Crops Courses

Learn to Grow Root Vegetables and Other Root Crops

• Online learning course
• Grow better vegetables
• Apply your learning on the farm, at home or in a community garden

Learn The Fundamentals of Agronomy to Farm Broad Acre Crops

Agronomic crops include the following:

• Fibres  e.g. cotton. jute, hemp
• Crops for oil seeds  e.g. safflower, sunflower, mustard, rapeseed, canola, soybean, s sesame, castor bean, linseed and flax.
• Stock feed such as fodder crops e.g. sorghum, maize, or forage crops such as hay, silage
• Food crops: cereal crops such as wheat and rye etc., pulses such as chickpea, mung bean, mash bean, lentil, cowpea, faba bean, lima bean, and pigeon pea. Root and tuber crops and vegetable crops.
• Sugar crops sucha as sugar beets sugarcane and sweet sorghum.
• Beverage crops such as tea and coffee etc.

Learn to Grow Cereals, Pulses and Pseudo Grains

Work in the Vegetable Production Industry  or Set up a Vegetable Growing Farm

Develop skills and knowledge required for commercial vegetable production, including a variety of production methods.

This is a very sound 100 hour foundation course in general vegetable production. Note: Do not undertake Commercial Organic Vegetable Growing as well as this. The two courses do overlap.

Who should do this course:

• Vegetable growers, farm managers, farm workers
• Vegetable enthusiasts, breeders, nurserypesons, seeds producers
• Suppliers of services and materials to the vegetable industry
• Anyone involved otherwise in the vegetable industry from marketing to processing.

All You Need to Know About Growing Crops

This comprehensive introduction to crop growing covers a huge amount of ground. Learn about different types of crop systems, how to establish and nurture crops, and techniques used in traditional and organic growing systems. 

This course includes ten lessons covering site preparation, crop selection and soil management. It includes growing advice on a wide variety of different crops such as cut flowers, vegetables, berries, nuts, herbs, tree fruits, and some less widely grown crops.

Ideal for managing a market garden, orchard, small or large farm, hobby farm, and other enterprises.

This is an Online Course but you can study by distance education using paper based notes or have the course burnt to zip drive

Learn to Plan and Manage Food Processing  on or off Farm: Produce Saleable Food Products

This course will open up a whole new world to many who study it. It can provide insights into food processing methods which though common practice, are simply not in the consciousness of most people who eat those foods.

By gaining a broader and deeper understanding of what happens in the food industry, your awareness and capacity to work across the many and varied parts of this industry will greatly improve.

Learn how to sustainably manage forage!

Forage plants are consumed by grazing or browsing livestock. These plants may be cultivated as crops or occur naturally.

Learn how to:

• Select the right plants for forage crop production
• Establish, regenerate, and maintain forage crops
• Control livestock's access to forage plants
• Preserve forage as hay and silage
  

Study Hydroponics - A Great Introductory Course!

Develop a sound understanding of the theory and practice of hydroponics.

This is a course for growers, farm workers, hydroponic shop staff, horticulturists or anyone else seeking to lay a sound foundation in hydroponic growing. It introduces you to a wide range of systems, simple and complex, and how to grow many different types of horticulturally valuable crops, such as cut flowers and vegetables.

Water is a precious and often scarce resource. Using it effectively can make all the difference to whether a crop is profitable or not. This ten lesson course develops an understanding of how plants use water and how to deliver it more effectively to the plant. Learn about the design, installation, maintenance, operation and evaluation of simple irrigation systems.

This course is similar to BHT210 and BAG213, but focuses on irrigation systems for row crops (eg. vegetables & cut flowers) and orchards.

Learn How to Grow Mushrooms - on a Farm or at Home

Ever wanted to grow mushrooms and didn’t know where to start?

Here is a comprehensive 8 lesson course covering how to grow mushrooms on either a small or large scale. Emphasis is placed on the Agaricus species (the Champignon), though other commercially important edible fungi are also considered. Growing, harvesting, marketing, storage, pest and diseases and even ways of cooking and using mushrooms are covered.

Learn How Soils Affect Crop Growth

This course is similar to our other soil management courses, but relates specifically to crops.

Soil is the foundation for profitable horticulture. There are many things that can be wrong with your soil: poor nutrition, chemical imbalance, structural problems such as drainage, and lack of microbial life  are some examples of problems that can beset your soil. Often minor and relatively inexpensive treatments can make a huge difference to productivity, but the problems need to be identified first, and that requires a solid understanding of soil theory and management practice.

Learn about soil properties and requirements in agriculture and how to apply that knowledge at a management level. Topics covered include: the chemical and physical properties of soil, soil testing, soil management, earthworks, land degradation, and container growing.

“Whether you are living or working on a grazing property or work in the area of land restoration, the study of soil management goes hand-in-hand with the study of pasture management. This is a good course that covers the topic effectively” M. Cullen - Dip. Landcare & Natural Resources, Assoc. Dip. SMI, B. Teaching.

Online Course -or alternatively, study by Distance education using paper based notes or a CD