Introduction
Syllabus
Schedule
Instructor
Contact

TAMU Vista
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Hort 428 Commercial Greenhouse Management

Course Syllabus

Instructor: Terri W. Starman, PhD
Office: HFSB 424
Office Hours: open door policy but appointments are encouraged
Office Phone: 979-862-2910
email: tstarman@tamu.edu

Course Introduction: HORT 428 is a three credit hour course about environmental factors regulated in a greenhouse and management of a greenhouse business. This course helps to prepare students for a career in management of commercial greenhouses, conservatories and institutional greenhouses. For lecture, this web-based course meets the 1st week of classes and occasionally thereafter. The laboratory meets once per week for hands-on learning in the greenhouse.

Course Description: Principles of greenhouse operation and management for commercial production of floral crops; greenhouse construction and operation; regulating and controlling the environment and applying cultural practices as they affect plant physiological processes and influence plant growth and development; management of a greenhouse business.

Course Objectives: Upon the satisfactory completion of class assignments and the classroom experiences provided in the course, the student should expect to be able to:

• Engineer heating, cooling, ventilation, benching, lighting, irrigation and fertilization systems for a greenhouse.
  

• Control greenhouse environmental and cultural inputs for optimum crop growth and development.
  

• Apply business management principles to a commercial greenhouse setting.

Prerequisite: Hort 201

Required text: Nelson, P.V. 2003. Greenhouse Operation & Management. 6th ed., Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Scholarship Opportunities:
American Floral Endowment
Southern Nursery Association
OFA Scholars

Learning Experiences and Assessment Tools

Examinations
There will be three hourly examinations. Exam questions will be objective type questions. Exams will include questions from homework, supplemental readings, text book, lectures, virtual field trips, lab demonstrations, and lab activities.

Labs
Students will meet for lab each week. Each student will be assigned some bench space in the greenhouse to grow poisettias throughout the semester. Some plants will be grown as a group activity on shared benches. If a student has to miss a lab for an official absence, please try to let your instructors know ahead of time so that your crops will be cared for and they will not get behind schedule.

Some labs will be held in the greenhouse for student’s to perform plant cultural activities including potting, spacing, pruning, removing debris, pinching, applying plant growth regulators, scouting for pests, etc. Some lab activities will utilize the computer lab to learn greenhouse management tools. Directions for lab activities will be given to students by the lab instructor at the beginning of the lab. Most labs will require the completion of a Lab Worksheet to be filled out by the student during and/or after lab and turned in by 12:30 pm Friday in the designated box in the greenhouse. The Lab Worksheet will be worth 8 points of the total of 10 points possible students can earn for attending lab that week.

Poinsettia Crop Care
Each student will be responsible for watering and fertilizing and measuring their poinsettia crop throughout the week. The instructors for the course will also be caring for everyone’s crop and the greenhouse structure and environment. In order to keep up-to-date with everything that is going on in the class greenhouse during the semester and to produce a high-quality poinsettia crop one can be proud to take home for Christmas, it will be imperative for students to check the course web page on TAMU Vista for announcements DAILY! You will also need to read the bulletin board in the greenhouse each time you go in there to care for your plants. These two places are where you will find information concerning all the additional cultural inputs your instructor’s are doing to your plants throughout the semester.

Bench Grade
Student’s bench space will be graded each week at 1:00 pm on Friday. At this time, students will be expected to have completed all the required cultural inputs to their plants as discussed in lab or written on the lab handout that week. In addition, the weekly graphical tracking points shall be plotted on graphs for each poinsettia cultivar and attached to a clipboard at the student’s bench. This will be worth 2 points of the total of 10 points possible students can earn for attending lab that week.

Crop Portfolio Assignment
The Crop Portfolio will encompass growing poinsettias in the greenhouse. Each student will create an original crop portfolio and may not use information from other students' notebooks or work with other students on their individual Crop Portfolio or it will be considered plagiarism. If you have any questions regarding plagiarism, please consult the latest issue of the Texas A&M University Rules, under the section "Scholastic Dishonesty." Crop Portfolios will be graded according to the criteria and performance indicators of the Crop Portfolio grading form (rubric) on TAMU Vista. Students will turn the portfolio in mid-semester for the instructors to peruse in order to keep students on track and make suggestions, and at the end of the semester for grading. Information about the Crop Portfolio assignment can be found on TAMU Vista in the Course Assignments folder.

Quizzes
For each subject studied each week, each student will be responsible for reading the chapter in the book, listening to the lecture, reading the supplemental reading, and filling out a homework sheet. During each week there will be a quiz on the subject of the week. The quiz will cover material from the book, lecture, homework, virtual field trip, supplemental reading, and lab experiences. Student will be allowed to take each quiz twice. If you choose to take a quiz twice your scores will be averaged. After the quiz, and before the hourly exam, homework sheets will be posted on the webpage so everyone has correct and consistent information on their homework sheet.

Field Trip
Students will take one, all-day field trip. The field trip is worth 100 points. The date will be announced the first full week of classes. Students should plan to be gone from campus from 8 am to 8 pm. Transportation will be provided.

Components of Your Grade:

Grading Scale:

Policies

Abcences
Attendance at exams, in lab and on the field trip is required. Only official university approved absences (http://student-rules.tamu.edu/rule7.htm) will be accepted. Confirmation from your medical provider containing the date and time of the visit is required for all excused absences that are due to illness or injury. The Texas A&M University Explanatory Statement for Absence from Class form will not be accepted. You may not make up an exam unless your absence is official and excused.

Late Assignments
A late assignment will be assessed a 10% penalty for each weekday past the due date.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Policy Statement
The American Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you believe you have a disability requiring an accommodation, please contact the Director of Counseling and each of your course instructors.

Copyrights
Please note that all handouts and supplements used in this course are copyrighted. This includes all materials generated for this class, including but not limited to syllabi, exams, in-class materials, review sheets, and lecture outlines. Materials may be downloaded or photocopied for personal use only, and may not be given or sold to other individuals.

Scholastic Dishonesty
As commonly defined, plagiarism consists of passing off as one's own, ideas, work, writings, etc., which belong to another. In accordance with this definition, you are commiting plagiarism if you copy the work of another person and turn it in as your own, even if you should have the permission of that person. Plagiarism is one of the worst academic sins, for the plagiarist destroys the trust among colleagues without which research cannot be safely communicated. If you have questions regarding plagiarism, please consult the latest issue of the Texas A&M University Rules, under the section "Scholastic Dishonesty."

Disruptive Behavior
Disruptive Activity is defined by TAMU Student Rule 24.3.12 as classroom behavior that seriously interferes with either (a) the instructor's ability to conduct the class or (b) the ability of other students to profit from the instructional program. If a student exhibits Disruptive Activity in this class the instructor will follow Texas A&M Student Rules, Classroom Behavior, section 21. Essentially, any disruptive student will get one warning to inform him/her that their behavior is inappropriate. The second time the student breaks the rule that same day in class, he/she will be asked to leave the class for the remainder of the class period that day.

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