Home Studies Course: Nursery Management
Advance your career in the Production Nursery Industry
Managing a production nursery involves more than just propagating and potting up plants. Even the small nursery must be able to not only producer plants, but do it at a pre determined cost, then sustain those plants before and during marketing. The nursery industry currently has a real need for people with skills and knowledge in managing production plant nurseries! This course provides a solid grounding for developing those skills.
Production Nurseries operate both within government authorities, and as commercial enterprises, supplying plants to landscapers and retail outlets.
This is a huge industry that is highly likely to expand at an ever increasing rate into the future. The demand for nursery stock is stimulated by property development (landscapers need more plants), global warming (trees offset carbon emissions), mining (old mine sites need to be replanted), etc. Nurseies can be small or large.
This is one of the few industries that a person can still launch as a part time home based business, and grow into a huge multi million dollar enterprise.
Whether you work in this industry already; or plan to move into it in the future; this course could be a stepping stone to improving your prospects considerably.
Lesson Structure
There are 8 lessons in this course:
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Nursery Site Organisation
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Nature and Scope of Wholesale Nurseries
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Specialist Nurseries
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Location and Site Selection Characteristics : market proximity, land cost, climate, isolation, air quality, water etc
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What to Grow
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Determining Marketable varieties
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Site Surveying
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Management
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Starting as a Nursery Producer
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The Mission Statement
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Controlling Quality
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Revamping an Existing Nursery
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Nursery Standards: Cost Efficiency, Quality standards, Size
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Business Planning
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Quantity
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Case Study
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Production Systems
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Flow Chart for Growing a Nursery Crop
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Production Methods
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Cutting Production Efficiencies
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Work Scheduling
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Type and Number of Employees
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Human Resource Management
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Nutrition and Pest Management
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Overview of Nursery Pests and Diseases
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Identifying Problems
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Disease and pest management
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Nursery Hygiene
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Resistant Plants
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Controlling Problems through Cultural Practices
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Physical Control of Problems
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Biological Control
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Chemical Control
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Minimising Chemical Use
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Conducting Inspections within the Nursery
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Nutrient Management
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Fertiliser use and plant nutrition.
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Growing media
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Growing Media for Container and Field Grown Plants
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Understanding soils
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Soil Testing
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Improving Soils
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Potting Mixes and soil-free mixes
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Components of Potting Media
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Selecting Potting Media
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Problems with Potting Media
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Propagation Media
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Sanitation
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Sterilisation techniques.
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Irrigation
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Water Supply
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Town Water
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Water Courses and Groundwater
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Rainwater
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Water Quality
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Water Treatment
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Recycling Water
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Irrigation Systems: overhead sprinkler, drip, etc
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Pulse Watering, Demand Watering, Precision etc
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Pumps
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Scheduling Irrigation
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Irrigation System Maintenance
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Use of liquid fertilisers through irrigation.
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Modifying Plant Growth
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Plant Uniformity
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Holding Stock
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Making Stems Sturdier
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Making Plants Taller
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Developing a Compact Root System
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Creating a denser, bushier Plant
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Improving Foliage Colour
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Encouraging Flowering
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Flower forcing out of Season
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Using Light to Modify Plant Growth
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Greenhouses and other protective plant structures.
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Marketing Strategies
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Overview of Nursery Marketing
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Nursery Products
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Marketing Mix
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Market Research
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Marketing Budget
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Marketing Plan.
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Selection of Nursery Crops
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Considering Options
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Choosing a Plant Variety to Market
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Developing a stock list
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Criteria for Selecting Plants
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Quarantine Concerns
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Clearing Surplus Stocks
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Nursery Industry Trends
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Surveying Customers
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Terminology
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims
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Explain the significance of property, marketing and contracts to site selection.
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Estimate the cost of producing different plant varieties as specified marketable products.
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Develop a nutritional program for plants in a wholesale nursery.
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Explain the implementation of integrated pest management in a specified nursery situation.
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Explain different chemical methods of controlling plant appearance.
This is an example of some course notes:
CASE STUDY - NURSERY DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS PLAN
Introduction
GreenPlant is a hypothetical business located about 100 km from the nearest capital city. The site has two hectares available with the option to expand. The nursery will be a relatively simple operation, with the production of tubestock limited to varieties easily grown from seed or cuttings, the principal markets for these plants being retail and wholesale growing-on nurseries. Other markets might include direct sales to the general public, farmers, parks departments, tourists (eg. wildflowers and other indigenous plants) and production for specialist retailers.
The aim is to produce at least 150,000 plants in the first year, increasing to 500,000 within three years. The nursery will initially require a work building, storage areas, a propagating structure (polyhouse), an additional two polyhouses for establishing newly transplanted seedlings and rooted cuttings, and a shade area for growing on and hardening off stock. The final desired plan for the 2-hectare site is a wholesale propagation nursery with a retail area and a display garden, which will also provide a source of propagation material.
It is envisaged that a nursery will initially provide enough work to fully occupy three to four full time workers, and several casual/part time staff. The staff employed will be experienced personnel, plus trainees which will become a larger percentage of staff as time progresses.
Planning
• Develop a broad concept plan for developing the site. The design should include the garden and stock plant areas in addition to the nursery layout, and must allow for expansion and other future developments. It should be drawn up by a consultant skilled in both nursery operations and landscape design.
• Develop basic nursery facilities - employ qualified tradespeople or experienced contractors.
• Ensure there is sufficient propagating material available when required. Purchase or collect seed, and obtain stock plants while the construction of basic nursery facilities progresses. Propagation should commence as soon as construction of the main nursery facilities are complete; with some collection and preparation of propagating material having occurred prior to and during construction. The first month of operations (including at least two weeks of propagation activity) should be considered a training period. It is extremely important that a skilled, experienced and commercially successful nurseryperson manage this period of the operation. In addition, propagators must also be experienced to ensure high productivity and quality.
Plant selection
When deciding what plants to grow or stock, the following criteria must be considered:
• Ease of propagation: varieties that are easy to propagate may bring a lower wholesale price, due to an oversupply in the market, and although the more difficult species are often more costly to produce due to high losses and/or long time in production, they can fetch a much higher price.
• Time: some species can be ready to sell in less than a month, while others may take much longer. In the initial stages of the nursery, it is extremely important to produce plants quickly, in order to generate cash flow and establish a market profile.
• Suitability to your facilities: the facilities briefly described in the introduction should provide the basic requirements for the propagation of a large range of seed and cutting grown plants.
• Suitability of climate: it is always more efficient to work with the environment rather than trying to recreate different environments.
• Demand for particular varieties: It is important to grow plants for which there is a market. The initial market research will provide some information on the types of plants to grow. Further plant varieties can be added based on information included in the marketing section of this plan. This can be amended or updated according to market demands, the availability of stock, and as skill levels and facilities are improved/upgraded.
Production schedule and estimated gross returns
No matter what kind of venture you are starting - even a non-profit one, if it is not funded properly, it will not be around very long. All economic aspects of your enterprise must be well thought out and organised, with as much formal planning as possible. Startup costs must be calculated, and the source or sources of funding confirmed. Ongoing monthly costs must also be estimated, and methods of payment established.
The following production schedule provides for the progressive development of the GreenPlant Wholesale Nursery to a production level of approximately 500,000 plants per annum after three years.
The following notes apply to the figures listed in the production schedule:
• A relatively unskilled propagator produces about 750 cuttings per day, or 14000/month.
• The number of cuttings taken is based on initially one propagator working on cuttings 5 days/week and one propagator/tuber working on both seeds and cuttings, both working an 8 hour/day, 45 weeks per year. During spring and summer, further casual staff will be employed to take extra cuttings. By the end of the third year, three full time propagators will be employed to produce the half a million plants required, extra greenhouse space will be available, and hopefully, there will be many loyal customers ready to purchase.
• The estimates for cutting strike rates (80%) and the survival of cuttings and seedlings after tubing (95%) are based on survival rates for similar nurseries in .....
• Returns based on an average price of £1 per/plant (prices range from 75p to £2).
FREQUENT QUESTIONS
Why Choose This Course
- Unique course materials (developed by our staff) and more current than some colleges (many reviewed annually); as a result, ACS graduates can be more up to date.
- We work hard to help you understand and remember it, develop an ability to apply it in the real world, and build networks with others who work in this field (It’s more than just serving up a collection of information –if all you want is information, buy a book; but if you want an education, that takes learning to a whole new level).
- Start whenever you want, study at your own pace, study anywhere
- Don’t waste time and money traveling classes
- We provide more choices–courses are written to allow you more options to focus on parts of the subject that are of more interest to you; a huge range of elective subjects are offered that don’t exist elsewhere.
- Tutors are accessible (more than elsewhere) – academics work in both the UK and Australia, 5 days a week, 16 hours a day. Answering emails and phone calls from students are top priority.
- We treat students as individuals –don’t get lost in a crowd. Our tutors communicate with you one to one.
- Extra help at no extra cost if needed. When you find something you cannot do, we help you through it or will provide another option.
- Support after you finish a course –We can advise about getting work, starting business, writing a CV, etc. We can promote students and their businesses through our extensive profile on the internet. Graduates who ask will be helped.
- Support from a team of a dozen professional horticulturists, living in different parts of the UK, and in both temperate and tropical climate zones of Australia.
About ACS
ACS was started in 1979 by John Mason, who at the time was a gardening author, horticultural consultant and lecturer in horticulture at several colleges across Melbourne (in Australia). Over the summer that year John discovered that there were thousands of applicants going to be turned away from horticulture courses at Burnley Horticultural College (now Melbourne University). There were simply too few courses being offered for the number of people wanting to study horticulture in Australia. This situation prompted a move to establish a correspondence course at Burnley; but after months of unsuccessful lobbying for support from government; John wrote a course, and with help from a colleague at Council of Adult Education, marketed it.
Standards were originally set in line with what were seen to be the standards of Australia's top horticultural college; and over the years, those standards have never been reduced. This makes our courses longer and more demanding than some other colleges; but it has also led to us building a credibility that stands tall in the horticulture industry across the world.
In the early 1990's John started visiting the UK and becoming involved with the horticulture industry there. Around the mid 1990's ACS began offering RHS courses, and in 2003, John was formally recognised for his contribution to British Horticulture by being made a fellow of the Institute of Horticulture. ACS, as a school, established an office and staff in the UK in 2001, and has expanded considerably since then. Today it is formally affiliated with five other colleges in the UK (including Warwickshire College); all of who license and deliver ACS courses.
A team of leading horticulturists work for the school's horticulture department, including 12 faculty members in both the UK and Australia
How You Study
- As soon as you enroll, we send an email to explain it all.
- We direct you to a short orientation video (downloadable over the internet) to watch, where our principal introduces you to how the course works, and how you can access all sorts of support services
- You are either given a code to access your course online, or sent out a CD or course materials through the mail (or by courier).
- Work through lessons one by one, each lesson typically having four parts:
- An aim -which tells you what you should be achieving in the lesson
- Reading -notes written and regularly revised by our academic staff
- Set Task(s) -These are practicals, research or other experiential learning tasks that strengthen and add to what you have been reading
- Assignment -By answering questions, submitting them to a tutor, then getting feedback from the tutor, you confirm that you are on the right track, but more than that, you are guided to consider what you have been studying in different ways, broadening your perspective and reinforcing what you are learning about
- Other - Your work in a course rarely stops at just the above four parts. Different courses and different students will need further learning experiences. Your set task or assignment may lead to other things, interacting with tutors or people in industry, reviewing additional reference materials or something else. We treat every student as an individual and supplement their learning needs as the occasion requires.
- We provide access to and encourage you to use a range of supplementary services including an online student room, including online library; student bookshop, newsletters, social media etc.
- We provide a "student manual", that is a quick solution to most problems that might occur
Recognition
- ACS has a highly respected international profile: by employers and academics alike. People are more aware of us than many other distance education schools –just do a search for “horticulture distance education courses” and see what comes up on the internet; or search for ACS Distance education on Facebook or Linked in, and see how many connections we have compared to other colleges.
- Recognised by International Accreditation and Recognition Council
- ACS has been educating people around the world since 1979
- Over 100,000 have now studied ACS courses, across more than 150 countries
- Formal affiliations with colleges in five countries
- A faculty of over 40 internationally renowned academics –books written by our staff used by universities and colleges around the world.
Extra Books or Reference Materials
- The course provides you with everything that you need to complete it successfully.
- Assignments may ask you to look for extra information (eg. by contacting nurseries, visiting gardens or searching the internet), but our school's resources and tutors are always available as a back up. If you hit a "roadblock", we can quickly send you additional information or provide expert advice over the phone or email; to keep you moving in your studies.
- Some students choose to buy additional references, to take their learning beyond what is essential for the course. If a student wants to buy books, we operate an online bookshop offering ebooks written by staff at the school. Student discounts are available if you are studying with us. The range of e books available is being expanded rapidly, with at least one new ebook being written and published by our staff every month.
- See www.acsebook.com for ebooks (available in pounds stirling). We also sell books through our Australian bookshop (selling in Australian dollars) at www.acsbookshop.com
