Meet our students

This week we have introduced a new link to our blog site where you can gain a perspective of student life at Chisholm through the eyes of our students. 

Each of the students will be placing their own story on the site, and these are 'job ready' students who are looking for work! 

Just click on the link on the right hand side of this site and read all about them.

Don't miss out on our Fertilizer Seminar!

Chisholm Institute of TAFE and Haifa Fertilizers are holding a technical seminar for growers on the calculation and use of fertilizer recipes for hydroponic systems.

This seminar will deal with a wide range of issues and will also be examining software applications that are available to assist you in both the preparation of your stock solutions, as well as calculating restocking values for feed solutions when recycling.

This seminar promises to be highly informative, and is guarenteed to assist you in managing your fertilizer management in the future.

If you would like to participate in the seminar, you will need to book your place quickly. 

To secure your position, please e mail Tony Bundock at tony.bundock@chisholm.edu.au as soon as possible.

Open Day coming up soon!

On Thursday the 19th of September we will be holding another of our Open Days so that you can see first hand how the facility operates, as well as being able to talk to our staff about training opportunities.

Come and see what we have to offer!

The Glasshouse will be opening its doors from 12.00pm onwards, and our friendly staff will be on hand to give you the guided tour, as well as advising you about forthcoming courses.

We are now taking enrolments for both the Certificate 3 and Certificate 4 courses, and with our flexible delivery arrangements, this means that you can commence your course at any time starting now!

These courses offer you the chance to choose your days of attendance as well as duration of the courses. So feel free to discuss these options with the staff members on site.

There will also be some of our existing students present at the open day who will be available to tell you exactly what it is like to be a Chisholm student at the National Precision Growing Centre!

Interested? Well either come on down on the 19th, or pre book your tour time by e mailing tony.bundock@chisholm.edu.au

We look forward to welcoming you to Chisholm!

Benefits of controlled environment horticulture

We are often asked what are the benefits of using a controlled growing environment? 

Well there are many benefits which include having full control of your growing environment, which ultimately enables you to manipulate the various climate factors within a greenhouse to give your plants optimum growing conditions. This includes the ability to produce internal climates that allow you to grow crops out of their 'natural' season. For example, long term Tomato crops are now grown across a 51 week period, and this sees fresh tomatoes being on the market all year round as opposed to just the warmer months.

A structure, such as a greenhouse, also protects your plants from external 'infuences' such as rain and wind.

In Melbourne last night we had some very high winds which placed a high cooling effect on our greenhouse. However with the use of our energy screens and heating system we were still able to provide a stable climate for the plants, which were kept safe and warm within the greenhouse itself. And we are pleased to report that the structure is still in one piece as well!

The winds we experienced at the Cranbourne Campus last night peaked at 16.8 metres per second, or the equivalent to 60 kilometres per hour. And in the scheme of things this wasn't to bad. Gusts of 96 km/h were recorded in the inner city suburb of St Kilda and winds reached 92km/h at Melbourne Airport.

The graph shown above was generated on our Priva Intergo climate management system this morning and you can see the general wind speeds across the 24 hour period that we have just experienced.

With the strong winds set to return on Sunday we have our fingers crossed that neither ourselves or other growers suffer any structural damage.

GroLog App from Grodan

With technology changing almost daily, we have been alerted to a new App from Grodan called GroLog. The following explanation is from GroLog website and gives you an overview of this technology.

The GroLog from Grodan is an app that assists growers in effectively managing their crop areas. Keeping a detailed crop log is vitally important to a successful crop and with the GroLog it has never been easier to keep your crop dialed in! 

Do you have several crops you need to track at the same time? No problem - simply create a separate ‘grow’ for each of your crops. The GroLog allows you to select exactly what data you would like to monitor in each grow, such as:
-Nutrient Solution: pH, Parts per Million (ppm), Electrical Conductivity, Temperature, and Nutrient Dosages
-Room Conditions: Temperature (single readings or High/Low readings), Temperature Differential (DIF), Humidity (single readings or High/Low readings), CO2 (ppm), Plant Height
-Lighting settings
-Daily photos and notes

The GroLog also enables you to set a schedule and receive reminders for tasks you need to complete in the crop. Simply plan out your tasks and your device will alert you when it’s time to get to work, even if you aren’t in the GroLog app at the time.

Other features include:
-Customizable graphs
-Comprehensive reports that can be e-mailed or printed directly from the app
-Photo gallery

Note: Grodan neither obtains nor shares any information, data, or pictures entered in this application; all data is private to the user’s device.

Fertilizer Seminar - Book your places now!

Chisholm Institute of TAFE and Haifa Fertilizers are holding a technical seminar for growers on the calculation and use of fertilizer recipes for hydroponic systems.

This seminar will deal with a wide range of issues and will also be examining software applications that are available to assist you in both the preparation of your stock solutions, as well as calculating restocking values for feed solutions when recycling.

This seminar promises to be highly informative, and as such there is very strong interest in the event.

If you would like to participate in the seminar, you will need to book your place quickly as seats are in demand.

To secure your position, please e mail Tony Bundock at tony.bundock@chisholm.edu.au as soon as possible.

The event itself represents excellent value for money and is sure to enhance your skills in this area. 

What is Precision Growing?

If you are new to our industry and are wondering exactly what Precision Growing is all about then this post is aiming to help explain the process.

Precision Growing is the most efficient and effective form of growing, and is focused on the use of minimum input materials to generate maximum output. The results are that growing costs decrease and crop yield and quality increase. In addition, this form of growing actively contributes to sustainable horticulture.

At the National Precision Growing Centre we aim to encourage all growers to embrace the concept of Precision Growing via training and demonstrated best practice.

The Grodan company have produced a great new video to help explain the process so we hope that you will find this useful.

 Enjoy the video by clicking on the link below! 

Helping to develop Hydroponic Growing in Mongolia.

Chisholm Institute, The Hydroponic Farmers Federation and Protected Cropping Australia have been working with representatives from Family Agricultural Resources Mongolia to look at developing a cropping systems that will allow Mongolian Growers to extend their natural growing season by 100%.

Due to the cold nature of the Mongolian climate, external growing is limited to approximately 100 days of the year. By establishing a hydroponic growing system within simple plastic growing structures and a heat source, it is anticipated that the growing season could be extended to 200 days, and help provide an ongoing food supply to many Mongolian communities.

This year saw two representatives from Mongolia, Turkhuu Yadmaa and Altankhuyag Ganbaatar, attend the PCA conference as a fact finding mission with the HFF paying for airfares and the PCA paying for registration to the conference.

Chisholm's Tony Bundock has also spent two days with Turkhuu and Altankhuyag, and the time was spent looking at possible working solutions for Mongolia as well as providing some basic training.

The project is one that will hopefully see Australian knowledge and technology being implemented in Mongolia. 

If you would like to become involved in this project and feel you can assist in any way, please e mail Tony at tony.bundock@chisholm.edu.au

 

Turkhuu, Tony and Altankhuyag

PCA Delegate visit

Wednesday saw us hosting some 40 delegates from the PCA conference as part of the farm visit program. 

The delegates came from all states and there were also some overseas visitors within the party, which was largely made up of growers. The delegates were given the general tour by our glasshouse Manager, Tony Bundock, and trainee, Sara Nour.

PCA Delegates at Chisholm

The visit allowed the delegates to see our great facility first hand, as well as hearing how the facility runs and the training opportunities available to them.

PCA Delegates inspect the plant room

Finally the group donned the full PPE and spent some time looking at our March planted crop and our brand new crop which was started last Friday.

The visit to Chisholm was just one of several tours that the delegates undertook today, and we know that they enjoyed the experience.