands.

Kaat Knevels, is looking  to commence her internship in mid November and work for a 20 week period gaining knowledge in the commercial crop production industry.

If you feel that you may be able to assist Kaat in undertaking this internship, please contact staff member Tony Bundock at tony.bundock@chisholm.edu.au who will be able to send you Kaat's contact details.

Using Twitter to promote our events @Glasscrops

In this day and age of social media, we have been promoting our training courses, blog updates and forthcoming events to great effect via Twitter. 

So what is Twitter all about? Everyone uses Twitter differently, and there is no general guidelines. But it does allow you to connect with people that you’re not able to do on other social networking sites. Facebook,for example, tends to be limited to your own circle of friends. Twitter allows you to get your message to a wider circle of people.

Twitter also allows you to get a message out world wide instantly, but as you will have seen in the Australian news tonight, you have to be careful what you say as once you push the send button the world can see what you have written - for better or worse!

As you see comments from people that interest you, it's then possible to 'follow' them. You soon find that people are starting to follow you as well, and this is where' retweeting' comes in. If a someone who is following you had 250 followers, and they 'retweet' your tweet, then that message is sent out to a further 250 people that you couldn't originally access. 

Our Twitter account @Glasscrops has 84 followers, but when we did the sums, and looked at how many followers our followers have, this in turn this equates to a staggering 85,000 people that can learn about our activities if the messages are retweeted.

Of course you can use Twitter as many people do in terms of just relaying your social life activities and  advertising what you had for dinner. But as a business tool, Twitter offers some great potential.

So if you have never tried Twitter, have a go, and make sure you follow us at @Glasscrops.

Introduction to Computerised Greenhouse Climate Control

On Friday the 31st of May we will be running an introduction to computerised greenhouse climate management course which will enable participants to see first hand how these systems operate.

The course will be delivered in the training area of our National Precision Growing Centre, and each student will be operating his or her own console linked in to our Priva Integro climate management system.

The course is designed to allow participants to explore the Priva Integro program under the guidance of our Priva endorsed trainer - Tony Bundock.

For further dtails plase contact Tony via 03 5990 7163 or tony.bundock@chisholm.edu.au

Come and visit us at our open day!

The National Precision Growing Centre will be having an open day on Thursday the 30th of May, and we would like to invite you to come along and see exactly what we do at this facility.

On display will be all the equipment and resources that we utilise in our training programs, as well as a chance to walk inside our crop growing areas.

Our expert staff will be on hand to tell you all about the centre, as well as provide you with information about the training courses that we offer.

We've attached some snapshots of the centre to give you a sneak preview of what we have on display! 

There's no need to book a time, just come on site to our Cranbourne Campus at 2, New Holland Drive, Cranbourne, Vic 3977 between the hours of 11.00am and 7.00pm.

Here's a brief glimpse of what we will have on offer:-

 

Computerised system tracking

 Training room with a view!

 

Water treatment, irrigation and heating equipment

Our latest tomato crop

Looks interesting? Well come down to see us on the 30th and we'll explain how it all works, and how this type of facility is being used to supply the supermarkets chains with the tomatoes that you buy. You can also try our tomatoes and see if they taste as good as they look.

 We look forward to welcoming you! 

More on our Alliance students

Whilst we have a fairly high level of technology being utilised in the glasshouse complex, we also have technology working for us in our older igloo. The igloo was built in 2000, and has just been equipped with a Priva Maximiser system that will assist us in controlling both the climate and irrigation strategies.

This week some of our Alliance students took a hands on role in redeveloping part of the igloo for growing crops in an individual pot based system. The students task was to construct a crop support system that will be used for growing flower crops within the igloo structure, thus giving us an opportunity to expose our students to another aspect of commercial growing.

There was plenty of activity yesterday as the group transformed an empty area into a crop production facility within one day, all under the watchful eye of our teaching staff.

The activity allowed this group of students to work as a team whilst also broadening their knowledge of the crop growing industry, as well as helping to advance the development of our facility.

The 'before' look

And the 'after' look with some of our Alliance students 

from left to right, Michael, Claire, Stephanie, Jake and Stephan

The next stage for one of our student groups will be the the installation of the irrigation system, and then they will be starting to clean the house and then install the pots in preperation for planting.

Tomato plants on offer

One of our neighbours in Cranbourne, Victoria has just replanted their crop and tells us that they have 600/700 plants left over. 

If you are a commercial grower and need some plants, or you know of any growers who can use them, then the grower tells us that you are welcome to them.

The plants are Rijk Zwaan Levanzo (grown by Trandos Hydroponic Growers) and they are in duo blocks and really need to go within the next few days - so you will need to be quick off the mark to take up this offer.

If you are interested please get in touch with us via e mail at tony.bundock@chisholm.edu.au

The old and the new...................

Although we only have a small cropping area in our greenhouse by industry standards, we endeavour to get the maximum production out of the total greenhouse area by the use of long duration crops, as well as staggering our production. 

Our larger compartment is now seeing the end of the 2012/2013 crop and we are preparing to pull out the old crop in week 23 (week commencing 3rd June) and replant in week 25 (week commencing 17th June).

However, the crop still has some good life left in it in terms of production, and we will be continuing to harvest the remaining fruit. 

These plants had their growing tips taken out in week 15 to enable us to capitalise on the remaining fruit load.

Our smaller compartment has a newly planted crop in it that was started in week 13 and is now starting to have a fruit load. 

As you can see, the plants have a far more vegetative appearance - in fact they are a bit too vegetative! - and we have been working towards making them more generative (fruit bearing) so that the crop becomes more balanced by manipulating our irrigation and climate strategies. 

We have already started picking some fruit from the new crop, but in general terms the first two trusses tend not to produce that high a quality fruit, and the quality and volume increases with the 3rd truss onwards.

It seems that our timing is correct and we will be able to keep a continual supply of product to our customers from one crop to the next.

Staff recognition and awards

Last week was a busy time for our former trainee and our senior instructor / glasshouse manager. 

Rebecca Meikle, who completed her Certificate 4 Production Horticulture traineeship course with us was nominated for an award as the best Junior Trainee at the ATEP (Apprenticeship and Traineeship Employment Partners) awards night. 

ATEP is a 'not for profit', community based organisation, proudly in operation since 1987, and were the group training company who worked with Chisholm during Rebecca's traineeship.

Just being nominated for the award was a huge achievement and whilst Rebecca didn't go on to win the award, we were all very proud of her for reaching the final. Well done Rebecca!

Rebecca Meikle receives her nomination award at the ATEP awards

Picture courtesy of Augusta Jane Photography

Senior instructor and Glasshouse Manager, Tony Bundock, came the end of a lengthy period of study when he graduated with a Masters of Education degree at Monash University last Thursday night.

Tony has been studying for his Masters degree part time, and he spent a great deal of that time undertaking a research project and writing a thesis to qualify for the degree. At this stage he tells us that the PhD isn't calling him but time will tell!

Tony Bundock M.Ed - in case you wondered,   

he doesn't wear the cap and gown in the greenhouse!

  .

Alliance Group Training Students

This week has seen the start of a four week training program for 15 new students who are looking to enter the Horticultural industry as a career.

The course is designed to give the students a taste of a wide range of horticultural experiences, and this includes a days training for 4 weeks in the Chisholm Glasshouse.

Their study topics include managing the crop canopy and harvesting. Yesterday they had their first experience in working in a controlled environment, and their progress and speed was tracked via our PrivAssist system. 

We will keep you posted on their progress across the next few weeks, and if anyone is looking for a keen employee to join their operation, feel free to contact us to see how you might be able to access one of these enthusiastic young people.

Two of our students undertaking some deleafing