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Online Course Commercial Vegetable Growing
Develop skills and knowledge required for commercial vegetable production, including a variety of production methods. This is a very sound 100 hour foundation course in general vegetable production.
- Study commercial vegetable production for improved crops and job prospects.
- Study in your own time and at your own pace.
- Understand production methods for vegetable production.
- Learn from experienced tutors
Note: This is not Organic Vegetable Growing.
Course Aims
- Select appropriate vegetable varieties for different situations.
- Explain general cultural practices used for vegetable production.
- Explain the management of potential problems, including pests, diseases, weeds, and environmental disorders, in vegetable production.
- Explain alternative cultural techniques, including greenhouse and hydroponic production, for vegetables.
- Determine specific cultural practices for selected vegetable varieties.
- Determine the harvesting, and post-harvest treatment of different vegetables.
- Develop marketing strategies for different vegetables.
Course Outline
There are 8 lessons in this course:
- Introduction to Vegetable Growing
- Making the farm Pay
- Understanding economic principles – supply and demand, scale of economy, etc.
- Planning for the farm
- Production planning
- Financial planning and management
- Land care and land management
- Marketing
- Personal welfare
- Risk management – spreading risk, quality management, contingency planning, liquidity
- Creating a sustainable farm enterprise
- Planning for sustainability
- Planning for drought
- Crop selection
- Monocultures
- Alternating crops, broad acre or row crops
- Growing Brassicas -Cabbage, Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts, Pak Choi, Broccoli, Radish, Turnip
- Growing Legumes -Beans, Broad Beans, Peas
- Growing Lettuce, Onions, Potatoes
- Cultural Practices for Vegetables
- Explain general cultural practices used for vegetable production.
- Crop rotation
- Soils
- Plant foods
- Cover Crops
- Legumes and inoculation
- Growing various cover crops -Barley, Buckwheat, Canola, Lucerne, Field pea, Lupins, Oats, Sorgham, Clover, etc.
- Ways of using a cover crop
- Cultivation techniques
- Compost
- Crop Scheduling
- Planting Vegetables -seed, hybrid seed, storing seed, sowing seed
- Understanding Soils
- Dealing with Soil Problems
- Plant nutrition and feeding
- Pest, Disease & Weed Control
- Weed control -hand weeding, mechanical, chemical and biological weed control methods
- Integrated Pest Management
- Non chemical pest control
- Understanding Pesticide labels
- Understanding the law in relation to agricultural chemicals
- Plant Pathology introduction
- Understanding Fungi
- Understanding insects, virus and other pathogens
- Insect control -quarantine, clean far5ming, chemicals, biological controls
- Review of common diseases
- Review common pests
- Review common environmental problems
- Review common weeds
- Hydroponic and Greenhouse Growing
- Introduction to hydroponics
- Types of systems
- Nutrient solutions
- NFT and other systems for vegetable production
- Growing in a greenhouse (in the ground or hydroponics)
- Components of a Greenhouse System
- Types of Greenhouses and common greenhouse designs (venlo, mansard, wide span, multi span, poly tunnel, Sawtooth, Retractable roof, etc)
- Shade houses, Cold Frames
- Environmental Control -heating, ventilation, lighting, etc
- Controlling moisture (misting, fog, etc)
- Review of various vegetables – Cucurbits (Cucumber, Melon, Pumpkin, Watermelon, Zucchini)
- Growing Selected Vegetable Varieties
- Determine specific cultural practices for selected vegetable varieties.
- Tropical Vegetables – Sweet Potato and Taro
- Less common vegetables – Globe Artichoke, Jerusalem Artichoke, Asparagus, Chicory, Endive, Garlic, Leek, Okra, Rhubarb
- Other Crops -Beetroot (Red Beet), Capsicum, Carrot, Celery, Sweet Corn, Eggplant, Parsnip, Spinach
- Irrigation
- Water and Irrigation
- Infiltration
- Internal Drainage
- Flood, Sprinkler and Trickle irrigation
- The objective of irrigation
- Transpiration and Wilting Point
- When to irrigate Timing irrigations
- Detecting water deficiency or excess
- Understanding soil moisture
- Pumps, sprinklers and other equipment
- Water hammer
- Improving Drainage
- Managing erosion
- Harvest & Post-Harvest
- Introduction to harvesting
- Post harvest treatment of vegetables
- Cooling harvested produce
- Harvesting tips
- Storing vegetables
- Marketing Vegetables
- Introduction
- Standards for cost efficiency, quality and quantity
- Options for Marketing Produce
- Market Research
- How to sell successfully
