Joe Bosch proudly shows off the hydroponic tomatoes this year’s class successfully grew.
Woodland Middle School students make their own organic pesticides and herbicides to grow plants from seed to harvest.
Woodland Middle School students with a green thumb are learning about all aspects of growing plants in horticulture class. From developing natural herbicides to healthy plant growth, science and math teacher Joe Bosch teaches it all.
“With Woodland’s agriculture background, we have many students who already have a great deal of experience when they start the class,” Bosch said in a news release. “However, there’s still so much for students to learn along the way; horticulture is a wide and ever-expanding field.”
Bosch went on to say students learn everything needed to maintain a proper growing environment by learning the plants that grow natively in the area and picking a plant to grow. After picking their plant, students learn to germinate, repot the plants and harden the plant before placing it in the school garden.
“Since plants cannot go straight from the greenhouse to the ground, the class had to build hardening facilities to help the plants grow strong enough,” he explained.
This year, the class successfully grew hydroponic tomatoes, a growing process that requires special equipment to grow plants without soil.
“We’ve been trying to find success with hydroponics for a few years now and we finally made it happen,” Bosch said.
Along with this achievement, the class worked with the garden club to plant tulips all throughout the campus.
