Horticultural Production

Basic First Aid & CPR techniques taught in an interactive environment for individuals and employees who want an overview of First Aid & CPR in the workplace or home. The course covers skills needed to recognize, prevent and respond to cardiovascular emergences for Adults, CPR and other topics such as choking, airway and breathing emergencies, and prevention of disease transmission. This course meets the minimum regulations for Workplace Health & Safety for Basic First Aid. Participants who meet the required standard receive a nationally recognized certification that is valid for three years. Textbook included in cost of tuition.

The horticulture industry requires individuals who possess essential business skills and practices to manage horticultural operations and processes. In this course, students learn and evaluate the essential skills required for successful operations at a horticultural workplace and commitment necessary to successfully operate and encounter challenges of a horticultural business. Students will learn about personal and interpersonal skills, decision-making processes, and be able to demonstrate their capacity to develop and execute business strategies.

This course improves students’ ability to navigate the college experience and environment, including student's rights, roles, and responsibilities. In this course, students reflect on their skills, attitudes, and expectations and develop learning strategies to help them to become successful, resilient, and self-directed learners. The course covers topics such as success in online learning, time management strategies, learning strategies, assessment taking strategies, academic integrity, information and digital literacy, and wellness, among others. It integrates elements of student orientation.

Students will learn about food safety and food security by focusing on quality control and on safe and sustainable production practices. Students will explore social, ecological and economic principles of sustainability within the context of food production systems. They will critically analyse the relationships among specific components of industrial agricultural systems, including soil, water, climate change, plant genetic resources, resource management and genetically modified foods. Students will evaluate traditional and contemporary food systems and their implications for food security and sustainability.

This course examines the sustainable production, handling and marketing of greenhouse-grown vegetables, herbs and floricultural crops in season and year-round greenhouse operations. Topics include environment control systems, planning and planting schedule, media control and plant management, water systems, composting, water nutrient capture, cleaning and sanitation.

This course will introduce students to the nature and properties of various growing media including soil, soilless, hydroponic, compost mix and other media substrates. Students will learn about soil water relationships and physical, chemical and biological properties of soil that influence plant growth. Students will perform various soil tests to examine the effect of growing media properties such as pH, electrical conductivity, salinity, and movement and retention of water.

This course enables students to explore and gain experience in industry-specific skills while visiting horticultural related industries/businesses throughout this course. In this course students will learn procedures and operations, practices and processes, and explore ways of enhancing sustainability in food production systems. Students will also examine issues related to the horticultural industry, learn about safe and healthy working practices, industry standards and codes, and explore career opportunities. The knowledge and skills acquired in this course will prepare students for skilled work placement in the horticulture industry.

Principles of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) are introduced and include identifying, monitoring, forecasting and managing environmental and pest conditions that impact horticulture crops including weeds, viruses, bacteria, phytoplasmas, fungi, algae, protozoa, nematodes, arthropods and rodents. Students learn to diagnose problems, provide solutions and predict how the manipulation of growing conditions impact other factors. Topics include basic chemistry, legislation and regulations, labelling, toxicity, handling practices, environmental protection, application equipment, emergency response and public relations.

This course provides hands-on practical experience in methods and techniques used in horticultural crop production systems. Students learn about field tillage and land preparation methods and practices, experimental methods and techniques used for crop evaluation, crop improvement, and plant propagation methods. Students also learn about propagated plant growth and agronomic requirements, plant development and plant stress management.

This foundation course deals with details of morphology, physiology and taxonomy of plants. Students learn how structures and processes affect overall plant growth and response to the surrounding environment. Students will develop good knowledge on the basic botany of plant species and plant identification techniques. Also, students will be able to describe the functions of the various plant parts in relation to food production, reproduction, aesthetic value, environmental impact, and how they are manipulated by biotic and abiotic factors.

This course will enable students to learn about general production methods and management techniques for field and container grown nursery and ornamental crops including annuals, trees, shrubs and perennial plants. The course will also focus on the production practices of selected potted and cut flower crops grown in greenhouses. Students will perform various propagation techniques including seeding, micropropagation, cuttings, grafting, division, layering, and propagation through specialized plant parts. The course will also provide information on principles of landscape design using different plant materials.

Prerequisite: Cumulative weighted grade point average (CWGPA of 2.0 or greater)
This course requires a minimum of 120 hours of horticulture related experience. The work practicum is subject to approval of and monitoring by a faculty member. Credit is based on successful completion of the work practicum plus a presentation based on the student's work experience. Work experience acquired prior to registration in the program is not eligible for this credit.

This course covers classification of the different types of fruits and vegetables, cultural requirements and crop management, as well as produce handling and marketing. Students examine and apply the concepts of sustainability, production programming, soil and fertility management, equipment selection, irrigation, integrated pest management, harvesting and post-harvest management, cooling and storage of fresh fruits and vegetables.