The Greenhouse

Guidelines for using the Greenhouse

 

The Greenhouse has 4 sections:

Room 1: Day temperature 28° C, night temperature 25° C

Room 2: Day temperature 18° C, night temperature 15° C. The room is primarily reserved for the Department of Agricultural Sciences.

Room 3: Day temperature 18° C, night temperature 15° C

Room 4: Day temperature 24° C, night temperature 17° C

 

The day length is 16 hours. Lights are switched on at 4 a.m.and turned out again at 8p.m. Day length and temperatures are often higher during the summer.

 

The Greenhouse is run by the Department with standard materials. If you wish to use other materials, you must pay for them yourself/provide a project code.

 

Space reservation

Contact gardener Steen Malmmose who coordinates the use of space in the Greenhouse. Because of the size of the Greenhouse, there is rarely room for larger projects. The greenhouses on Rolighedsvej maybe used for these instead, but be aware that they charge a fee for use of space.

 

It is forbidden to do tests with plant diseases – these must be performed only in the climate chambers.

 

It is forbidden to transfer plants from the Greenhouse to the climate chambers!

 

Guidelines and advice on plant growth:

1. Write your name and email address clearly on a piece of masking tape, and stick on the front of the tray.

2. Wattex mats are used only in small pots (5.5 cm Ø); the shiny side of the mat should face downward.

3. White labels are used for wt-plants and yellow for GM-plants.

4. Use Pindstrup 2 sphagnum, which contains clay and is fully fertilized. A full description of the content can be found on the back of the white sacks. Pots should be filled to the top and then pressed lightly.

5. Water the pots with Bactimos, a biological agent, which consists of spores and active protein from the bacteria Bacillus Thuringiensis subs.israelensis. Pots should be watered with Bactimos 3 times at 7 day intervals.

6. When sowing Arabidopsis the seeds should lie above soil. Coverthe pots with cling film, and place the tray in a coldroom – for a more uniform germination.

7. Plants transferred to soil from plates, should also be covered with cling film.

8. For vigorous plants, start growing them in an 8 hour chamber – this applies both if you require leaf material or seeds. When the leaves reach the edge of the pot, you can add Hornum fertilizer once a week. This is kept under the sink in the Greenhouse.

9. Be careful not to over water.It’s alright if the surface soil is a light brown. If you are unsure about watering, put the plants in a tray with holes in it and put this in a larger tray without holes; this produces a drain.

 

Diseases and pests

Beneficials are released every two weeks and they keep most pests down, but sometimes it is necessary to spray with pesticides. The most common problems are mildew and lice.

 

Mildew: A fungus disease that reveals itself by a white coating on the leaves. Contact Steen Malmmose, and he wil put up a sulphur evaporator or spray with Octave which is a broadly working fungicide.

 

Lice: You often don’t see lice until the plants start to bloom. If your smaller plants look stunted, it is very often caused by lice; you can see it by turning the leaves. Contact Steen Malmmose and he will take preventative measureas, usually by spraying with Confidor, an insecticide. Preventive spraying is not allowed, as it kills the beneficials.

 

GM-plants

If you want seeds from your GM-plants, the single plants or the whole tray must be sealed off until the seeds are mature. For single plants, use a seed collector that is put on the stem, at approx. 2 cm height, and then a plastic case is wrapped around (aracon) when the stem has grown to about 10-15 cm. This should not be done any earlier because it makes spraying difficult.

 

If you want to isolate the entire tray, you place an iron rack in the tray, a split bamboo in each corner, and then cling film around the whole thing.

 

Contact

If you need help or have any questions, please contact gardener Steen Malmmose between 8-15.30. Tel. 35 33 33 66, stm@life.ku.dk.