Seeing the greenhouse now, as opposed to how it looked at the beginning of the semester, fills me with an incredible sense of accomplishment. We started the season from scratch and I was able to see the fruits of my labor (literally) as the weeks progressed this spring. One of the aspects that made the process rewarding was the opportunity to apply what I learned in class to the work in the DFI greenhouse, as well as how the internship related to climate smart farming. 

While PowerPoints and lectures are integral to learning, it is also important to understand what you are taught through hands-on education — this is why working at the greenhouse this semester was so beneficial. For example, in class I have learned about pests and diseases that may affect plant development and growth. It is crucial that there are no infestations of insects, or diseases that transmit from plant to plant because of carelessness. These issues are mitigated almost immediately in the DFI greenhouse. For the insects, sticky traps are placed throughout the greenhouse on every table and the insects are counted and identified on a weekly basis. This is in order to monitor and log their numbers and species to determine their threat to the plants. Not only that, but potato lures are also placed in the soil of all of the germinating plants so that we can assess the population of fungal gnats. Plants are also susceptible to diseases and some of them are easily transferable especially if the plants are in the same family, such as tomatoes and peppers. By washing the seedling trays in water and Sanidate (an organic certified, sanitizing solution), there was no cross contamination between the seedlings.

Another application that complimented my learning outcomes, had to do with the germination of the plants in a greenhouse setting. While in class, I have learned that there are differences in growing crops whether that be from direct seeding, or transplanting. In this case, the greenhouse is solely growing crops that are going to be transplanted. This means that it is important to know how much room a specific plant needs to grow— and what size trays to use, as well as the temperature required for the best rate of germination. For example, the germination of dill is incredibly different from that of something like cucumber. In class, I have learned that dill needs colder environments in order to germinate whereas cucumber needs hot environments. While working in the greenhouse, I was able to tangibly do this process by seeding the dill and cucumber respectively, and then growing the cucumber in a germ chamber (which can get up to 90 degrees) or on a heat mat (which can get to 95 degrees). The dill, since it needed a cooler temperature, didn’t need a heat mat and could be germinated in
just the greenhouse itself. What we don’t talk about in class is that even though we learn about the specific germination temperatures, there is so much more that goes into the growth period— like making sure that the soil is fully saturated so that the seedlings don’t dry out especially if they are exposed to higher heat.

It is also important to discuss the relationship between the work that I have done in the greenhouse over the semester and how it has related to the climate smart farming mission of DFI at UNR. One of the climate smart farming practices that I have done first hand is the efficient use of water resources. In the greenhouse, we built and implemented an overhead watering system that conserved water by solely focusing the misters over the center of each of the tables so that there were no lines of misters that were in between walkways or placed sporadically. This ensured that no water was being wasted. We could also control each of the lines of misters so that only certain sections of the greenhouse could be watered as needed. Another climate smart farming practice that I adhered to was the diversity of crop varieties and farm enterprises. Because Nevada is a desert and not entirely ideal for agriculture, it is important to understand the varieties that are being used and how they would be affected in our environment. One way that we made sure that the crops that were growing were resilient was by grafting a majority of our tomatoes. By using a wild type root stalk, we were able to take the disease and drought resistant characteristics of that specific tomato plant and graft them with a tastier and more appealing tomato variety. This process occurs by cutting off the top section of the tastier tomato, at an angle just under the cotyledons, and using a grafting clip to attach it to the angled root stalk. This way, the newly grafted tomato has more resilient roots in order to better withstand its environment.