2017 ASHS Annual Conference

At Delaware Valley University, a small four-year, liberal arts and agricultural institution outside of Philadelphia, the campus farm and accompanying greenhouses and high tunnels provide the infrastructure to teach hands-on horticulture production skills within a four-year degree program that includes a full complement of liberal arts, communication and writing courses. Electives allow the student to tailor their Horticulture degree to business, hydroponics, organics, or a number of other options. Students seed transplants, evaluate greenhouse, set up planting bags and irrigation, transplant, tie and sucker, oversee fertility and injector systems, and harvest. Records are kept to estimate profitability of the system. Another project, called “The Farmer’s Apprentice” is a competition among students to produce the most saleable product throughout the semester from 40 square feet of a raised bed in a cool season crop greenhouse. Students choose lettuces, kale, radishes, beets, spinach, bok choi, onions and other crops to plant and maintain. They are responsible for watering, fertility, weed and insect control, harvest, and record keeping. Once the weather permits, field labs have included laying plastic and drip irrigation, transplanting plants they have grown from seed with a water wheel transplanter, setting up sprinkler irrigation, cutting and planting potatoes, and in the fall, separating garlic heads and planting cloves and spreading leaf or straw mulch. Students are also allowed to drive the tractors and adjust the implements when supervised by the professor and the farm manager. Students enjoy and benefit from these academic yet real-life activities, and upon graduation, have the both the skills and knowledge to farm or to enter any number of careers within the agricultural industry.