Nursery
Production
Project
PLSC 367
Fall 2000
The class project is an integral part of this course. It will require that students work as a group to apply the information learned in this course as well as seek out information in references. The completion of this project will require substantial out-of-class time as scheduled by the individual groups. Students will work in a group and select individuals to fill the following positions:
President/Financial Manager – Organize and coordinate efforts. This individual is ultimately responsible for the effectiveness of the group. He/she must motivate the other members and assure equity in the workload. He/she is also responsible for accounting; maintaining balance in account, and tracking expenses.
Production Superintendent – Responsible for the production of finished plants including watering, pest diagnosis, transplanting and pruning.
Propagator/ Sales Manager – Responsible for labeling, making information tags, catalog descriptions and tracking sales information as well as, for all aspects of the propagation of liners.
All individuals must cooperate to complete the appropriate tasks. The person responsible for a particular task according to the above schedule can recruit help as needed in consultation with the president.
Each group will have a budget of $1000 to cover all expenses (plants, media, labor, space rental, general supplies, etc.). They will have to produce a minimum of 25 plants for each of 10 crops. Additionally, they must produce a minimum of 25 liners of each of 5 crops. Two liner crops must be seed grown.
All students in a group will receive the same grade. The grade will be determined based on the achievement of production goals, plant quality and proceeds generated by the plants produced. The written material is due the second to last class period of the semester. It will include a statement by each group member as to what they did and summarize their efforts. This may be an evaluation of the group’s activities for the president, plant names and numbers (and details of propagation) for the propagator, production results and methods for the production superintendent, plant descriptions, photos and other sales materials for the Sales manager, and cost records for the financial manager. The president should also prepare a summary at to what succeeded, what did not work and what they would change in the future.