Transform the home vegetable garden into a market garden that will turn a profit! Whether selling to cafés and restaurants or through your own retail outlet or market stall, this online course will show you how.
Certificate of Commercial Vegetable Production is a professional development course that covers all aspects of vegetable growing, from propagation to soil management and marketing.
In this vegetable farming course, you will learn about cultivation techniques, plant nutrition and feeding, and pest, disease and weed control. You will also learn about hydroponic and greenhouse growing, irrigation and harvesting, production planning and financial management.
On completion of this course, you will have the fundamentals required to start your own productive market garden.
Course Structure
Unit - Commercial Vegetable Production
Unit 1 – Introduction to Commercial Vegetable Growing
- Making the farm pay
- Analyse the market and the industry
- Economic principles
- Law of demand
- Law of substitution
- Law of diminishing returns
- Law of diminishing marginal utility
- Scale of economies
- Change or die
- A planning procedure
- Other approaches to planning
- Everyday decisions
- Production plan
- Decisions which might need to be made
- Financial plan and financial objectives
- Financial forecasts and assumptions (educated guesses)
- Financial analysis
- Budget plan
- Land care or land management
- Marketing
- Marketing plan structure
- Personal welfare
- Plan for wellbeing of family members
- Plan drawing of the farm
- Risk management
- Quality systems
- Contingency planning
- Liquidity
- Financial records
- Controlling growth
- Creating a sustainable farming enterprise
- New farm products
- Planning for sustainability
- Pre-planning and considerations
- Products
- Farm activities
- Monitoring and reviewing
- Deterioration of soil
- Deterioration in water quality
- Weeds and pests
- Crop and livestock health
- Production planning
- Financial aspects
- More on the scale of economy
- Materials and equipment
- Contingencies and seasonal variations
- The expected and unexpected
- Types of problems
- Planning and preparing for drought
- Excessive water
- Selection criteria for plants
- Grain and other broad acre crops
- Monoculture
- Alternating crops
- Row crops
- Managing a market garden
- Deciding what to grow
- The brassicas: brassicaceae
- Broccoli (brassica oleraceae– botrytis group)
- Brussels sprouts (brassica oleraceae– gemmifera group)
- Cabbage (brassica oleraceae– capitata group)
- Cauliflower (brassica oleraceae– botrytis group)
- Pak-choi (brassica rapa– pekinensis group)
- Radish (raphanus sativus)
- Turnip (brassica rapa– rapifera group)
- The legumes: fabaceae
- Bean (phaseolus vulgaris– common bean)
- Broad bean (vicia faba)
- Pea (pisum sativum)
- Lettuce: asteraceae
- Onions: amaryllidaceae
- The potato: solanaceae
Unit 2 – Cultural Practices for Vegetables
- Crop rotation
- Soils and plant foods
- Cover crops
- Guidelines/principles
- Legume cover crops
- Inoculation of legumes
- Types of cover crops
- Ways of using a cover crop
- Growing media
- Cultivation techniques
- Conservation tillage
- Using compost
- Crop scheduling
- Planting vegetables
- Sources of seeds
- Storing seed
- Sowing seed outdoors and indoors
- Transplanting seedlings
- Buying seedlings
- Transplanting crowns, offsets, tubers, etc
- Some useful suggestions on planting
- Sowing and transplanting guide
- Understanding soils
- Naming the soil
- Soil structure
- Water and air
- Soil temperature
- Mycorrhiza and nitrogen fixing
- Improving soils
- Sampling soils
- Soils and plant growth
- Adding organic matter
- Problems with organic materials
- Adding non organic materials to soil
- Adding acidic materials to lower soil pH
- Cation exchange capacity
- Soil pH
- Nutrient availability and pH
- Conductivity
- Salinity build up
- Organic matter
- Nutrition
- Types of mycorrhiza
- Composting
- Plant nutrition: the nutrient elements
- Major and minor elements
- Choosing the right fertiliser
- Total salts
- Diagnosis of nutritional problems
- Fertilisers (natural and organic)
- Components of potting mixes
Unit 3 – Pest, Disease and Weed Control
- Weed control
- Non-chemical pest control methods
- Labels
- Law in relation to chemical use
- Plant pathology
- Fungi
- Control of insects
- Toxicity
- Pests and diseases
- Diseases
- Plant viruses
- Detection and diagnosis
- Virus control
- Pests
- Birds
- Bugs
- Caterpillars
- Leafhoppers
- Leaf miner
- Mealy bug
- Millipedes
- Mites including red spider mite
- Nematodes
- Scale insects
- Slugs and snails
- Thrips and whitefly
- Environmental problems
- Common environmental problems
- Air pollution
- Foliage burn
- Drainage problems
- Shade, temperature and wind
- Methods of controlling weed problems
- Some turf weedicides (herbicides)
- Commonly used commercial formulations
- Weed control in greenhouses
- Recommended weedicides for use in a nurser
- Safety procedures when using agricultural chemicals
- Types of herbicide chemicals
- Encyclopedia of common weeds
Unit 4 – Hydroponic and Greenhouse Growing
- The wick system
- The water culture system
- The ebb and flow system
- Drip systems
- NFT systems
- The aeroponic system
- Nutrient solutions
- How to calculate the chemical formula
- Preparation of nutrient solutions
- Soil-less mixes
- The growing medium, growool
- Nutrient film technique (NFT)
- Methods of solution dispensation
- Simple and complex systems
- Polystyrene trays
- Automated systems
- Continuous drip system
- Fish tank water culture
- Air pump Gericke System
- The greenhouse business
- Growing plants in a greenhouse
- The greenhouse system
- The components of a greenhouse facility
- What can you grow
- Deciding what you need
- Greenhouse checklists
- Greenhouse designs
- Shape of structures to maximise light transmission
- Shade houses and designs
- Cold frames
- Heated propagators
- Environmental control
- Environmental factors that influence plant growth
- Measurement of environmental factors
- Moisture
- Siting greenhouses
- Plant needs
- Problems with greenhouses
- Cleanliness in the glasshouse
- Greenhouse plant nutrition
- Temperature control
- Heating and ventilation systems
- Methods for controlling temperature include:
- Heat loss
- Localised heaters
- Light factors and artificial light
- Horticultural management in a greenhouse
- Fungi characteristics and problems
- Plants and water
- Greenhouse irrigation methods
- Culture & management of some greenhouse crops
- Optimum growth requirements for certain plants
- Greenhouse benches, beds and cooling
- Principles of temperature control
- Plants that respond to co2
Unit 5 – Growing Selected Vegetable Varieties
- Tropical vegetables
- Sweet potato (ipomoea batatas): convolvulaceae
- Taro (colocasia esculenta): araceae
- Less commonly grown vegetables
- Artichoke (cynaria scolymus– globe artichoke): asteraceae
- Artichoke (helianthus tuberosus– jerusalem artichoke): asteraceae
- Asparagus (asparagus officinalis): liliaceae
- Chicory (cichorium intybus): asteraceae
- Endive (cichorium endiva): asteraceae
- Garlic (allium sativum): amaryllidaceae
- Leek (allium ampeloprasum): amaryllidaceae
- Okra (abelmoschus esculentus): malvaceae
- Rhubarb (rheum rhabarbarum): polygonaceae
- Other crops
- Celery (apium graveolensDulce): apiaceae
- Beetroot (beta vulgaris): chenopodiaceae
- Capsicum (capsicum annuumAnnuum): solanaceae
- Corn (zea maysRugosa – sweet corn): poaceae
- Eggplant (solanum melongena): solanaceae
- Parsnip (pastinaca sativa): apiaceae
- Spinach (spinacia oleraceae): chenopodiaceae
- Silver beet
Unit 6 – Irrigation
- Water and irrigation
- Infiltration
- Internal drainage
- Flood, sprinkler and trickle irrigation
- Irrigation objectives
- Soil and water
- Transpiration and wilting point
- Naming the soil
- Improving soils
- When to irrigate
- A checklist for crop growing
- Timing of irrigations
- Types of soil moisture
- Gravitational water
- Capillary water
- Hygroscopic water
- Measuring water available to plants
- Calculating field capacity
- Calculating permanent wilting point
- Available moisture range
- Estimating soil moisture levels
- Tensiometer
- Rooting depths of selected plants
- Water extraction by roots
- Irrigation calculations
- Pan evaporation rates
- Irrigation system efficiency
- Estimating water needs
- Estimated water loss from soil
- Tensiometers
- The water requirements of turf grasses
- Pumps
- When a centrifugal pump fails to operate
- Hydraulics
- Calculating discharge or flow
- Friction loss in systems
- Water hammer
- Conventional sprinkler systems
- Scheduling irrigation
- Sprinkler spacings
- Designing sprinkler performance
- Electrical factors
- Electric automatic systems
- Design considerations
- Selection of surface irrigation methods
- Sprinkler heads
- Mechanisms that drive rotating head sprinklers
- Drainage control
- Improving drainage
- Improving surface drainage after construction
- Provision of sub-surface drains
- Types of drains
- Surface drainage
- Some points to remember when designing a drainage system
- Problems with soils
- Major types of soil problems
Unit 7 – Harvest and Post-Harvest
- Post-harvest treatment of vegetables
- Crop cooling
- Cooling methods
- Harvesting hints
- Storing vegetables
- Long term storage
- Freezing
Unit 8 – Marketing Vegetables
- Standards
- Cost efficiency
- Cost of production
- Profit
- Sales price
- Quality standards
- Marketing your produce
- Considering your markets
- Market research
- Steps involved in market research
- Gathering information
- Referring to literature
- Asking people questions (e.g. Surveys)
- What you need to research
- How to sell successfully
Study Hours
Estimated duration 50 hours
Course Delivery and Start
Start anytime, self-paced and 100% online
Assessment
Assessment will be comprised of written exercises, including short-answer questions, reflective tasks, short reports and/or projects. There are no examinations or due dates for assessment. As a result, you can complete training in your own time and at your own pace with the assistance of unlimited tutor support.
Testimonials
About Us
Graduation
A Certificate of Attainment and Statement of Results will be issued upon successful completion of this course.
How to Enrol
Enrol Online: Enrol Now
Enrol via Live Chat (Business Hours)
Enrol via Telephone 1300 76 2221 (Business Hours)
Enrol via Purchase Order/Tax Invoice
Enrolling Multiple Staff?
To enrol multiple staff, please complete the Employer Enrolment Form. We’ll be in touch within 60 minutes during business hours!
Payment Options
Visa, Mastercard, BPAY and EFT/Direct Deposit. Please allow 1-2 Business days for processing for EFT and BPAY.
Course FAQs
Why Choose Australian Online Courses?
- Professional development that is widely recognised and respected;
- Improve your employment opportunities;
- Study online, anywhere via our elearning system;
- High-quality professional development programs written by industry experts;
- All course materials provided online – no textbooks to buy;
- Unlimited tutor support via email;
- We offer twelve (12) months’ access, with extensions available upon application (fees apply);
- Course may be tax deductible; see your tax advisor.
Are there any entry requirements or pre-requisites?
There are no course or subject pre-requisites for entry into our programs. However, our professional development programs are generally intended for people over the age of 18. In some circumstances, enrolments from younger people may be considered. Please complete the AOC Parent Guardian Consent Form prior to enrolling and submit here.
Are there any computer requirements?
To study online with Australian Online Courses you will need a computer (desktop PC/laptop) running a current/updated operating system with reliable high-speed internet access. You will need to use the Google Chrome browser to access your course.
When can I start this course?
You can start within 60 minutes during business hours when you enrol and pay in full with a credit card!
Credit card: Within 60 mins during business hours.
BPAY: Within 1-2 working days.
Internet Banking: Within 1-2 working days.
Cheque/Money Order: Upon receipt of mailed cheque.
How is this course delivered?
This course is delivered online via our easy-to-navigate Learning Management System (LMS), where you will discover interactive online learning/written content, resources and assessment.
Do I need to attend classes or undertake any work placements?
No. All courses are delivered online via our LMS and there are no work placement requirements in this course.
What support can I expect from Australian Online Courses?
Unlimited tutor support is available throughout your studies via email only during business hours Monday to Friday. Our Administrative team are available Monday to Friday via email, live chat and telephone.
I am an international student. Can I enrol into this course?
Yes! We accept enrolments from individuals both within Australia and internationally; location is no barrier to entry into our programs.
Career Pathways
Future growth
Strong
Unemployment
Low
Professional Development for:-
- Vegetable Farmer
- Market Gardener
- Vegetable Retail Sales
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