Class Time: Lecture, T, Th 10:30 - 11:20 Horticulture Building, Room 117

Laboratory, W 1:30 - 3:20 Horticulture Greenhouse Room 1104

Instructor: Stephen C. Weller Horticulture Building

Phone: Office: 494-1333 Home: 463-6007

e-mail: weller@hort.purdue.edu

Office Hours: 2-4 PM on Mondays or by appointment

Teaching Assistant: Anish Malladi

Horticulture Building

Office: Room 101 B

Phone: Office: 494-9623; Lab: 496-1630; Home: 496-4001

e-mail: malladi@hort.purdue.edu

Office Hours: Stop in or by appointment

Text: No required text, handouts, Internet addresses, and supplemental reading material will be provided and reference textbooks are available for loan from Dr. Weller. Lecture outlines with references will be provided for each lecture and will be available on the Hort 401 web site (www.hort.purdue.edu/hort/courses/HORT401/).

Grading: Lecture Midterm I 100 points

Midterm II 100 points

10 Study Guides 100 points

Problem Sets 100 points

Final Exam 150 points 550 points

Grading: Laboratory 10 Lab Reports 100 points

1 - 1/2 day Field Trip 50 points 150 points

Course Grade: A = 92 - 100%; B = 82-91%; C = 72 -79%; D = 72% or less

Lecture: Students are expected to attend all class lectures. Midterm and Final Exams will consist of short answer, essay, and objective questions. The Final Exam will be comprehensive. Make-up exams will be given only for valid reasons. Study guides relating to lecture and lab material will be worth 10 points each. The study guides will be handed out 10 times during the semester and are designed to promote a better understanding of course material through review of important principles from lecture material and independent study. Study guides should be used by each student as a basis of enforcing an understanding of important principles that may appear on exams. Problem sets for calculating fertilizer and pesticide application amounts will be given after the lecture on Fertilizers (2-7-02) and after the lecture on Calibration and Pesticide Calculations (4-17-02). Problem sets will be due 1 week after they are handed out (no late problem sets will be accepted).

Laboratory Reports. Laboratory reports will consist of answering questions concerning the laboratory exercises. There will be 10 laboratory exercise reports due during the semester. Each assignment and your responsibility will be clearly explained at the beginning of the laboratory period and in the handout for each lab. Most laboratory exercises will require working in a small group, but each person is responsible for preparing their laboratory exercise report independently. The laboratories that include a field trip near campus done during the regular 2-hour laboratory period will be to the Hort Greenhouses on January 23, The Horticulture Farm on March 6, Bellingers Nursery on March 27 and Throckmorton Farm on April 10.

Heartland Field Trip and Report. There will be 1-1/2 day field trip off-campus during the semester. This field trip is required. I will work with each student to resolve conflicts with other classes. The field trip will be on January 16 and will take 1/2 day. We will leave campus at noon and return to campus no later than 6 pm. The field trip report format will consist of the following sections and will be worth 50 pts and is due 1 week after the field trip:

1. Summary of the business. Include: business location, who guided the tour, job responsibilities of guide, when was business started, and types of customers (5 pts).
2. Characteristics of the overall operation. Include: size of facility, its general layout, specific types of plants grown, peak growing season(s) and the labor force (10 pts).
3. Equipment technology and marketing. Include: types of equipment observed, growth facility characteristics and production practices used. Include: watering, cooling, heating, fertilization, and pest control practices, specialized growth structures, sales practices, distribution methods and other things of interest (10 pts).
4. Long-term potential for growth. Discuss the competitive pressures within the greenhouse industry, employment opportunities within this industry for horticulture graduates, and what opinions our guide had concerning major challenges facing their business specifically and the industry as a whole (10 pts).
5. Strengths and weaknesses of Heartland. Include: factors observed that make Heartland have advantages over its competitors or lead to disadvantages. What is the scale of the operation? (10 pts).
6. Value of this field trip. Discuss what you gained from this field trip relating to your horticulture educational and career goals (5 pts).