Having found success offering two-day, monthly workshops through its Grower’s School, Lodi, Ohio-based CropKing expanded the program with a Five Day Intensive Workshop.

The workshop costs $2,500 and delves deeper into the types of production that CropKing offers, says Matthew Kispert, horticulturist at CropKing. Kispert is designing the course and serves as the main instructor alongside colleagues Jim Brown and Jeff Balduff.

“It’s one thing to attend a two-day course and think, ‘Ok, this is something that I think I could do,’” he says. “It’s another thing to actually work out in the greenhouse for a week and see what the day-to-day is, what the working environment is like, and get a better understanding of the different disciplines that are involved in running an operation like that.”

Preparation for the course

CropKing’s new course is available to growers of all skill levels, as well as people who haven’t grown before who are considering or planning to start a growing operation, Kispert says. However, he plans to gear it primarily toward prospective growers and growers with one to three years of experience.

Course attendees will fill out a questionnaire prior to their arrival to Lodi, to impart their experience level and interests to CropKing’s instructors.

CropKing will send a couple books to prospective growers to give them a baseline knowledge of hydroponic growing. “I would like them to have a base knowledge,” Kispert says. “I think their time will be better utilized if they do have some kind of background — even if it is rudimentary. That way, more time can be spent working through the different tasks, as opposed to explaining the basics of it. However, we’re happy to focus on the basics too if that is what the customer is looking for.”

Read more about this program with the original article from Greenhouse Management, here.