Horticultural Internships

Horticultural Internships. 

Floral Dinner OFA 2005

I am in the midst of looking for another intern for the spring and summer.  Hopefully budgets and candidates coalesce to bring me someone that meets my needs and I meet theirs.  This got me thinking about the whole point of internships in the first place.  There are many benefits for both the students and the companies hosting them that I thought I would share some of my thoughts.

While this probably applies to internships in general, I only have experience in horticulture, so there you go.

Students:

Internships are an important part of your career development. Many programs require some sort of internship experience for completion of a degree.  If you have the opportunity to do multiple internships I recommend it.  The idea for most getting a degree in horticulture is that you intend work in horticulture, so make a point to get as much experience as you can.  While one of the more difficult decisions, what do you want to do with your life?

-An internship is a great way to learn what you don’t want to do-

This may sound a bit weak as a reason, but how can you tell what a career path is really like with out experiencing at some level.  There were many paths in horticulture that I have looked at longingly, but most of the time I focused on the highlights and wasn't aware of some of the realities of that field.  Learning those realities and my aversion to them were some of the more important lessons.  They say there is more to learn from a failure than a success.

I am not saying that you won’t learn other valuable lessons, not at all, but deciding what you want to do with your life is tough, and you may not figure that out for a long, long time; but if you can pick up on the parts of a particular job you do and don’t like you can come closer to finding that career that maximizes the good stuff and hopefully makes the boring or annoying stuff more tolerable. 

-An internship allows you to apply classroom lessons-

                  Learning something in a classroom is important.  The theories and applied lessons are very valuable, but putting them to work outside the classroom will reinforce that exponentially.  Class experiences are done in an isolated environment.  When you learn to take cuttings of a plant, you do a few, talk about how and when to propagate other types of plants move on to the next chapter.  When you need to take 5,000 geranium cuttings today because 60% will take and sales pre-booked 3000 for 16 weeks out it takes on a whole new meaning. 

-An internship is an opportunity to learn how a company functions-

                  Every company is does things differently.  When you intern at a given organization you will pick up on the company culture, the procedures for how to do certain tasks and the strategy that company uses to succeed.  They have figured out what works for them and being human are reluctant to change things if they are working.  If you pay enough attention and ask plenty of questions you will pick up on the rational for their approach.  When you go into the work force you can use that knowledge to contribute to your new company.

Many of the successful companies around today are that way because they are open to some level of change and may be receptive to your experiences.  While it can be a tricky balancing act to institute change in an organization, your experiences of what can work in different situations can make you a very valuable employee. 

-An internship is the best venue for asking questions-

                  Guess what?  I love to talk about my job, ask anybody.  I may be a bit of an outlier, but when an intern, mine or anybody else’s comes to me, the flood gates open wide and I will go on and on.  I want to teach you, to get you to understand what I do, why it is important and how to do it right.  I am not alone here, can you think of a better ego boost?  Think about it what other time do you have an opportunity to meet with a company founder/president/upper management who have years of experience to bestow and can ask: “how did you do it?”  If I regret one thing is that when I was an intern I wasn't more aggressive in my own education.  Don’t be the one who waits to be told what to do and what to learn.  Ask to meet with everyone, ask to job shadow the salesman, or the mechanic, or the irrigation crew.  There is so much to learn, and people are willing to bestow their wisdom on interns.

-Internships are good for networking-

2005 Ball interns

 I often talk to managers who are cynical of youth with all that texting, emailing and twittering, they say personal relationships are not valued. 

Personal relationships will never stop being important, its just interactions have become more diversified.  Not wanting to dwell on that today, what I can say is like it or not you have to network.  An internship allows you to get to know people and knowing people can make all the difference if only by association.  At a job interview if you know someone in common, and they think highly of them, that’s a bonus.  No matter what you do in the future, you are not doing it in a vacuum, trust me I have tried.  So learn how to talk to people and get to know them at some level and you will find that it can pay off in the long term.

Employers:

There are a lot of good companies out there doing internship programs, but there are some who are not who should be. Internships are not one sided, no company runs a program for purely philanthropic reasons.  The benefits for the company are many, but some of them are not so tangible.   

As with anything you do in business, you should set objectives for the intern.  What do you want out of it?  Are you looking for future supervisors and managers, maybe someone who will become a customer?  Or are you looking to complete a specific project or focus some resources in a particular area.

Specialized cut flower research

There are two basic types of interns.  General and specialized.   A general intern will be moved from area to area, much like a management trainee to get an experience of many aspects of the business.  Specialized interns on the other hand work in one area.  A marketing intern for instance comes in for the purpose of supporting and working with the marketing department or a production intern brought in to work on a specific project.

-An internship is a way to tryout a potential hire-

            You want to find a qualified candidate from a horticulture program, and you want to vet them a bit, well an internship is designed with an end date.  Be it three months or six it is understood that the intern will be leaving and either going back to school or going on to do something else.  That is of course unless you find a place for them.  You have the freedom to try them out at different jobs and different areas of the company, test out their skills and determine if they are someone who would fit your organization in the long term.

-Interns can be more motivated and better trained-

            Interns are hired from an applicant pool that can be generally described as highly motivated and can have previous training in the job.  I believe that you can get a work that far exceeds the level of compensation being provided.  They are there to learn and to impress, you might even compare it to a 3 month interview.  Obviously there are some tasks they will complete that are more efficiently done by regular staff, you are not looking at them to become laborers; you are training and molding future supervisors and managers.

-Interns can come with Desirable skill for a project-

Say you want to higher a marketing intern that can help with the website.  Well look for interns that have those skills.  You can monitor and approve their work, but they may be very capable in working on that project.  Or you find one that has taken a specific class or had an experience that will help to better your company.  This will depend on the type of internship you are looking to create, but regardless the classroom knowledge is fresh and they are connected directly to the school they came from if that is deemed valuable.

-Interns can be good PR machines-

Circle of Life Program, I am still a PR machine

Sometimes interns impress you enough that you hire them and they become apart of your team.  Other times they go off and they may become part of your customer base.  Even if they go work for a competitor or end up in another part of the country, they take your story with them.  They will influence those around them.  A fellow student may ask how the internship went, and assuming you provide a positive experience, your intern will dish out positive PR for you.  Students will go through school knowing about your company, and that can mean more qualified applicants, better reputation to a professional customer base, and a better overall perception of your company.  This is a long term payoff, but you plan on being in business for the long term right?

In closing, Employees: Internships are not cheap labor; you need to put some effort into making it a valuable experience for both you and the intern.  Students: If you have the opportunity to be an intern, don’t coast through it, you can’t reap what you don’t sow, so be an aggressive advocate for your own success.  

At that I leave to ponder the future of my own internship program and hopefully it will pay off in the long run.  I mean what’s a better experience than working for me?

Always at your service

Your Horticulturist.

Peat Is Sustainable

Peat is sustainable?

Well Yes.  I can say it with some level of confidence that Canadian peat moss is sustainable.  Most likely sustainable, probably, could be, well I guess that all depends.

There is a lot of debate today on whether peat harvesting is a sustainable practice.  And as is often, my views are somewhere in the middle.  If you have heard a talk or tour from me in the last 4 years, chances are I have brought this up because I find it important to educate people on the facts, and once those facts are heard and understood, by all means take a stance.  Each side has a point, and it comes down to where you want to draw the line and how you want to define sustainability.

What is sustainability anyway? This loaded word has a different meaning to everyone.   It matters to a degree what product or practice you are talking about and then what you value as an individual.  I feel that it is dangerous to throw this word around so often without a clear definition of what it is.  So for the sake of this argument, this is my definition of sustainability (today).

I look to the so called triple bottom line when discussing sustainability.  This involves Environmental, Social, and Economic impacts, or more cleverly put: People; Planet; Profit.  These are the things that motivate decisions and where success or sustainability is measured.  Below is my summary of it; for more indepth information and maybe a better explination please see the links.
http://www.economist.com/node/14301663
http://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/ibr/2011/spring/article2.html



Triple Bottom Line

 The Environmental side of this equation is what comes to mind for most when mentioning sustainability.  How are we impacting our planet, the ecosystems, the plants and animals?  Are we destroying things we can get back?  This rightfully gets the lion’s share of the attention these days because for far too long it has been an afterthought for many industries.  Even today companies who claim to care about the environment tend to be overly optimistic on the impact their activities have on water quality, air quality and other environmental impacts.  The challenging part when promoting the triple bottom line concept is giving the environmental side value; finding a way to measure the negative and positive impact the same way you measure the profit margin.  I can say from experience this is no easy task.

Social impacts or social sustainability is not as prominent, but possibly a little easier to measure.  How does your practices impact the community and your employees, how safe is your company?  Yes providing jobs to your community is a great thing, but this goes beyond that. Are your employees better people because they work for you, or is your community better off because of the things you do.  What kind of company culture do you have?  People need to be fulfilled, and productivity suffers when there is a negative cultural aspect in your business.  One can get a grasp on the people side of the equation when looking at employee buy-in or your reputation in the industry and community.  Look to those companies who are listed as the best places to work.  Google didn’t put a slide in the lunch room of one of their offices because it saved time, it made people happy and maybe more fulfilled.  While an extreme example, people want to work for google, too bad they don’t need horticulturists….

The third side of the triple bottom line equation is of course the economics.  This is pretty straight forward.  Is the company in the red or black?  Some may view a profit motive as negative in some cases, but frankly, that is one of the main goals of any entity or organism…survive and thrive.  So yes, in this discussion, a company that can stay in business is a sustainable business.  Making decisions to ensure the survivability of your organization are important.  If you bet on the wrong pony, you may go bust.  There are many examples of companies out there that didn’t see the changes coming and their main business strategy became obsolete and now they don’t exist.

So this is how I try to view the world and business.  However, much of the time profit, or in this economy, surviving financially trumps other things.  That is the reality, not the ideal.  It is important to take a pragmatic approach to these issues in order to put them in balance.  You can’t forsake profit for the environment, but the reverse is also true.  As an organization or as an individual you need to determine what is important, and use that to guide decision making.

Stay tuned for the second of this three part series on sustainability and peat moss.

Always at your service,
Your Horticulturist

The Trouble with Organic

I declare on this the fifth day of September Two Thousand and Twelve that 

I DON'T LIKE ORGANIC.

Now if that doesn't get someones attention I don't know what will.  Though I guess I could use the word hate, but in my house we don't use the word hate.

So now that I have your attention, what the heck is it that I mean.  Well it is quite simple really, organic in the horticultural soil world can mean a few different things depending on context that many don't have a good handle on.  So I have decided to define each of those meanings hear to help clear up some of the confusion.

Organic Definition #1 
The commerce one
The federal government including the USDA, FTC and probably a few other agency's have a very specific definition of what can be called organic and what can not.  The USDA National Organic Program (NOP) (http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/nop) creates criteria for what can be called "organic" in commerce.  This is what we all know and love when we talk about buying organic soap and tomatoes.  Interestingly, soils, composts and fertilizers used to grow organic vegetables themselves are not eligible for the term organic.  They can however be listed under the organic materials research institute (OMRI) which is a third party list of brand name materials allowable by NOP.

The aim of the program was to create order from chaos so consumers would know what organic meant.  For the most part something can't be sold as organic unless if falls under the production regulations laid out in the NOP.  So if you are at your grocery store or Walmart and see the word "organic" on the label you can be assured that it means something specific, unlike deceptive terms like "less fat."  Certainly there are those that are critical of the NOP and say it doesn't follow the original spirit of the movement, or that organic items don't live up to the hype of being healthier or better for you, but that is a conversation for another day.

Regardless of the pros or cons, the term organic printed on food or other agricultural products has a very specific definition backed by law.


Organic Definition #2
The scientific one
As you might imagine, science and commerce don't always see eye to eye.  When discussing organic matter we are looking at the molecular level for our definition.  Carbon based compounds are organic.  Organic chemistry, which I some how survived in college, is all about these carbon compounds.  Cells, oil, proteins, methane are all composed of organic molecules..

In soil science we classify organic matter as the stuff that burns.  Soils are separated into the organic fraction and the mineral fraction.

Organic matter then can be additionally fractionated into humic and fluvic acids among other things.  There is a whole field of research on soil organic matter, it is quite interesting. I have a great book on it if you want to borrow it some time. 

(Humus Chemistry genesis, composition, reactions by F.J. Stevenson)  
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Organic matter is burned off at somewhere between 350-550 degrees Celsius depending on the method used. So we are left with a percentage organic and mineral by weight.  Soil for instance may have an organic matter content of 4% where a compost might be 35-60%.

The weight concept is an important distinction when adding materials together as demonstrated below:

Top soil  weighs 100 lbs, organic matter 4% means 4lbs of organic matter.
Compost weighs 50 lbs, organic matter 40% means 20lbs of organic matter
Added together 150 lbs, 24 lbs organic matter and therefore 16% organic matter.
Also note this is based off dry weight, not wet weight.

So in soils science, organic is a distinction between mineral and organic fraction.

Organic Definition #3
The one that causes all the problems.

When a gardener thinks about putting organic matter into their garden, the first thing they think of is compost, peat, worm castings, or some other organic material.  There is a distinction between what is organic and what is not, but it is not very clear.  Is it something natural, not man made?  Well if that was the case then sand and limestone would be organic, and that isn't right.  You could say that you need something that will contribute organic matter to the soils, but topsoil can contribute organic matter, so that can't be it either.  Maybe having a high organic matter content would work, but then what does "high" mean?  4% is twice as much as 2%.  It took me a while to classify this one, and here it goes:

The "garden" definition of organic is material that is derived from or made up of living or once living organisms.  It is also preferable that the material be somewhat stable in regards to decomposition to benefit plant growth.
Composted leave or manure, bark, peat, and rice hulls are in, sand, topsoil, perlite and lime are out. While that's not perfect it seems to do the job.

Chelsea Flower Show 2002
I like to add archive photos to add some visual appeal.

So here are all three put together.
You are amending a vegetable bed to produce organic spinach using compost as an organic material that has 50% organic matter.
or
In regards to a mix that contains compost, peat and pine bark.
Question:  Is your media 100% organic?
Answer: No,No and Yes
#1-No my mix is not certified organic as that is not allowable under the NOP.  However it is usable by producers growing under NOP regulations.
#2-No my mix is not 100% organic matter as the compost is 40%OM, peat 90%OM and Pine Bark is 85%OM.
#3- Yes, my mix is made up of material that was once living and for good horticultural result, the material used is in stable state of decay that won't negatively effect plant growth.

Now hopefully you see my dilemma and why I just don't like the term organic.

Always at your service,
Your Horticulturist.

Have a topic you are curious about, let me know and if I don't know or can't find out I may be able to make something up that sounds good.

Horticultural Soils

What is a horticultural soil?

On a very broad level it is a substrate that is used for horticulture.  This can include both soil based and soilless media.  There are many words and phrases used to describe soils and here is just a few that I use interchangeably:
-Media
-Mix
-Substrate
-Soil
-Dirt
They all communicate the same thing: a place for the root system of a plant.  They have various descriptors too.  You can have a growing mix or a soilless substrate or an engineered media.  I guess it depends on the context.  In scientific publications it tends to be substrate, where a salesman sells you mix, and a landscaper installs dirt.

I have a very broad view of horticultural soils as I work with a broad array of materials, oops there's another one.  The characteristics of a media depends on the application.  The considerations you have to have for a plug mix or a greenhouse mix used for annual flat production is different from a mix used for shrub production.

Here is an overview of some of the applications of Horticultural soils.

Container Substrates:

Plug mixes need to be highly consistent and finely graded to provide a seedling proper air exchange to the roots.  There is not a lot of room for error.

Greenhouse mixes need proper air exchange as well but also as important is water holding capacity.  You don't want them to dry out, and you don't want them to hold water too long.  While not a plug you are still dealing with small containers and typically short term crops.

Nursery mixes have a lot of the same things as above. One difference is the need for the components in the media to have long term structural integrity, meaning they need to not break down very fast because the crop may be in the same container for a year or two.

Potting mixes is a term for mixes for the home owner, at least for me.  Plants potted either outside or inside are subjected to different conditions than at a greenhouse or nursery.  Does it need long lasting fertility, what is the price point you are trying to meet. It is important to make it as fool proof as possible.

The above materials can be situation and crop specific.  There might be a special rose mix that is different than what you might use for other shrubs.  If the plants are grown inside under boom irrigation vs outside that can matter.  Needless to say it can get very complex.  On the other hand, a good grower can grow in just about anything as long as they have a grasp on how to adjust cultural practices.

Landscape Soils

Garden mixes or landscape mixes that as you might guess are used in gardens and landscapes.  These may have soil, sand, and/or compost.  These are used to replace existing soils or build planting beds.  They need to have long term viability, and need to drain freely.

Soil amendments on the other hand are there to improve the existing soil.  They will typically have high organic matter content and may be designed to be incorporated or top dressed.

Engineered Soils

Rain gardens and bioswales which I will go into more depth later.  In essence they slow water down to have it recharge the groundwater instead of the sewers.

Greens mix- have very specific needs of water infiltration, and particle size to give golf courses what they need.

Structural soils are used for under concrete to allow roots to grow better in confined spaces and their ability to compact is crucial.

Green roof media-  This is media that goes over structure, media on roofs of buildings of course, but even some parks that are over parking garages are green roofs.  Green roofs primary function is to manage storm water, but have a lot of other benefits that I will go into some time.  Here many times the weight, drainage, long term viability become important.

These are all general groupings based on uses, but by no means should one be limited by some artificial designation.  If you go to a store to buy a "garden mix" doesn't mean it won't work in pots.  Of course it may not be suited for that and hold too much water, but a name is just marketing.

Always at your service,
Your Horticulturist

Got a question?  Let me know and I will try to address it.

Wine Grape Update

Here is a quick update on the wine grape scenario

The cuttings have been in the greenhouse for a while and the buds in fact came out prior to the roots.  Here is a great picture of the adventitious roots.  Now ordinarily, you shouldn't do this because you are damaging the root system.  But I have plenty of them so I yanked one out and got a picture for you.

The other thing you need to look out for with wine grape cuttings as well as many is that as I mentioned before the flowers come on the second year wood. You should at some point pinch off the flowers because you don't want the grape the spend energy trying to produce fruit the first year.  

Always at your service,

Your Horticulturist

Horticultural Hell Week

I am Re-posting this from a few years ago.  This years show is April 11,12th and is the 60th year (2015) of the show.  Unfortunately I am not going to make it which is very sad as my family and I look forward to going every year. YH




There is an event taking place on April 21,22 that many don't know about and I think it is important to shed some light on.  That weekend is the University of Illinois Mom's Weekend.  A time for mom's to come down to campus, go out drinking with their kids and by some crafts, or whatever it is they do.  I was on campus for many years and it wasn't until after I left that I realized there was a craft fair or any other events going on for the moms.  That is except for the Horticulture Clubs Flower and Garden Show.

http://www.facebook.com/hortclub

I could probably write a book, and in fact maybe someday I will, but in the mean time I will keep it brief.

The Horticulture Club at the University of Illinois puts on a flower show and sale every year during Mom's Weekend.  The Show consists of gardens designed and built by students and then a large sales area for plants.  Sounds quaint and to the approximately 8000 visitors it is.  To the students planning, prepping, running, and cleaning up the show it is the culmination of a year of hard work ending in an all out week of blood, sweat and tears.  

The club usually starts work sometime Tuesday or Wednesday and go non-stop until the show starts Saturday morning.  I recall being at the stock pavilion(show location) until 5am on Saturday morning finishing up, getting an hour or two sleep before the show started.  It always looks rough during the week, but it always comes together.  Sunday is by far the best, well if you don't have to live it of course.  From the time the show ends until the pavilion is back to normal it is constant tearing down and cleaning, then some late night celebration, exhausted celebration.  Of course there was that one year we had early morning celebration, and the 5 of us left went out to breakfast when we finally finished. Ah the memories.  Hmm I do think there is a book here.  I could make tens of dollars.  Well I will stop for now because I can go on.  It is one hell of a training ground for the students and it tests their stamina and character to do what they are about to do.  

In a mater of a few days, these scrappy kids take this

And turn it into something magnificent.

I say and will continue to say that this student run production is by far one of the greatest educational experiences I have ever had the privilege to be a part of.  With the recent completion of March Madness, there was a lot of talk about performing on a national stage, or the shining moment for these athletes.  Well for the students participating in the flower show, this is their shining moment, this is them performing on a grand stage.  This is their trial by fire, learning how to work as a team and pull off a very complex event.  It really doesn't get any better than this.

This year is the 57th flower show, and will be my 13th. If you have the time and the means please to join me down there this year.  There are plenty of plants to buy, some great jazz music, and some inspiring students who are having their moment under the sun.

Always at your service,
Your Horticulturist

Community Supported Agriculture

Spring is in the air folks, and with that comes the thought of gardening and fresh vegetables.  However if you are like me, you don't really have the space energy for much more than a few tomatoes and peppers.  Now I could take advantage of the farmers markets this summer where I have a access to a variety of fresh and local produce, but those are on weekends and in the morning no less, after a long week I have very little motivation to get out of bed.  So what to do what to do.  If only there was a place I could get fresh vegetables all summer long and not have to think about it.  Any guesses?  Well as you may have guessed, by reading the title of this post, community supported agriculture(CSA) is the answer. 

The idea with CSA's is that you buy a 'share' of the produce upfront and get weekly delivery of produce all season long.  The beauty is that the farmer has much needed cash on hand to pay for supplies and labor early in the year, and you get a portion of the return, so really this is an investment, and much better return than what you can get on Wall Street.  You typically get an assortment of vegetables, fruit, and with some even eggs and cheese.  The selection depends on the particular CSA you work with, but the stuff is fresh, you know who is growing it and may have the opportunity, or obligation to help on the farm. 
The local foods movement is all about knowing where your food comes from and what better way then buying direct from a farmer. 

You can find more about it and help locate one that delivers to your area below.  Make decisions soon as there is a limit to the number of shares a farmer offers to the public, and popular ones may go quickly.
http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

I have done it now for one season and plan to try and do it going forward, and I find there are a number of benefits that I personally find appealing.

Supporting local agriculture and farmers.
As a horticulturist I like the idea that I am putting my money directly into the hands of the people growing the food I eat.

Fresh is always better.
Before I met my wife, she didn't care for tomatoes because she had only had ones she got at salad bars or grocery stores.  I had her grow a tomato on her porch and the 3 or 4 she got on the little plant were sweet and delicious.  I can go into why fresh is better and why store bought are not that flavorful another time, but needless to say, vine ripened tomatoes just taste better, and you can grow different varieties than you can get at the store.  One last point that I can again expand upon another time is that they are healthier because as vegetables age they loose some of the nutritional value.

You are forced to try a lot of different things, and this is by far my favorite point.

Everyone knows that you should eat healthy and exercise, and vegetables and fruit are a major component in that.  So walking through the grocery store every week, you get some tomatoes, bananas, maybe a cucumber and some lettuce because that should be good for you.  Well then you see the 'exotic' section, all those colors and shapes and names you have never heard of.  Bok Choy, Kohlrabi, egg plant, and beets and you think to yourself  'self, those seem to be healthy and I would like to eat them.  I should go home and look up a recipe so I can buy them next time..'  Sounds like a great idea.  You don't dare buy them now, if you don't have a good recipe then they might go bad and we can't waste produce by not using it.  Now how many months go by before you are back in the store having the same conversation with yourself.

What I found with the CSA I did last year, was that I was forced to use things I only dreamed of buying before, and some thing I have never heard of. You bring a box home of your share and look at the Swiss chard and the garlic skapes and realize that you already payed for them, and now that the veggies are in the kitchen they are looking at you, challenging you to to cook them up.  Well your not going to let a radish get the best of you are you????   

So once you are forced to try them you realize that for some, hopefully most, you really enjoy them and they are not that intimidating after all, not even that pesky rutabaga.  I for one now eat Swiss chard regularly and plan to grow it out this year to see how well it will do on my porch.  The nice thing too is that many of the CSAs give you suggestion on how to prepare what they send you, so really you have no excuse.

So that is my pitch to you.  Give it a go if you so desire.  There may be things you never eat, but you will be amazed at how diverse you plate will become because of it.  I will probably try a different CS this year, playing the field a little bit, and I will keep an update of what unfolds and challenge myself to find a way to eat those radishes as they were a bit too spicy for me last year.

Always at your service,
Your Horticulturist