STANDARD COMPETENCIES:

 

 

 1. Discuss the goals and duties of a professional plant propagator.

 2. Discuss and explain intellectual property rights in a plant propagation context (i.e. what constitutes intellectual property, how intellectual property rights are protected and how those protections would affect a commercial plant propagator's work).

 3. Demonstrate and explain seed propagation (including seed harvesting and cleaning,  seed storage practices,  viability testing methods, seed certification, seed dormancy mechanisms and the pre-germination conditioning methods used to alleviate seed dormancy, seed sowing techniques, stages of seedling development, and the factors that impact seed quality and germination).

 4. Demonstrate an understanding of vegetative propagation methods (i.e. Propagation by shoot and root cutting, division, layering, specialize structures, grafting and budding, mircropropagation etc; common variations of each methodology (ex. the various types of layering) and the reasons why a particular methodology might be used to propagate a particular crop).

 5. Discuss and explain the attributes of the propagation container and propagation substrates that are critical to propagule survival or salability.

 6. Discuss and explain integrated pest management in the plant propagation environment (i.e. identification of important pathogens, the role of sanitation in preventing disease transmission, etc).

 7. Discuss and explain the occupational safety concerns (i.e. safe handling of pesticides, alleviating repetitive motion, etc) found in the plant propagation work environment and compliance with regulations concerning those safety concerns.

 8. Compare the functions of irrigation, mist, and fog in plant propagation.

 9. Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of trueness-to-variety, totipotency, topophysis, periphysis and cyclophysis to plant propagation.

 10. Discuss (1) the differences between cultivars that arise from sexual union and those that arise from bud-sports and chimeras (2) the differences between  cultivars of a species and subspecific variants of a species and (3) how these differences would affect propagation.

 11. Demonstrate an understanding of the scientific method and its application to plant propagation research.

 12. Write a plant  propagation protocol for (1) a crop that is primarily propagated from seed and (2) a crop that is primarily vegetatively propagated.

 13. Use numeracy and problem solving skills (i.e. ability to solve ratios, proportions and percents; convert units of length, weight, volume, and temperature; organize data into appropriate tables, charts and graphs, use tables charts and graphs to interpret data; compute measures of central tendency (mean, median and mode) from raw data and determine which best reflects the data set; etc) to solve content related problems (ex. chemical dilutions, rooting percentages, soil volume and properties, mist bench design and pricing, etc).

 14. Recognize and explain that it is the professional knowledge and skill set an individual brings to propagation work that is likely to determine success rates and profitability in propagation; not facilities alone.

 15. Recognizes the plant-environment interactions that affect plant propagation and how to manipulate them to achieve propagation success.

 

 TOPICAL OUTLINE:

 

 I. Seed Propagation

      a. Methods

      b. Underlying biology and ecology

      c. IPM

 II. Vegetative Propagation

      a. Methods

      b. Underlying biology and ecology

      c. IPM

 III. Business practices

      a. Occupational safety concerns

      b. Crop scheduling and propagation protocols

      c. Propagation related math and writing