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Commercial Organic Vegetable Growing Course Online
Learn the processes required to tap into the commercial organic vegetable marke
t; this extensive course provides a wealth of knowledge and practical skills and shows you how to market your produce. Organic vegetables are crops with a future.
- Learn all aspects of organic vegetable production.
- 100 hour self paced course
- Study in your own time at your own pace.
- Study with our tutors who are experts in the field.
Course Aims
- Discuss general horticulture and plant taxonomy principles
- Describe a range of cultivation and planting techniques
- Explain soil properties, and their relationship to organic plant production
- Diagnose basic soil nutrient deficiencies
- Discus major and minor commercial vegetable varieties
- Describe a variety of pest and disease management principles
- Explain the use of seed in commercial organic agriculture, including storage, viability, germination, genetic purity, and hybridisation
- Discuss the principles of greenhouse growing
- Describe a variety of irrigation methods suitable for organic vegetable production
- Explain organic weed control methods
- Explain issues relating to harvesting and marketing of vegetables
Course Outline
There are 12 lessons in this course:
- Introduction
- Organic Growing and it’s definitions
- Influential people in the organic movement
- Different ways to grow -permaculture, biodynamics, etc.
- Organic certification
- Transition to organic production
- Management Plan
- Industry awareness
- Resources and Networking
- Understanding Plant Names
- Cultivation and Planting
- Cultivation methods
- Crop rotation
- Green manures
- No dig growing
- Planting
- Sowing vegetable seed outside
- Germinating indoors
- Transplanting seedlings
- Crowns, offsets, tubers
- Crop scheduling
- Tillage, Ripping, Harrowing, Dis ploughing, etc
- Tractors
- Soils and Nutrition
- Physical soil properties -profile, texture, etc
- Chemical properties -pH, cation exchange capacity, buffering etc.
- Soil water, air, temperature
- Humus and Organic matter
- Nutrient elements
- Organic Fertilizers
- Animal manure
- Liquid feeds in an organic system
- Rock dusts
- Diagnosing nutritional problems
- Soil Management
- Importance of soil
- Cultivation techniques
- Cover crops
- Green manures
- Nitrogen fixation
- Rhizobium bacteria
- Mycorrhizae
- Composting
- Hot heaps vs cold
- Review of Major Vegetable Varieties
- Getting the best from an organic vegetable plot
- Vegetable Directory -Beans, Beetroot, Broccoli, Sprouts, Cabbacge, Capsicum, Carrot, Cauliflower, Corn, Celery, Eggplant. Lettuce, Onion, Pak Choi, Parsnip, Pea, Potato, Pumpkin, Marrow, Squash, Radish, Spinich Turnip
- Transplanting Guide
- Pests and Disease
- Integrated Pest Management
- Allowable Inputs
- Understanding Pest and Disease
- Understanding Other Plant Problems
- Lifecycles
- Review of common problems
- Companion Planting
- Seed
- Organic seed
- Seed production -preventing cross pollination
- Choosing seed plants for vegetable crops
- Collecting seeds
- Cleaning and storing seed
- Seed germination
- Greenhouse Growing
- Types of greenhouses
- Framing and covering materials
- What greenhouse is appropriate
- Siting a greenhouse
- Benching
- Greenhouse hygiene
- Problems with greenhouses
- Other structures -cold frames, shade houses
- Environmental controls
- Heating, Cooling
- Controlling light
- Growing media
- Fertigation in organic systems
- Carbon dioxide enrichment
- Irrigation Methods
- Crops Directory -Tomatoes, Cucumber, Melons, Zucchini
- Lesser Grown Varieties and Herbs
- Growing herbs
- Review of many culinary herbs-Alliums, Corriander, Mints, Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, Pasley, Savory, Thyme, etc.
- Review of lesser grown vegetables -Amaranth, Artichoke, Asparagus, Cassava, Chicory, Dandelion, Garlic, Endive, Ginger, Horseradish, Chicory, Mint, Leek, Okra, Pigface, Rhubarb, Sweet Potato, Warrigul Greens, Taro, Yams, etc
- Irrigation
- Irrigation objectives and feasibility
- Soil and water
- Understanding classes of soil moisture
- Soil and transpiration
- Field capacity
- Permenant Wilting point
- Tensiometers
- When to irrigate
- Scheduling irrigation
- When to irrigate
- Cyclic watering
- Pulse watering
- Plant root depth
- Irrigation type -flood, sprinkler, ytickle etc.
- Portable, permenant or travelling sprinklers
- Sprinklet spacings
- Mulching and Weeds
- Understanding mulch
- Types of mulch materials
- Rules for using mulch
- Living mulch
- Weed Management
- Preventing weeds
- Harvesting and Marketing
- Harvesting techniques
- PostHarvest quality considerations
- Harvesting hints
- Post harvest treatment of vegetables -field processing
- Cooling
- Quality standards
- Monitoring and reviewing
- Marketing
- Business capabilities
- Market research
- Target marketing
- Understanging economics
