I have worked at the garden center for almost a month now. A lot of the day-to-day inventory duties are akin to when I received inventory at Chick-fil-A. Get items, check them against the order, stock. The clutch part of this job is that I'm learning plant physiology by learning about the products. Most of my plant knowledge from college was taxonomy, and I retained only basic principles of plant physiology. Now, the knowledge is highly specific and application-based. For example: Several of the Mojave kales died after being transplanted into coco coir. I have since discovered that they died mostly from phosphorous deficiency; in a soilless medium like coco, phosphorous needs acidic solution or it won't be in a usable form for the plant. My tap water from the city runs at almost exactly 7.0 pH. Phosphorus won't uptake at that pH. For my plants to get the phosphorus, they need the pH around 5.5 or 6. I'm glad to work at a place where I am continuing to learn. And I'm twice as glad I don't have to sit in a desk for hours while I'm doing it.
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