Fruit and Vegetables

Learn to Grow Fruit and Vegetables

Lesson Structure

There are 14 lessons in this course:

1. Food from the garden
   • What can you produce in your garden?
   • Greenhouses
2. Deciding what to grow
   • Factors to consider
3. Successful growing
   • Light
   • Temperature
   • Soil
   • Nutrition
   • Water
   • Wind
   • Cold and the garden
   • Different growing methods
   • Where to get helpful information
4. Fruits
   • Introduction - fruit trees for all climates
   • What makes a good backyard fruit tree
   • Where to plant - garden bed, lawn mound, tub etc
   • How to develop an espalier on a wall
   • Good backyard fruit trees for a range of climates
   • Growing apples, apricots, peaches and nectaines
5. Deciduous fruit trees
   • Winter chilling requirements
   • Pests and diseases
   • Deciduous fruit encyclopaedia
   • Bare-rooted fruit trees
   • Pruning deciduous fruit trees
6. Mainly Citrus
   • Tolerance to different climates
   • How to grow healthy citrus
   • Citrus growing rules
   • Common problems with citrus
   • Citrus species grapefruit, kumquat, lemon, lime, mandarin, sweet orange
   • Other fruits - persimmon, feijoa, pomegranate, olive
7. Tropical fruits
   • What fruits and when
   • Avocado
   • Banana
   • Carambola
   • Mango
   • Paw Paw
   • Coconut, Pineapple, Black Sapote, Coffee, Custard apple, etc
8. Berries
   • Berry fruit Introduction
   • Blueberry growing
   • Black currant
   • Brambles
   • Raspberry
   • Strawberry
   • Gooseberry
   • Cranberry, currants, mulberry and others
9. Nuts
   • Introduction to nut growing
   • Almond
   • Cashew
   • Chestnut
   • Filbert
   • Hazelnut
   • Macadamia
   • Peanut
   • Pecan
   • Walnut
   • Pistachio
   • Other edible nuts
10. Vine crops
    • Passion fruits
    • Grape varieties
    • Grape culture including pruning
11. Using produce
    • What to do with excess fruit
    • Handy equipment
    • Making jam
    • Making chutney
    • Sauces
    • Bottling
    • Jelly making
    • Making wine
12. Vegetables
    • Why grow vegetables?
    • The site
    • Choosing what to grow
    • Feeding and watering
    • Planning the cropping programme
    • Pests and diseases of vegetables
13. Mushrooms
    • Four easy steps to growing mushrooms
    • Making your own compost
    • Spawning
    • Casing
    • Pest and disease management
    • Harvesting
14. Special growing techniques
    • Growing produce in containers
    • Hydroponics
    • Permaculture gardening
    • More special growing techniques

HOW THE COURSE WORKS

This is a self paced, 20 hour study program; with everything from your enrolment through to awarding of your certificate of completion, controlled by computer software developed by our programmers.

Utilizing cutting edge technology all the way; you can

1. Enrol, pay course fees into pay pal; your payment approval then triggers an email explaining how to proceed, and access to the course.
2. You are then given instructions (options to read or listen to an audio).
3. Next you proceed to work through lessons as fast or slow as you wish; undertaking automated self assessment tests at the end of each lesson, choosing practical/additional learning tasks to undertake as you go.
4. On concluding the final lesson; you undertake a major online exam; and on achieving a 60% pass rate, you are given a "Certificate of Completion" carrying your name and date, to download as a pdf, to save or print as you wish

NOTE:

Unlike our other 100 hour courses, there is no additional exam fee charged for the exam in this or any of the 20 hour short courses.