Introduction
Syllabus
Schedule
Instructor
Contact

TAMU Vista
Howdy email

Hort 429 Floriculture Crop Production

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 429 is a three credit hour course about floriculture production in the greenhouse. For lecture, this web-assisted course meets the 1st week of classes and occasionally thereafter. The laboratory meets once per week for hands-on learning in the greenhouse. By learning to schedule, grow and evaluate various floriculture crops, you will practice some of the latest technologies utilized in commercial greenhouse production. This is a course for anyone interested in growing plants in commercial, public or educational greenhouses.

Course Description: Production of floriculture crops in the greenhouse environment. Scheduling and controlling crop growth for target market periods. Specific flowering crops will be grown to demonstrate potted flowering plant, cut flower, and garden plant production. Hands-on crop production experience is given in labs plus a field trip to commercial floriculture production facilities.

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:

• List and describe procedural steps necessary during floriculture crop production from propagation to marketing.
  

• Identify and define environmental factors that regulate growth and flowering of floriculture crops.
  

• Develop production schedules for floriculture crops.
  

• Grow several crops in the greenhouse.
  

• Identify and name some floriculture crops and classify them as potted, cut and/or garden crops.

Prerequisite:Hort 201

Required text: Dole, J.M., and H.F. Wilkins, 2004, Floriculture Principles and Species, 2nd edition, Prentice-Hall.

Scholarship Opportunities:
American Floral Endowment
Southern Nursery Association

Learning Experiences and Assessment Tools

Examinations
There will be three hourly examinations and a final exam. Exam questions will be objective type questions. All exams will be comprehensive. Exams will include questions from fact sheets, crop schedules, handouts, text book, lectures, 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 crops throughout the semester. Some crops 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.

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. The Lab Worksheet will be worth 8 points of the total of 10 points possible students can earn for attending lab that week.

During labs, students will be responsible for:

1. Watering, fertilizing, spacing, pruning, removing debris, measuring, pinching, applying growth regulators, and scouting for pests and requesting pest control.
2. Following directions from the greenhouse bulletin board and email for those cultural inputs provided for you by your instructor.

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 activities sheet that week. 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 four major crops (two flowering potted plants, one garden plant in a hanging basket, and one cut flower) 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.

Fact Sheets and Quizzes
For each crop studied each week, each student will be responsible for reading the chapter in the book, listening to the lecture, reading the supplemental reading, and doing any other assignments then filling out a fact sheet. During each week there will be a quiz on the crop of the week. The quiz will cover material from the book, the fact sheet, and lab experiences. After the quiz, and before the hourly exam, fact sheets will be posted on the webpage so everyone has correct and consistent information on their fact 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

Absences
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.

© 1994-2006. All rights reserved.
Aggie Horticulture is registered trademark 3001270 by Texas Cooperative Extension.
Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843