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Problem-solving at the OFA Short Course

January 29, 2008  By Greenhouse Canada


Growers attending the OFA Short Course
(July 14-17 in Columbus, Ohio) will
find solutions to many of their business challenges.
The sessions are divided into ‘greenhouse
production,’ ‘greenhouse advanced’
and ‘greenhouse survival’ tracks.
An all-day tour will serve as an on-theroad
learning lab on July 14.

Growers attending the OFA Short Course
(July 14-17 in Columbus, Ohio) will
find solutions to many of their business challenges.
The sessions are divided into ‘greenhouse
production,’ ‘greenhouse advanced’
and ‘greenhouse survival’ tracks.
An all-day tour will serve as an on-theroad
learning lab on July 14.

Delegates will
visit two commercial greenhouse operations
and the Ohio State University Department of
Horticulture and Crop Sciences centre.
They’ll learn about challenges the hosts have
experienced and how those issues were
addressed.
The opening day grower program will
also feature two half-day workshops on containers
and plant growth management, as
well as a two-part lean manufacturing workshop.

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Whether it’s grouping plant material in a
single pot or clustering single specimens
together, the container workshop will showcase
a variety of recipes highlighting a variety
of texture, foliage, colour and flower
options.

 The plant growth management symposium
is all about getting the most out of
chemical and non-chemical approaches.
Learn how environmental and cultural parameters
influence plant growth and how to
control them.
The two-part lean manufacturing workshops
will illustrate how to:

• Define value and waste in core processes

• Map the stream of value-creating activities
that produce what customers want

• Create flow and pull within a company

• Generate continuous improvement within
an organization.
The Floriculture College of Knowledge, a
Michigan State University program, will
offer Track One and Track Two courses on
July 13 and July 14.

 Track One sessions
include seedling plug production, along with
root zone, disease and insect management.

Track Two includes bedding plant production,
perennial forcing, and environmental
management topics.
Don’t miss the “Grower Town Meeting:
Are We Cultivating Our Own Extinction?”
It’s time for growers to talk about it. The fear
is that growers have become so fragmented
and so independent from one another that
they end up fighting even when trying to
avoid such problems. Is this infighting, done
both deliberately and subconsciously, setting
up the industry to become irrelevant in the
marketplace?

Additional general sessions will be
offered Saturday through Tuesday during the
show. Speakers will share their experience
and expertise on such as topics as:

• Surviving the energy crisis
(a five-part series)
• Tank mixing

• Fertilizer runoff management

• New plant categories

• pH shift

• Profitable poinsettia production

• Water sanitation

• New technology approaches

• PGRs on perennials

• Changing world of annuals

• Helping the small grower succeed

• Sustainable horticulture

• New products for new niches

• Pay-by-scan

• Pesticide resistance

• New plants for growers and landscapers

• Advanced plug technology

• Greenhouse automation

• Diagnosing nutrient deficiency

• State-of-the-art water management

• Advanced crop nutrition

• Crop culture and sanitation.

For more information, contact OFA at
614-487-1117 or ofa@ofa.org, or visit
www.ofa.org.


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