As the greenhouse fills up with plants, its important to take time to review watering principles with your seasoned and new employees. Consider using a numerical substrate moisture level scale to define how you want your team to irrigate crops.
by Roberto G. Lopez - rglopez@msu.edu
You can teach employees how to stick cuttings, fill containers, transplant, and pinch and space crops. Unfortunately, watering is more of an art than a science as many variables can influence the decision of when and how much to water. Most often new employees receive limited training and are just told, “go water the crop.” Some employees will eventually learn how to properly water from trial and error. While others may become bored, text their friends and under- or over-irrigate. Imagine the results!
Inconsistent moisture content among containers creates a nightmare for everyone on your team. Non-uniform growth and development becomes the norm of over- or under -watered crops. To prevent crop shrinkage from over-watering, growers rely on fungicides and plant growth regulators to control root diseases and excessive stretch, respectively.
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