Lesson 7.2 Project Steps
Section 7: Project Assignment
Lesson 2: Project Steps
You should have chosen your plant - almost any plant except a tomato plant, since that's what we will be using to illustrate the requirements of this project.
Here is a sample of the "Tomato Plant" development, according to the steps in the Assignment Part A, the Project. This sample is to help you understand what is required, when you start the project using your choice of plant. This sample doesn't include
pictures, but gives you an idea of what information is required to earn the full 4 marks for each of the steps. When you work on your project, you must include pictures.
Assignment Project Sample - Tomato Plant
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Water Requirements: It is important to water tomatoes regularly. Irregular watering causes the fruit to suddenly swell, cracking the skin of the tomato. This allows fungal growth to get a hold, completely ruining the fruit. It also alters the plant's internal calcium balance, which causes blossom end rot, where the base or blossom end of the tomato develops a brown patch. Poor watering practice also contributes to blossom drop, where the flowers fall off and no fruit develops at all. Keeping the soil too wet can also cause roots and the base of the stem to rot.
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Light Intensity and Duration: A minimum of six hours of full sunlight per day is required to produce fruit. But eight hours or more will produce a greater yield of fruit. In summary - the more sun, the better.
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Type of soil and/or growing medium: Tomatoes will grow in just about any kind of soil, provided you add the right fertilizers. It is, however, a good idea to add compost or other soil conditioner to ensure better water retention as well as proper drainage.
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Containers in which the plant can be started: It is best to start tomato plants from seed in peat pots (or similar pots for growing seedlings). Seedlings acquired from a greenhouse can be transplanted into almost any kind of pot.
- Using Plantlets (seedlings): If you do not wish to start your tomato plants from seeds, you can buy seedlings from a local greenhouse or garden centre. Look for dark green foliage and a sturdy stem. If the bottom of the leaves are yellow or brown, or if there are flowers already showing, the plant is stressed.
Look at the underside of the leaves closely for any pests. If you see chew marks or aphids, don't buy it. Try to buy the healthiest, pest-free plants available.
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Seeding: Most people start their tomato plants from seed indoors. The main advantage of doing this is the huge variety of tomatoes you can grow, because you are not relying on whatever the garden center or nursery
has in stock.
If you are using seeds that you have gathered from your own tomato plants from a previous year, make sure you are using an heirloom (heritage) variety. Seeds from a hybrid tomato do not produce true to form, and the results may be disappointing.
Seeding should be done about six to eight weeks before the last spring frost. No expensive supplies are necessary. All you need is a sunny south-facing window and a bag of potting mix that is fluffy and light. You can also prepare your own potting mix
with a blend of good top soil, vermiculite, and peat moss. Seeds do not like a heavy soil.
You can use large-surface containers as a seed bed (later, transplanting will be necessary), or you can use individual peat pots which can sustain plants until they are ready for the garden. For the latter, use only two or three seeds for each pot, since you will want only one plant per pot. Cover the seeds with about one-half centimetre of potting mix and pat down lightly. Moisten the soil (do not drench) and keep it moist until you see the sprouts.
Maintain the plant by providing optimum conditions (e.g., temperature, watering, etc.), and discuss the manner of transplanting from one pot to another when necessary.
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Temperature and Water: Once the seeds have germinated i.e., you can see the sprouts, water less frequently. More plants are killed by too much water, which rots the roots, than too little water. Young sprouts grow best at
room temperature or slightly higher, such as on a window sill.
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Transplanting: If you seeded into a large-surface container, you must transplant your seedling into individual modules in a seed tray when they are about an inch high. When they outgrow the modules, select the best
of them and transplant them into three-inch (7 or 8 centimetre) pots. Planting them deeply encourages good root formation. You could probably cut out the module stage, but moving from modules to pots does not place any strain on
the plant, and usually no plants are lost at this stage.
Depending on the lateness of spring, some vigorous varieties of tomatoes may need to move to an even larger pot (potting up) before they reach their final position and are ready for transplanting into the garden plot.
Discuss hardening off techniques to prepare your plant for outdoor planting e.g., placing the plant outdoors while still potted.
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Hardening Off: It is important to toughen your plants up by reducing the amount of water they are getting for the last week indoors. The result will be shorter, more fibrous plants that will suffer less when they transition to outdoors.
The second part of hardening off is to acclimatize the plants to the outdoors. This is a gradual process where you take them outside for longer and longer periods. It is good to start off with partial shade and increase the amount of required sunlight gradually over seven to ten days. Make sure the plants are sheltered from strong winds, and do not expose them to temperatures below 10 degrees Celsius, since this will put the plants into shock and seriously slow down their growth.
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Watering During Hardening Off: Remember that the outside air movement will speed up the rate that the soil will dry, so be sure to keep the soil moist enough to prevent wilting.
Transplant your potted plant into a garden or yard setting when appropriate e.g., considering the danger of cool nights.
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Minimum Temperature Requirements: It is okay to plant tomatoes in the garden when the temperature is a consistent 10 degrees Celcius, but plants won't begin to set fruit until the overnight low is regularly above 13 degrees Celcius.
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Planting: When planting, bury the plants deeper than they were in the pots, all the way to a few top leaves if they are spindly. Tomatoes are able to develop roots all along their stems. You can simply dig a shallow tunnel and lay the plant sideways. It will straighten up and grow toward the sun.
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Spacing: Plant your tomato plants approximately two to three feet (60 to 90 cm) apart in rows about three feet (one metre) apart.
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Watering: Water deeply and regularly while the plants are developing. Irregular watering e.g., missing a week and then trying to make up for it, leads to blossom end rot and cracking. Once the fruit begins to ripen, lessening the water will coax the plant into concentrating its sugars. Don't withhold water so much that the plants wilt and become stressed, or they will drop their blossoms and possibly their fruit.
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Caging: As the plants get larger, they will need to be staked to support the weight of the fruits as they begin to grow. Cages are a quick and easy fix that works well, and occasional pruning of the lowest branches of the plant will prevent ripening tomatoes from touching the ground, where they might rot.
Identify common diseases, pests, deficiencies, and ailments of the plant as it grows in its new setting i.e., in your garden or yard, and the treatment, control, and prevention of these.
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Tomato Blight: This is a very serious ailment. It is the same as potato blight (tomatoes are in the same family as potatoes, so they can get blight).
There is little you can do if tomatoes get blight. There are fungicidal sprays (Dithane 945) you can use that will help, but only if used at the very first sign of blight. Tomatoes that are ripe on the vine can still be used, but the rest will probably rot without treatment.
You can prevent blight by practising good hygiene - using clean water from drinking water mains rather than water from an outside untreated source. - Virus Infection: Tomatoes can get virus infections that are often fatal. The symptoms usually are yellowing or mottling of the leaves and reduced yield. Smokers should be aware that tomatoes can catch a virus carried in tobacco, so you should never smoke and handle the plants. Washing your hands after a cigarette before handling tomato plants is a good idea.
If you see signs of virus infection, cut off the affected leaves and hope for the best. Sometimes the infection doesn't make too much difference and you can basically ignore it.
- Magnesium Deficiency: A lack of magnesium causes the plant to look like it has a virus. It is easily treated by spraying it with Epsom salts (20g/litre) every day for a week. Even if you just think it's a virus, it's a good idea to spray it with Epsom Salts, just in case. It can do no harm, and it is perfectly safe and cheap.
- Tomato Blossom End Rot: This is a brown patch that appears on the base of the fruit. It is caused by the plant drying out, so the cure is to ensure plants never dry out. At the same time, do not allow them to get too waterlogged or you will drown them. Regular watering is critical to success with tomatoes.
- Tomato Pests: Tomatoes can suffer from aphids, green fly, white fly, and slugs. This is more of a problem in greenhouses, where you can hang yellow sticky cards to control flies. Apart from slugs eating the fruit, tomatoes do not seem too bothered by pests.
- Soil Sickness: Like most plants, it is not a good idea to grow the same thing in the same spot year after year. Rotate your crops in the garden yearly, and do not grow tomatoes next to potatoes, because of the potato blight problem.
Harvest the plant in an appropriate manner e.g., determine when and how the vegetable, fruit, or flower can be picked or cut. In the case of a non-flowering ornamental plant, such as a bush or tree, discuss over-wintering preparations e.g., watering before freeze-up, or wrapping the foliage with protective cover.
- When to Harvest: Tomatoes should be harvested when they are fully ripened and just starting to soften. Not all tomatoes will ripen at the same time. As fall approaches you should give your plants a last dose of plant food to keep them healthy into the fall season. This will help some of the green tomatoes ripen on the vine.
There are always green tomatoes left on the vine in the fall. Once night time temperatures start dipping below 15 degrees Celsius, you probably won't get any new fruits forming. To speed up ripening of the existing tomatoes, pinch off any new flowers.
Finally, when the weather no longer allows for tomatoes to be left on the vine, pick the more mature green fruits and take them inside, where they will eventually ripen in about two or three weeks. They will rot less readily if you can place them blossom side down.
- Storing Tomatoes: Once picked, store ripe tomatoes in dark, warm conditions. Do not refrigerate tomatoes! Never! Fresh tomatoes start to lose flavour as soon as they go below 13 degrees Celsius - in which case you might as well buy those tasteless clones at the supermarket.
You have three days to use a vine-ripened tomato. If you have too many to use, remember that a cooked sauce will freeze nicely and will be a joy to use during the winter months.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of chemical vs. non-chemical methods of pest and disease control. This does not need to be specific to the plant you selected.
- Expectations for Your Research: The pros and cons of chemical and non-chemical methods of plant pest and plant disease control have been debated for many years. You are not expected to take a stand on this issue
(i.e., you don't have to be in favour of one and against the other). But, you should be aware of some of the methods involved (especially non-chemical methods), and their relative value.
You are, therefore, asked to do some research on this subject in order to familiarize yourself with this matter. An Internet search will be very helpful in this, since there are many good websites that deal explicitly with both chemical and non-chemical methods of pest and disease control. The sources listed below will provide you with a good start for your research.
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Reporting Your Research: Write a brief report on the methods of pest and disease control, chemical and non-chemical, but especially non-chemcal, that you researched. The length of your report is not specified. You will be graded on quality of content.
Remember: Your report is to be a fact-based summary of your findings, not a debate. You must use your own words; refer to the Plagiarism policy in the Introduction of this course.
https://www.todayshomeowner.com/debate-over-organic-chemical-fertilizers/
You will then complete Quiz #3, which covers Sections 5, 6, & 7.