Week in photos

Greenhouse Care Schedule Over Holiday

Tuesday Dec 23: Jamie Taylor

Friday Dec 26: Hasan Alghouti

Tuesday Dec 30: Colin Kindrachuk

Friday Jan 2: Valerie Adrian

Tuesday Jan 6: Daniele Levesque

Thanks everyone for putting up your time,

Peter Le.

Greenhouse Care Check List.

Here are the following things that you may want to go over:

If you come on Tuesday.

• Close the valves of the following Tank 1-3-5-7 only (only valves indicated with “black tape”)
• Open the valves of the following Tank 2-4-6-8 only (only valves indicated with “green tape”)

If you come on Friday.

• Close the valves of the following Tank 2-4-6-8 (only valves as indicated with “ green tape”)
• Open the valves of the following Tank 1-3-5-7 (only valves as indicated with “ black tape”)

Please go over the following on either Tuesday, or Friday:

1.Pruning off the side shoots and vines on the cucumber plants.
2.Put the clips on to train the plants upwards; make sure the strings are tight and straight.
(the above task will take you 15-20 mins max)
3.Pollinate the zucchini and shake the tomato flowers to pollinate them if you have a chance.
4.Go over all the pots to spot any dry ones. Dryness may cause the plants to die, so please water them if necessary.
5.Water cucumbers on line 1 and 2 (experimental line).

On the flood floor:

1.Water our bedding flowers and new batch of lettuce.
2.Turn off the water hose properly and you're done for the day.

Thanks for your help and enjoy your holiday break.

Emergency contact:

Eldon Siemens: eldon.siemebs@usask.ca or 306-230-6899
Steffen Bertelsen: sbb859@mail.usask.ca or 306-227-5854

Don't have the phone with ya, you can find the phone in the coffee room and dial out by pressing #9.

Photo contest reminder

Hi,

This is a reminder that the photo contest is still running and picture applications will be accepted until the end of this month. So far we only have a few submissions. Please give it a try; the winner gets an IPod shuffle. For more information, please check out the following link.

http://uofshorticultureclub.blogspot.com/2008/10/photo-contest.html

or here

Peter Le

Greenhouse care over holiday

We are still looking for members who can come some time during the 2 weeks holiday to take care of the plants, or at least to know what is going in the greenhouse. We don't want to come back after 2 weeks and see all the plants dead. Please send me an email if this is alright for you, and I can give you some instructions on what you need to do, etc.

There is only one member who volunteered so far.

Valerie Adrian

Hopefully we will get more volunteers.

Peter Le.

Greenhouse (Week of Dec 8)

Hi everyone,

Here is an update with some information on the plants in the greenhouse. The cucumbers and the tomatoes are doing really well. It seems like we're going to have some cucumbers during January. In addition, we probably get some lettuce as well.

If any member of the cucumber group plans to come to the greenhouse, please take some time to prune off the side shoot, and vine BUT not the fruit (cucumber) at this stage (see the picture). Please put some clips on as demonstrated in the greenhouse.

That's all for now, and sorry for not keeping you updated on time.

Wishing you all the best on your exams and happy holiday.

Peter Le.

Things to do (Week of Dec 1)

Here is what we need to do this week:

Transplanting some Herbs.
Moving propagated plants to the flowering bench.
Cleaning up the flowering bench.

The herbs are mature enough, and will need to be transplanted soon. I hope the herb growers can find some time to get together in the greenhouse. This will mean that you guys will have to set a time that works for everyone in your group, and I will come to give you guys a hand if necessary.

The propagated plants are good now, and need to be moved out of the mist bench as soon as possible, or they will DIE. So whoever came to the propagation session last time may want to come and move their stuff to the flowering bench. We've cleaned out space for your plants, so you'll easily find a spot there.

Peter Le.

Greenhouse Cucumber

Hello Cucumber growers,
Training and Pruning:
This will help to fully supply all nutritional needs for the plants during the establishing period. In addition, you may want to put the clips on to train the plants to go upwards (see example in the Greenhouse).

If too many fruits are allowed to form at any one time, a large proportion will abort, because the plant may not have sufficient food reserves.

Fertilizer:
During this time, we're watering the plants with starter solution (10-52-10) for 2 weeks. High percentage of P will help the plants to establish their roots system, which will allow the plants to take up more water and nutrients.

Schedule:
I have 5 exams coming up, but I can come to the greenhouse at anytime, I believe Mercedes has sent out an email saying she is available on Friday. I hope the remaining 4 members can find some time during the week to come to the Greenhouse. It doesn't take long; it only takes 5-10 mins if we share the work and follow the schedule.

Hope this helps,

Peter Le.

Looking out - looking in - Looking for donation

We are looking for some donation, here is the wish list:

Table
Chair
Blackboard
Radio
Temperature meter

If you have any unused goods and want to get rid of them, please donate them to the Greenhouse, so that we can put them to use.

Peter Le.

Greenhouse commitment

Plant carers: this is a reminder that each of us needs to decide which plants to take care of. The reason why do we need to do this is because it will divide the work load, and allow more time for members to become knowledgeable about their plants.

Will this limit your chance to learn other stuffs? NOT at all, you're welcomed to learn other stuff as well, and that is why we need experts for each type of plants, so that we can share our knowledge around.

Please remember your one hour commitment per week to the Greenhouse. Yes it's important for you to know that you're expected to spend one hour weekly in the greenhouse.

• If we're not clear on who takes care of what, then what will you do each week in the Greenhouse? Are you willing to take care of the entire Greenhouse?
• How will other people know what has been done by other members?
• If something happens to the plants, how can you trace the cause if you don't know what's going on? What if you're busy, or away for some time?
• By assigning everyone plants, I will know which plants to take care of while you're away.

In contrast, if we're not clear on what to do, then we'll need to set up meetings where all of us has to come at the same time, which may not be suitable for your schedule. Ask yourself, do you prefer flexible scheduling, or fixed scheduling?

From my previous experience when I took care of the greenhouse for 3 months and it was a nightmare. I had to come to the John Mitchell GH every single day and it is much, much smaller than our current Greenhouse. This was because there were no rules, regulations, or commitment, and nobody knew what to do. As a result, no one learned a lot in the end.

Please email me with your preference on the type of plants you want to take care of. I need your response by Monday, Nov 24th. Once we have a list of caretakers, we will decide how many plants will be planted (we can only plant as much as we'll able to take care of). If there are too few members able to help out, we'll have to cut back. The following are the plants that still need caretakers:

1) Herbs: Dannelle Levesque, May Guan, Christina Huvenaars (spearmint), Thea Kristiansen,Amalie V. Ask.
2) Peppers: Brittany McNally, Jamie Taylor, Courtney Thompson (1 more)
3) Tomatoes: Colin Kindrachuk, Rachel Claassen, Peter Reimer, Katie Senn
4) Cucumbers*: Nathelie Brunet, Mercedes Scott, Janell Healey, Peter Le,Mandy Lajeunesse,Kaleigh Elian.
5) Lettuces: Peter Le
6) Zucchini & Beans: Christina Nguyen, Mercedes Scott

*Cucumbers need quite lot of care; that's why we need more members.

So we need to get this thing done as soon as possible. Ask yourself, are you in or not? If you've decided to commit to this, then be all the way 'in' please.

For more information about plants' layout please click here.

Peter Le.

Injector information

There're quite a few different ways to set up, as well as different types of injector available in the market. Here are a few:

Dosatron injector:
These injectors operate without electricity, using water pressure as the power source. They are installed directly in the water supply line. Water flow activates the injector, which takes up the required percentage of concentrate directly from a container with stock solution. Inside the injector, concentrate is mixed with water, and water pressure forces the solution downstream. The amount of concentrate dispensed is directly proportional to the volume of water entering the injector, irrespective of variations in water flow or pressure that may occur in the main line

Electrofertic pump:
The pump is operate relate similar to those injectors, but it needs electricity and withdraw the liquid nitrogen rather than injecting into the system.

Both of the above systems are highly recommended in the commercial greenhouse operation, since they're highly accurate and easy to operate, which means they won't be CHEAP. We want some thing we can afford that's easy to operate. So what do we do? Well there're few options for us. Cheap stuffs are less accurate, involve more labour and some headaches as a bonus.

Venturi-type injectors:

Such as Hozon uses a pressure difference between the water line and the stock tank to draw a concentrated solution into a faucet connect valve and mix it with water in the hose. These inexpensive injectors can be easily attached to any faucet, but do not allow precise control over concentration. Because of water pressure fluctuations, variable amount(s) of chemical may be injected into the hose. In addition, the injection ratios are low (typically 1:16) and therefore require a large stock tank, thus limiting the use of Venturi-type injectors to small growing areas.

The Hozon requires very little maintenance; check the screen on the suction line for clogs and periodically remove salt deposits from the mixing valve. This is the one that we used before in the John Mitchell Greenhouse; it worked well, was easy to operate and was dirty cheap :) way to go? Not really, this year we will try a different one, which is relatively similar, but more precise.

We are currently looking at the Mazzei injector. It doesn't require electricity to operate, the price is more affordable and it's more precise than the Hozon. However, here comes the headache: how do we set this thing up? There're lots of way to set this thing up but what is the most suitable for our GH environment? Remember, commercial growers only select one or two types of plants in their GH vs the 4 different types we have in our greenhouse (Herbs,Pepper,Tomato,Cucumber). It is certain that they have different fertilizers and water requirements. In conclusion, we're still working on this and hopefully we'll get this done as soon as possible.









Peter Le.

(Update) Sunday Nov 23

Finally i found the solution for the injector, it looks simple but took me lots of time to figure out how to put it together.

Apple Cider Session Attendance

Each member who has attended a cider session will receive approximately 1.5 – 2 L of cider. Those who have attended 2-3 sessions will receive approximately 3-4 L of cider. Those who have attended 4 or more sessions will receive ~6 L of cider. The apple slicing session was counted as two sessions due to the amount of work put into it. The cherry picking and sorting sessions will be counted towards your allotment of cherry wine. If you feel I have miscounted your attendance please email me at del321@mail.usask.ca BEFORE sunday.

alain amalie ask amy wheeler baharak farrokhnia carrie thiessen cedric gillott christina hevenaars christina nguyen colin bett colin kindrachuk danielle levesque danielle stephens grant wood jamie taylor jenna drinkwater jean-paul cote justin meaden karen tanino kirsten lana therimbert mandy lajeunesse manya quinn matt munson may guan nair nathalie brunet peter le peter reimer rachel claasen roxanne perrault steffen bertelsen susie butcher teri gadzella

11 1 1 1 11 1111 11 1 1 111111 +1 bottles 11111111 1111 11 11 11 11 1 1111 1 111 11 1 111 11 11 1 1 11 1 1 11 +11 bottles 1 11 +1 sugar

Agriculture Greenhouse Rules and Regulations for Horticulture Club

Agriculture Greenhouse Rules and Regulations for Horticulture Club

– November 15, 2008

1. Only current Hort Club members who have attended the greenhouse orientation from Jackie Bantle (Greenhouse manager) are allowed to access the Agriculture Greenhouse facility.

2.Eligible Hort Club members have access to the areas listed below during regular work hours (8:00AM – 4:30PM, Monday – Friday). The key to the north door will be located in a lock box hanging on the metal tower beside the door. The key will be removed from the lock box overnight, on weekends and holidays.

3.During regular work hours, eligible Hort Club Members are allowed to access only the following areas in the greenhouse:

• a.North loading dock
• b.Main Hallway and washrooms
• c.Greenhouse ‘G’ (poly greenhouse)
• d.West headerhouse
• e.Cold Chamber #3 in west header house (i.e. vegetable storage)
• f.Coffee room (beside west door to exterior)
• Other areas of the greenhouse are off-limits to Hort club members except during Hort Club meetings. During scheduled meetings where Hort Club executive are present, members are allowed to access Greenhouse ‘E’ and ‘A1’ .

4.Only supplies or tools belonging to the Hort Club are to be moved, handled or used by Hort Club members. All other tools, supplies, bags, etc. are not to be disturbed. Bags, labels, pots, etc. that may look abandoned are probably being used by a researcher or grad student. These researchers expect these things to be there when they come to do their work.

5.All plant material in Greenhouse ‘G’, in the loading dock, headerhouse and other greenhouses is not to be moved or handled by Hort Club members unless it specifically belongs to the Hort Club. If any plants, strawberry fruit, grapes or other research material is moved or goes missing from the greenhouse, the Hort Club will immediately lose all access to the greenhouse.

6.To help control the spread of bugs and prevent unnecessary alarms, all greenhouse and cooler doors should be kept closed.

7.We would like to discourage plants being brought into the greenhouse from other places for propagation. However, if plants are brought into the greenhouse for propagation, they MUST be bug and disease free. Plants will be quarantined in the loading dock area for at least three days in hopes that any emerging bug or disease problems will be discovered prior to introduction into the greenhouse. Eldon must be contacted if plants have been brought to the loading dock. Any bug or disease problems will be treated with safers soap or chemical sprays.

8.We do not anticipate having to use toxic chemical sprays in the greenhouse. However, if bugs or disease reach higher than acceptable levels (as determined by greenhouse staff), measures will be taken to control the problems. The Hort club executive will be notified of any spraying that will occur. If signs are posted outside of the building or the outside of Greenhouse ‘G’ that say Do Not Enter, do not enter that facility. Typical spray times for the greenhouse are Monday and Thursday, after 3:00 pm.

9.Any problems with heat, water, insects and/or lights should be reported to Eldon Siemens or Jackie Bantle as soon as possible.

10.Eldon’s contact info: cell – 230-6899, phone – 966-8607, email: eldon.siemens@usask.ca

11.Jackie’s contact info: cell – 222-7018, phone – 966-5864, email: jackie.bantle@usask.ca

12.Although we do not expect any problems with this new initiative, it is important that members of the Horticulture club remember that it is a privilege for the Hort Club to be using the Agriculture Greenhouses. The Agriculture Greenhouses are a research facility where thousands of dollars and countless hours of time have been invested by researchers. This privilege will be withdrawn if any member of the Horticulture Club decides to be irresponsible and neglects the rules as listed above.

Jackie Bantle
Dept. of Plant Sciences
University of Saskatchewan
51 Campus Dr.
Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A8
Ph: 306-966-5864

Poinsettia Sale Volunteer

Hi everyone,

We're looking for volunteers for our Poinsettia Sale on December 4 & 5. If you would like to participate please send an e-mail me with your desired time to: ttl541@mail.usask.ca

Thanks for your support

Peter Le.

Dec 4: 12pm-1pm and 1pm-2pm Jillian Hauber and Christina Huevenaars
Dec5: ....

Week in photos - Week of Nov 10

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Active Members -Week of Nov 10

Thanks a lot to the following members for helping out !

May G.
Amalie
Courtney Thompson
Mercedes Scott
Peter Le
Danielle L.
Peter R.
Roxanne
Rachel C.

What is the cotyledon, and the first true leaf?

A cotyledon is a significant part of the embryo within the seed of a plant. During the germination process, the cotyledon may become the embryonic first leaves of a seedling to begin photosynthesis. In addition, the cotyledons contain all the seed's food reserves. After using up all the nutrient reserves, the first true leaves will take over the photosynthesis to produce their own nutrients for the plant.

That's why it's not recommended to transplant the plant during the cotyledon stage, since the plant is not producing its own food. Therefore, any damage to the root system, as well as the leaf top could lead to a decrease in plant production later.

Peter Le

Things to do this week - Week of Nov 17

Hi all,

There're few things that we need to do this week (Week of Nov 17)

• Transplanting cucumbers
• Cleaning up our flower bench in the G greenhouse. (Plants to give away)
  
• Putting up the irrigation system
• Sorting out carrots in the cooler

Transplant: The cucumbers are healthy and growing well. Most of the cucumbers have got their first true leaf, which means it's time for transplanting. In regards to the cucumbers, I need 4 volunteers to take care of these cucumbers. There will be approximately 24-30 cucumber plants.

Flowering bench: Re-organizing, tagging, putting in new soil, cleaning up our flowering bench area to make room for the bedding plants, as well as our flowering plants for next year's plant sale.

Storage: Some carrot bins in the cooler are going bad; I have taken out some rotten carrots and cleaned up some bins, but we may need to go through all of them to make sure all the bins are free of fungi.

Having said that, we will have a meeting on Thursday, November 20th at 4.30pm in the Ag-Greenhouse. Expect to spend 2-3 hours if we have more participants we may finish earlier. I'm looking forward to see more new faces.

Peter Le

Week in photos- Nov 3

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Active members - Week of Nov 3

Member who was generous dedicating her time into the Greenhouse project (week of Nov 3)
She was sorted out tomatoes as well as rotten carrot to keep things fresh for us. Thank a lot for your time and effort.

Amalie Ask

Things to Do this week - Week of Nov 10

There're a few things we need to get done this week.

• Planting flowers for the plant sales next year (Winter semester).
• Finish potting soil
• Putting up injectors
• Deciding which plants members will care for based on your preferences.
  

The reason for having the plant sales is we need to generate some money to support the greenhouse project. There will probably be some vegetable sales as well, but we are not sure what the yield will turn out to be, as this is our first trial.

We also need to finish potting more soil and get things ready for transplant later. The plants are germinating quite well and some of them are growing very fast, such as the cucumbers and some of the herbs. We won't do any transplanting this week, since it's too soon for cucumbers and the recommendation is to wait until the first true leaf emerges. So expect to transplant those cucumber next week (Week of Nov 17).

The layout for the greenhouse (i.e. plant allocation) is posted on the blog under "greenhouse vegetable update". Please check it out to get a general idea of what we'll be doing. If you have any questions or suggestions, drop me a line.

In addition, we need to decide which plants each member will be responsible for. There are a few concerns that this will limit the experiential learning. I feel that it would be better to become knowledgeable about one type of plant, and then teach this to the rest of the group, rather then try to learn everything individually. We can have experiential learning sharing sessions later and share what we've learned together. Furthermore, I've reserved some extra space for experimental trials as well. Hopefully, this will give everyone the opportunity to learn as much as they desire, while still keeping the workload manageable. We want to make learning fun for everyone.

We are going to have a meeting this Tuesday to finish plotting and seeding (~2hrs) from noon-2pm. The meeting must be this Tuesday because the header room (where the coolers are) will be closed to put in new flooring and will not be reopened until next Tuesday. So, please come out if you can.

If you have any suggestions, please feel free to send me an email.

Here are some photos of the plants so far









Peter Le.

Greenhouse vegetable (update)

Tomatoes
Clarisse VFT (new trial)
Camelia VFT (new trial)
Conestoga (repeat trial)
Pitenza (repeat trial)
Smarty ( repeat trial)
Sugar F1 Hybrid (cherry variety)
Trust (greenhouse type, most popular variety)

Pepper
Sweet Pepper (Baselga) Yellow (new trial, greenhouse variety)
Sweet Pepper (Orangery RZ) Orange (new trial, greenhouse variety)
Sympathy (new trial, greenhouse variety)

Cucumber
Corona (previous trial- english long, greenhouse variety)
Long John (previous trial)
Mini (previous trial)
Raya (previous trial)

Zucchini
Sungreen Hybird (previous trial, some powdery mildew)

Bean
Bean (Mantra RZ) climbing slicing beans (new trial, greenhouse variety)

Lettuce
Burgia RZ ( new trial, greenhouse variety)
Panorama (previous trial, field variety works in the greenhouse)
Butter Crunch (previous trial, some Ca2+ deficiency )
Romaine (previous trial, some Ca2+ deficiency)

Herbs*
Basil Genois
Basil Italian large
Basil Purple
Catnip
Chamomile
Chervil
Chives
Coriander
Dill (Fern leaf)
Garden Cress
Lavender
Lemon balm
Moonset
Oregano
Parsley
Rosalia (Green)
Rosemary
Sage
Spearmint
Sweet Basil
Sweet Marjoram
Swisschard
Thyme
Watercress

Members interested in:

Group 1: Herb growers - Dannelle Levesque, May Guan
Group 2: Pepper growers - Brittany McNally
Group 3: Tomato growers - Colin Kindrachuk
Group 4: Cucumber growers - Nathalie Brunet, Mercedes Scott, Janell Healy, Peter Le.
Extra: Lettuce growers - Peter Le

Week in photos - Oct 27

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Active members - Week of Oct 27

List of members who was generous dedicating their time into the Greenhouse project.

Brittany McNally
Christina Nguyen
Danielle Levesque
Hanny Elsadr
Hasan Alghouti
Javell Healey
Mandy Lajeunesse
Mercedes Scott
Mohammer Alghouti
Nathalie Brunet
Peter Le
Peter Reimer
Roxanne Perrault

Plant propagation

What is plant propagation?

Plant propagation is the process of artificially or naturally propagating (distributing or spreading) plants (Wikipedia)

For more information please check on the Power Point Slide from Dr Karen Tanino and Dr Bob Bors. Plant Propagation

Hortclub surveys

Technical support:

Please don't click on the "Other?" tab, it will cause an error on your vote. Either than that, everything is fine.

Please spend sometime on this survey, we want to hear from you.

Peter Le.



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Active members - Week of Oct 20

List of members who was generous putting their time into the Greenhouse project.

HortClub members

Angela Hill
Brittany Mcnally
Chelsea Tomcala
Christina Huvenaars
Christina Nguyen
Danielle Levesque
Dr Karen Tanino
Hanny Elsadr
Jamie and Steffen Bertelsen
Kaleigh Elian
Katie Senn
May Xiu Juan Guan
Mercedes Scott
Nathalie Brunet
Peter Le
Peter Reimer

Guest members from the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition.

Michelle Hammell
Shawn Smith

If i've missed anyone, please let me know (i'm sure there are more but i can't remember)

Week in photos - Oct 20

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Greenhouse Members - 2008

Greetings from your Greenhouse Manager,

So far we have 31 members who're interested in the Greenhouse project. The following is a list of the members:

Alison Lackie

Amalie Ask

Brittany McNally

Carrie T

Christina Huvenaars

Christina Nguyen

Daniel Gralian

Danielle Levesque

Dannelle Messer

Dr Karen Tanino & Nair.N

Hanny Elsadr & Angela Nierop

Hasan Alghouti & Sahar Alghouti

Janell Healey

Julie Deugau

Kaila Hamilton

Kaleigh Elian

Katie Senn

Mandy Lajeunesse

May Guan

Mercedes Scott

Michelle Hammell

Nathalie Brunet

Peter Le

Peter Reimer

Rachel Buhler

Rachel Claassen

Sahar Alghouti

Steffen Bertelsen & JamieTaylor

Thea Kristiansen

If I've missed anyone, please let me know.

Greenhouse project layout.

The greenhouse project will be divided into 4 rows.

Row 1: Which is closest to the flood floor will be allocated for herbs and HortClub members' garden or experimental garden.

Row 2: Cultivation of sweet pepper. (60 plants)

Varieties: Sweet bell peppers: green, red, yellow and orange.

Transplanting : The age of the plant to be transplanted is an important matter. Transplant a young plant with a well developed root system. An old plant is not advised. It will turn into a generative stage too early. Do not allow the plant to set fruit at an early stage. The aim is to create a "factory" first. Therefore you need a sturdy plant with a well developed root system in order to ensure sufficient vegetative development. After that the plant will be able to produce a good quantity of well developed fruits. A badly developed root system can cause blossom end rot.

Temperature: Sweet pepper is far more sensitive to temperature and moisture extremes than many other crops. After transplanting, the optimum temperature is approximately 23o C by day and 18-21o C at night.

Plant density : The number of shoots per m2 determines the plant density. Depending on the date of transplanting and length of the cultivation, 6 - 7 stems per m2 is advised. This means 3 (three) plants per m2 for the 2-stem system. For our experiment, there will probably be 60 plants per double row.

Yield:

Row 3: Cultivation of tomato (72 plants)

Varieties: Trust, Clarisse VFT, Camelia VFT, Sugar F1 Hybird Pitenza, Smarty, Conestoga.

Set up:

Tomato plants will be set up in a double rows system with all plants on one side of the double rows leaning over and trained in the same direction along that row. All the plants on the other side of the double rows will be trained upwards and leaning forward.






Overhead and side views of the double row system for tomato plants. Every plant in each side of the double row is trained in the same direction along the length of the row. Once plants reach the end of the row they are moved forward.


Temperature: Temperature should never dip below 18oC night or day or plants will not set fruit properly, and those that manage to set will provide poor quality fruits. Day temperature should be maintained around 23-26oC and night temperature about 19-20oC. Wider difference in day and night temperatures could be beneficial for fruit set, but also risky.

Plant density: Determining the plant density is a very important component of the greenhouse preparation and is directly linked with final yield. For the best results, each plant should be designated an area of 4 sq.ft. For our allocated area, there will probably be 72 plants per double row.

Yield: A good grower, who keeps the plants warm, fertilized, and properly pollinated, should expect 7-10 lbs or 4 kg per plant over a 4-month harvest period. This equals to 31.5 lbs/week. 20 -25lbs will be exclusively reserved for us (Greenhouse members), and the rest will be shared with the other HortClub members.

Row 4: Cultivation of cucumber (30-40 plants) , bean and zucchini (5-10 each)

Variety: Corona

Set up:











The cucumber set up will be a little different from the tomato set up. Every plant on each side of the double row will be trained in the same direction along the length of the row. Once plants reach the end of the row they are trained around and down the other side of the row.

Temperature: For cucumbers, temperatures should be kept between 23-25oC during the day and 20-21oC at night until the first picking. Exceeding the maximum temperatures can be used to cause some flower abortion and maintain the fruit-vine balance.

Plant density: Six to nine square feet of space per plant is required, depending on the variety and cropping system.

Yield: With good management, greenhouse cucumbers will produce from 20 to 30 pounds of fruit per plant over a 4-month harvest period, which equals to 37.5- 50 lbs/week.

Why leaves turn colour in autumn.

The beautiful colours of the leaves in September and October are
triggered by shortening days and lower temperatures. The green
chlorophyll is degraded to reveal the yellow, red and orange colours
that were masked by the overpowering green chlorophyll during the
summer season.

In addition, there are two parts to photosynthesis: light-dependent
and light-independent. When the temperatures turn cooler, the
light-independent part of photosynthesis slows down (carbon fixation
portion which is tightly controlled by enzymes---very sensitive to
changes in temperature). However, the light-dependent portion does not
slow down to the same extent. The light-dependent portion continues to
receive light (photons) which split water to produce electrons which
drive the photosystems of the light-dependent portion of
photosynthesis. Since the light-dependent portion flows into the
light-independent portion, there is a back-log created when the
light-independent portion slows down. This back-log causes excess
electrons which induce free radical formation in the light-dependent
portion. In order to protect itself, the leaf synthesizes anthocyanins
(red pigments) which absorb the free radicals (same pigments in red
wine and red fruits). In addition, the anthocyanins are also located in
the upper epidermal layers and essentially serve as a sun block to
reduce excess photons from entering the leaf. In this way, the reduced
amount of light received will be in more balance with the reduced level
of activity in the light-independent portion of photosynthesis and the
number of free radicals will also decrease.

By Dr Karen Tanino

Week in photos - Oct 13

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Fertilizer 101

What The Numbers Mean

On a package of fertilizer you will find three or four numbers separated by hyphens.

The first numbers the percentage of nitrogen (N), second number phosphorus (P), third numbers potassium (K), and last number indicate sulfur (S).

Macronutrients vs Micronutrients

Those main nutrients are called “Macro-nutrients”, and a "complete" fertilizer must contain nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

In addition, there’re trace elements which also importance as well : iron, zinc, copper, calcium, manganese and magnesium which are necessary for plants to complete there life cycle so we call it “ Micro-nutrients”

What they do

Nitrogen

Nitrogen is required for the green and leafy vegetative growth of plants. All plants need nitrogen to make amino acids, protein and DNA. Nitrogen fertilizer is often synthesized using the Haber-Bosch process, which produces ammonia. Deficiency symptoms of nitrogen are an overall pale yellow color of leaves and dwarfed or stunted plants

Nitrogen is easily leached down through the soil below the roots and is not available to the plant so is the element most often lacking and needing replacement. In addition, too much nitrogen can delay flowering, fruiting and seed set.

Do you know that most of the nitrogen on Earth is in the atmosphere and approximately 80% of the molecules in Earth’s atmosphere are made of two nitrogen atoms bonded together (N2)

Phosphorus

Phosphorus promotes root growth, root branching, stem growth, flowering, fruiting, seed formation and maturation. Phosphorus is involved in photosynthesis, seed formation, and numerous other plant functions. Ammonia can be added to the super phosphoric acid to create liquid or dry materials containing both nitrogen (N) and (P), and the liquid 10-34-0 is the most common product. Deficiency symptoms are indicated by a red or purplish tinge to steams and foliage. Phosphorus is stable and non-mobile element in the soil so leaching is not a problem.

Potassium

Potassium enables the plant to withstand stress such as drought, cold, heat, and disease. It also stimulates flower color and promotes tuber formation and a strong root system. Deficiency symptoms are indicated when the leaves appear dry and scorched on the edges and have irregular yellowing.

Photo contest

Title:
By: Grant Wood
Location:
Date:










Title:
By: May Guan
Location: HortClub greenhouse
Date: Jan 22, 09







Title:
By: Rachel Claassen
Location: The Bowl
Date: Oct 15, 08













Title: Colors of Fall
By: Katie Senn
Location: U of S campus
Date: OCt 12, 08







Title: The field scarecrow
By: Baharak Farrokhnia
Date: Sep 14, 08







Tittle:
By Kaila Hamilton
Location Edmonton Mutart Conservatory
Date taken: February 2008













Title: From genotype to phenotype
By Christina Nguyen
Location: Atrium (Agriculture building)
Date taken: October 17th 08.











Title: For the Love of Squash Series
By M.P.M. Nair


Tell me you love me.


First kiss


I have got my love to keep me