Interested in growing aquarium and pond plants??

If you are interested in learning more about growing common aquarium and pond plants, please contact Grant Wood. If enough students are interested in this activity, we will try to establish another interest group and start growing some plants. You can get ahold of Grant at grant.wood@usask.ca.

Greenhouse meeting (Reminder) Thursday Nov 26

Hi greenhouse members,

Just a quick reminder that we will have a meeting tomorrow in the greenhouse at 4:30pm. For the first 30min I will introduce some common pests that we have in the greenhouse, then I will dicuss some management techniques that are used to control them. This will provide you a basic background on what to expect and what to do in terms of dealing with pests in the future.

Then we will do some maintainance and harvest the cucumbers. Yup, it is harvest time for the cucumbers. Please bring your own bags, bags will not be provided.

The meeting will take approximately 60-90 minutes long.

Hope to see everyone there,

Peter Le

Greenhouse meeting

Hi everyone,

Here is the update information from the greenhouse, I'm sure that you haven't heard anything lately from the greenhouse so do I. Therefore, I guess I wlll take some actions before it is too late. So from now on, I will setup a regular meeting in the greenhouse every Thursday from 4:30pm to 6:30pm. During the meeting, I will talk a bit about related topics to greenhouse food production (~ 30 mins) then the rest 1:30hr we will go over the plants for hand on experiences.

Topic for the

• Thursday Nov 19: Greenhouse food production - Is it important?
  
• Thursday Nov 26: Intergraded Pest Management - What is your enemies?
  
• Thursday Dec 3: Fertilizer regime - What is it?
  

If you are planning to come to the meeting, please send me an e-mail to confirm your spot. It will be really helful for me to know how many members are coming.

Peter Le

Pumpkin Sale!!

Hi Everyone,

We are planning a pumpkin sale on Friday October 23rd from 10:00-3:00. We need Hort Club member volunteers to help sell pumpkins and raise money for the club! We especially need people who are available in the morning, from about 9:00-1:30. If you have even half an hour to spare to help out it would be greatly appreciated.

If you are able to volunteer, please reply in the comments section of this blog entry with your name and the times you are able to help out. This way other members can check out which shifts are covered and which shifts still need to be filled.

Hope to see you there! Thanks for your help!

Things to do with all those fresh veggies.
After all of that harvesting the porch is full of fresh veg. Now what to do with all of this fresh stuff before it goes bad and so that I can enjoy it all winter.
I started by shredding one large zucchini and freezing it in bags for use in quick breads. I just washed, peeled and grated it and froze it in about two cup units.
Next I made a batch of an African peanut stew that uses lots of what we grew and freezes well.
Here is my take on a traditional recipe:

Peanut Vegetable Stew
4-6 medium potatoes
2 tbs., 30 ml. oil
3 tbs., 45ml. grated fresh ginger
3 tbs., 45ml. ground coriander seed
3 or 4 cloves garlic, crushed
4 large onions, diced coarse
6 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
2 cups, 500ml. peeled and cubed eggplant
3 cups, 750ml. cubed zucchini
2 large sweet peppers, diced coarse
hot peppers to your taste
about 1 cup, 250ml. stock or water (I like ham stock)
1 small tin tomato paste
1/2 cup, 125ml. peanut butter
3 tsp., 15ml. salt

Fry onion, garlic, ginger and spice in oil till onion is transparent. Add potato, tomato, eggplant and some stock, bring to a boil and simmer 10 minutes. Add zucchini, peppers and salt and simmer until all of the vegetables are soft, another 10 to 20 minutes. Add peanut butter, tomato paste and more stock to adjust thickness. If you are going to freeze this keep it quite thick as it will water out when it is thawed.
This is great with any grain starch, with bread or on its own. I freeze it in 500 ml. cartons for quick winter meals.


Now what to do with all those greens?

Horticulture Plant Sale and Care Instructions

This year the Horticulture Club would like to announce its first plant sale of the year. In this plant sale we will sell a variety of succulents, cacti, patio tomato plants (~30cm), Thai basils, fragrant herbs (from India), sensitive plants and many more.

The plant sale will take place on the second floor of the Biology building on Thursday, Sept 17 and in the agriculture Atrium on Friday, Sept 18 from 10:00am-3:00pm.













Come and check us out, and support our student project. We have lots of activities going on in the club, and the only way we can generate funding to keep the club going is through our annual plant and vegetable sales.

Some of our activities are:

• Field project 2008
• Greenhouse project 2008
• Other activities

Care Instructions:

For succulents and cacti: You only need to water them once, or twice per week.

For container tomatoes: If you purchase the small container, you'll probably want to transfer your plant into a bigger container. The only reason we put them into the small containers is to induce stress, which encourages the plants to produce more flowers and ultimately fruits over a short period of time. The bigger container = more root growth = happy plant. Please water your tomatoes ~3 times per week, and make sure the soil remains moist. Don't over water your plants because this can increase root rot problems. Last but not least, don't forget to tap the tomato flowers whenever possible to pollinate them. Enjoy your little, home-grown tomatoes. :)

For sensitive plants and Thai basils: Water 2-3 times per week, and keep trimming the branches to encourage more branch growth. Be sure to remove the flowers to ensure continuous growth (allowing this annual plant to flower will cause it to die).

General Rules of thumb:
In order to grow healthy plants, three of these components are needed:

• Water
• CO2
• Light

Even though plants usually will need more than the above, as long as you keep these three above components constant, other requirements are optional.

• Water: never under water or over water your plants. There is no better tip, than to visually inspect the soil surface; if it looks dry or soaking wet take appropriate actions.
• CO2: C is important for plant metabolism, which generates sugar and complex structures to induce plant growth. You probably won't have to worry about it, since you are an excellent source of CO2.

• Light: Even though most of our plants have been chosen especially for indoor environments, this does not mean the plants can tolerate a lack of light. Choose a bright spot in your house or office to situate your plants. A place near the windows or a light source would be ideal.

You're probably wondering: what about fertilizer? We already added some slow release fertilizer into your pots, so your plants will have enough nutrients for a while. In addition, you probably don't want your plants to get too big, do you? Therefore, fertilizing them is not necessary.

Warnings:

All of our plants are grown by us (students), and we did not use any hardcore chemicals (commercial pesticides). We only used trace amounts of organic chemicals and biological controls (beneficial insects) to control some insects in the greenhouse. Therefore, we do not guarantee that our plants will be completely free of pests. In the odd cases that they do show up on your plants, please quarantine your plants and use appropriate insect controls available at any garden stores.

Thanks for support and we hope you have a great time with your new plants.

U of S Horticulture Club

Welcome to another year!

Greetings all,

The University of Saskatchewan Horticulture Club is a campus group composed mainly of undergraduate students, who are interested in the ever expanding and diversifying field of Horticultural Science. We strive to learn about and experience many disciplines within this realm, whether it be using horticultural production systems, learning how to make wine, propagate plant material or simply enjoying the company of other horticulture enthusiasts!

Most of all, we are not afraid to get our hands dirty, we rise to the challenge and welcome new opportunities to excel.

I am thrilled to personally welcome you to the Horticulture Club; I hope to see you participating in our many events and activities!

Our first meeting is Tuesday, September 15, 2009, at 5:30 pm in AGRC 2E25, come and check it out! So far we are planning for everything from plant/pumpkin/poinsettia sales to making wine/cider and preserves, plus more! If you have any more great ideas or projects for us to undertake, by all means, contact any one of the executive, we'd love to here from you!

May you learn what you can and have a blast in the process!
It's yours to discover.


Presidentially Yours,

Chelsea Tomcala

Greetings and May News...

Hi everyone! Some of you may recognise me from working in the Field project or other activities during the year; but as the new Greenhouse Manager I'd like to take the time to introduce myself:

Kaleigh Elian

~ Saskatoon is my hometown, and always has been.
~ I am going into my third year of Arts and

Science for a Bachelor of Arts in History and

Geology, then applying to the College of

Education for Elementary Education.

~ I've been with the Horticulture Club

for two years now, I enjoy learning new

methods, meeting enthusiastic members, planting, and most of all harvesting!!

~ I love photography, reading, cooking, travel, and enjoying free time when I have the chance to relax.

May News:

So far, the cucumber, eggplant, and herb sections have been terminated; and thank you to the members who came out to help take the plants down. The overall plan for May is to finish terminating our vegetable crops-tomatoes and peppers-so that Eldon is able to fully clean the Hort Club section. This will *hopefully* decrease or eliminate our chances of early diesease outbreaks.

What I'd like to do is set up a group 'take down' session for this Saturday at 3:30/4 pm in order to look after the tomato and pepper plants. We will only need ~ six (6) members to help out, and anyone who is interested is free to send me a message at kae074@mail.usask.ca

As a side-note, any members that would like to take the beautiful and established pepper or tomato plants from the greenhouse home with them for their own gardens/personal use are free to...the one condition is that the pots MUST be returned to the greehouse, since they were purchased by the U of S Agriculture Department and are not Horticulture property.

Have a great week and hope to see a few of you on Saturday!

~. Kaleigh

Help Wanted - Farmers Market

Help Wanted
Part Time

Manager’s Assistant

Email: skfarm@sasktel.net
Fax: 384-4850

Skills & Qualifications:

• Computer literacy and experience - Web page design and data
• entry, Microsoft Word, Excel, Publisher, Power Point and Access
• Related experience in working with non profits, co-operatives or other community based organizations
• Must be flexible to work weekends
• Excellent people and communication skills
• Professional and friendly attitude - ability to interact and empathize with people from all walks of life
• Ability to be self directed and work on your own
• Enthusiastic and energetic
• Strong organizational skills
• Reliable and punctual
• Approximately 10 - 15 hours per week

Duties

• Open and close markets
• Assist vendors and office when needed
• Assist with event planning
• Data Entry for distribution lists
• Attend meetings, taking of minutes, typing and distribution
• Assist with sales of vendor products

Application Deadline – May 23, 2009

(From Candace Knihniski - posted by Peter Le)

Gifts update

Hi all,
I am sure you are enjoying this great gardening weather.

Dr. Bruce Coulman (Head, Dept. Plant Sciences) had major surgery 2
weeks ago. He has been very supportive of the Hort Club (agreeing to
provide both the greenhouse space and the field space). Thus, a basket
of veggies, "mixed" wine, and 3 small houseplants were given to him on
behalf of the Hort Club. He was very touched by the gesture.

Jackie Bantle (Greenhouse and Field manager) and Eldon Siemens
(Greenhouse technician) have been very helpful to our club as well.
They were each given a "Thank you" card and $100 gift certificate to
the bookstore/tuck shop on campus. They were also very appreciative of the gesture.

Best wishes,
Karen

Greenhouse crop termination

As we are going to the end of the growing season, we will terminate all the crops in the greenhouse. Therefore, we encourage members to harvest all the tomatoes, sweet peppers and herbs. You are allowed to take whole herb pots home for your garden, but this does not include the pots (U of S property). For those who have taken herb pots home, please return the pots to the greenhouse in E where our crops are.

For the pepper and tomato groups, I will get some cuttings from your crops to save good varieties, so please do not prune the side shoots or new meristems.

Here is the schedule to terminate the crops:

• May 9: From 1pm to 3pm: terminate all the cucumbers and herbs. In addition, we will do some ornamental propagation.

The reason we're terminating the crops is because it's not feasible to keep the greenhouse crops during the summer, since the field will be much more productive during this time of the year. In addition, this will give us a break period to clean up our area and keep the bugs out. However, this year we will start planting our new crops around July, so that we can have fresh produce ready around November - December.

If you would like to know more information please don't hesitate to ask me.

Peter Le

What do I need to know as new HortClub members?

We welcome you to the HortClub, and we hope you will have a pleasure time and learn a lot in the end.

A bit of history about us:

Established in 1991 by a group of students interested in Horticulture with the help of Dr. Karen Tanino, who is a professor in the Plant Science Department. The HortClub offers a variety of opportunities for students in a range of Horticultural areas. This up coming year we will have the following activities:

1. Field project (running during the summer)
2. Greenhouse project ( running all year round)
3. Ornamental plants
4. Wine and food processing

Most of our vegetable production is primarily for members' use, and any extra is proudly supplied to the Food Services, Child Hunger and Education Program (CHEP) - good food box program, U of S Students' Union Food Centre and some local restaurants.

Since we have quite a few activities, it is not required that members attend all of the activities. You only attend those activites which is best suited to your interests. Some activities will involve labor, but you won't regret your time and effort with what you have learned in the end. You can find most of our contact information on the blog, and don't hesitate to ask specific questions you may have.

For the list of executive contact information, you can find it here:

Once again, we welcome you to the club and wish you will have a good time.

Sincerely yours,

Executive members

U of S Horticulture Club Executive 2009-2010

Faculty Advisor:
Grant Wood - grant.wood@usask.ca
(Previous Faculty Advisor: Karen Tanino - karen.tanino@usask.ca)

President:
Chelsea Tomcala - cmt564@mail.usask.ca

Vice-President:
Danielle Levesque - del321@mail.usask.ca

Treasurer:
Jamie Taylor - jmtaylor1022@gmail.com

Secretary:
Jacey Bell - jrb363@mail.usask.ca

Field Managers:
Danielle Levesque - del321@mail.usask.ca
Steffen Bertelsen - steffen.bert@gmail.com

Greenhouse Mentor: Peter Le - ttl541@mail.usask.ca
Greenhouse Manager: Kaleigh Elian - kae074@mail.usask.ca
Ornamentals Manager: Michelle Hubbard - michelle.hubbard@usask.ca

Cider & Wine and Processing Co-Managers:
Amalie Ask - ava875@mail.usask.ca
Ellen Watkiss - erw847@mail.usask.ca
(to be assisted by Danielle Levesque, Valerie Adrian -
vaa932@mail.usask.ca, and Chelsea Tomcala)

Job Opportunity !!!

Great article in the OCN about the Hort Club. I am glad to hear that it is still so active. I have a job opportunity that I thought the one of the club members may be interested in.
Jack Braidek called me.

He lives in a condo complex in the north part of the city and they would like to hire someone to look after the grounds. He thinks it may be 13-16 hours/week. It would be general maintenance although the landscape is 12 years old, so he thinks that there may need to be some rebuilding and replacement of plantings. They will pay about $15.00/hour.

I told him that I would pass this on to any one or group
that would be interested. His contact information is Jack
Braidek - jbraidek@sasktel.net or 933-1257.

(From Dr Karen posted by Peter Le)

Ornamental benches in E greenhouse

Dear Hort Club Members,
It has come to my attention that the Hort Club benches in greenhouse E are in need of some housekeeping. The benches that have the houseplants on them (benches 23 & 24) are becoming quite messy and are also becoming a haven for weed plants (specifically liverwort). Dead leaves and plant tissues are constantly falling on the floor and clogging the drains. This is resulting in standing water under the benches and algae problems on the floor. I want to remind all Hort
club members that it is a priveledge to have your plants in the Agriculture greenhouses. While we do not mind watering your plants, we do not want to be watering plants that should be hrown out or that do not belong to anyone.
Within the next 10 days (i.e. by May 8), could your members please come
in and:

1. Remove any dead plants from the benches
2. Remove any liverwort or other weeds from plants that will be remaining on the benches (try to pull out the roots along with the plant tops)
3. Label plants so that stock plants are labelled as stock plants and plants that belong to certain individuals are labelled with their names. There will be a box of used labels placed beside your benches along with 'Sharpie' markers. Please use these labels to mark your plants with your name. Any plants that are not labelled as stock plants or belonging to individuals WILL BE REMOVED after Friday, May 8th.
4. I would appreciate it if the floor could be swept at least once per week under your benches to remove and debris. A broom along with a smaller dustpan and broom can be found in the main hallway outside greenhouse E.

Thank you for your cooperation. If you have any questions, please
don't hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Jackie Bantle
Greenhouse Manager
Dept. of Plant Sciences
ph: 966-5864
cell: 222-7018

P.S The floor are cleaned now but you may want to pick up your plants or label it.

Greenhouse Update and New Forum

I took down one of the cucumber line last Thursday and Friday. I don't know how long we want to keep the plants in the greenhouse. Therefore please vote on the main blog page, so I can know when we want to terminate the plants, as well as when we can start cleaning up the space. We need to terminate our current crops to allow for sterilization of the place. This will get rid of the insect infestation we're currently dealing with. If we don't do this the insects will transfer to our next round of crops. This is also a good opportunity to do some maintenance and to clean up the floor.

Sorry for not keeping everyone updated for the last two weeks. I assumed everyone was busy during exam time, so I didn't want to disturb you. I hope exams went well for everyone, and a big thank you to those who came and helped out in the greenhouse during exam time. Your effort was greatly appreciated.

For better communication and to provide more opportunity for everyone to share their ideas and suggestions, I'm working on a forum where everyone will get their own user name and password. In addition, you can post and ask any questions you may have, and hopefully we can share and learn new things this way.

For more information about the forum please check on:

http://uofshorticultureclub.forumotion.com/

Hope to hear lots of comments and advices from everyone. Have a happy summer.

Peter Le

Bedding plant update

Just some updated information on the bedding plants on the bench. Most of them have germinated and are doing well, but others are completely dry and lacking water. I thought we have set up a watering schedule. Please remember that if you forget to water this is the result. I was in the greenhouse last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 8am to noon, but didn't see anyone coming during their watering shift, except Danielle (and she only watered her field bedding plants).

In addition, there are some concern over fertilizer damage. Please check the other blog entries for clarification about which water hose you should be using.

Peter Le

Pesticide application on the cucumber.

Just to let everyone know that Eldon just applied some insecticides on the cucumbers. The product is "Organic" graded and controls spider mites. It is alright to consume these cucumbers. However, just in case, please wash the cucumbers before eating.

You can find more information of the Neem Oil here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neem_oil

Peter Le

Greenhouse watering hose

There have been some concerns about the tip burns on the bedding plants. Please be careful of which water hose you use. From left to right:
1. Temperate water
2. Cold water
3. Fertilizer water

Please water your plant with "Temperate water" only. In addition, the temperature increases as the season approaches the summer months. High temperature in the greenhouse increases the rate of water evaporation. The media will dry quicker, therefore every time you water please give your plants a "good water" and make sure the tray is wet and that water is coming out at the bottom.

Peter Le

Attention All Agriculture Greenhouse Users:

We will be fumigating the Agriculture greenhouse during the evening of Tuesday, April 21st through to the morning of Wednesday, April 22nd. The Agriculture greenhouse will be completely closed off to all users starting at 4:30pm, Tuesday, April 21st. There will be NO ACCESS ALLOWED until Wednesday morning (April 22) at 8:30am.

*Now that the rest of the greenhouse will be fumigated, and virtually pest-free, please do not go back and forth between greenhouse G (veggies) and any of the other greenhouses. This may reintroduce and spread pests, rendering the previous fumigation useless and redundant. Instead, visit greenhouse E first (if you must) and hit the flood-floor (greenhouse G) last.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Jackie (222-7018)
or Eldon (230-6899) as soon as possible.

- Jackie Bantle & Eldon Siemens

(Posted by Peter Le)

Volunteers, anyone?

Would you have any time to help with a coleus project in the next week or 2?
Volunteers are needed to help sell a new U of SK coleus variety (Audrey III) at Persephone Theatre from mid April 18th to May 3rd. Persephone Theatre will be performing the play “Little Shop of Horrors” which is about a man eating plant named ‘Audrey II’. Our ‘Audrey III’ coleus looks like it has teeth dipped in blood with blood-coloured veins.
Proceeds of the plant sales are going to fund school trips to Persephone and for Student Horticulture projects at the U of Sk.
Persephone’s staff indicated the greatest need is the hour before the show (7 to 8pm) because their volunteers are busy handing out programs and seating people. Intermission would be nice (around 8:45 to 9) or after the show 10pm, but they could make due without someone then.
The show runs from Now to May 3rd.
Evening shows occur every day except Mondays.
Sunday they have a matinee, so we need someone at 1 to 2pm.
In appreciation, volunteers will be given their own ‘Audrey III’ or a gift certificate for the Fruit Programs plant sale on June 5th.

If you would like to volunteer, please email me at bob.bors@usask.ca
or call me on my cell phone 280-1930. Don’t leave a message on the cell phone, since I am unable to retrieve messages. If you want to leave a message call 966-8583.

Thanks,
Bob Bors

(From Dr Bob Bors, posted by Peter Le)

Master Composting Class

Subject: Coming up... Master Composting Class.

What is a master composting class you ask?

A master composting class is a week-end class that covers everything you ever wanted to know about composting. The classes cover what to compost, how to compost, how to build a compostiing system in your yard or garden, and a variety of other topics related to gardening. It is a great opportunity to expand you knowledge as well as teach others.

When: April 25th and 26th
Cost: free (the City of Saskatoon pays the tuition)
In addition you recieve a manual in a binder, a reference book (or two depending on your horticultural experience and enthusiasm, a DVD and a certificate - as well as go on a field trip to the City's compost depot on McOrmand Dr. In return you are expected to share you new found knowledge in your community or through community events (generally, you are asked to volunteer for the Saskatchewan Waste Reducation Council).

Location: TBA (likely on U of S Campus)

If you are interested or would like more information please call me (Dana) at 655-5322.

I would love for some community gardeners to be able to take part in this training! I have worked with Master Composters in the past and found it to be a wonderful education.

(From Valerie, posted by Peter Le)

Greenhouse update

There are some new diseases on the cucumber plants. However they are still producing a fair amount of cucumbers so far. Valerie has suggested that we could provide any extra cucumbers to small restaurants in downtown. I think this is a good idea, since we won't be wasting any cucumbers. This will also apply to the peppers. As for the tomatoes, I don't think they're doing well enough at this time. Keep harvesting the cucumbers, and removing the side shoots and foliage.

For the tomatoes groups, I've been pretty busy with exams, so I haven't been working on your crop lately. I'm not sure how you guys divide up the work, but it seems like your crop is growing wildly now. Consequently you can see some signs of nutrient deficiency, insect damage, slow growth, and yield loss.

When your crops are weak, it is a chance for insects to take over your plants. If you look closer at picture #3, you can see that your crop has a major white fly problem. I know that finals are just around the corner so stay focus and spend time on your studies. This is just a reminder so that you can do better next time :).

The pepper and herb groups are doing great. As far as I know, Valerie is the only one working on the peppers. Therefore please do not not assume that peppers don't need a lot of care. Valerie comes into the greenhouse ~2 times a week to maintain her crop by shaking the plants, and harvesting the ripe peppers. In addition, she did a good job of making observations and recording her work. I think everyone should take a look at the pepper note book to see what good note-taking is like. Thanks a bunch Valerie - keep it up.

May Guan and her group are also doing quite well with the herbs. I have noticed, however, that the chamomiles are not doing too well. Can you guys get rid of them and any other crops that are badly infected with aphids? The lettuce are doing well right now, so please keep an eye on them. Please inform me if you see any aphids on the lettuce. Also try not to let the lettuce pots come too close to any infected crops.

Bedding plants

To those members who have bedding plants on bench E25, I have placed all your trays on the bench. Please see the attached photo.

From now on only one member needs to come to the greenhouse every Tuesday and Friday to water your plants (please set up a schedule among yourselves to ensure that everyone does a fair amount of the watering). I have talked to Eldon and Jackie about watering schedule, and I think it would be better if we can water our own plants. Here are the reasons why:

• The plants only need watering on certain days, not every day. Over watering will kill them.
• They won't be happy with the pressure from the watering hose, therefore please use the watering can only. You can find it in the header house.
• Members will have more control over their plants. You don't want to come back one month later and find all your plants dead, do you?
  

Please sign up by replying on the comments tab with when you will be available, your name, and contact information (e-mail), so that other members can contact you.

So far there are 4 members who have bedding plants on the bench.

• Kaila Hamilton
• Danielle Levesque
• Valerie Adrian
• May Guan

When you come to the greenhouse, please water all the bedding plant trays (8 trays). Do not water other plants, such as the orchids, succulents and 2 seedling Carnivorous plants on the bench

Peter Le

Hey Everyone,
our year end party is this Sunday, April 5, 2009. We are starting at about 5:30pm at the Sutherland Hall. Activities will include a Potluck, scavenger hunt and other games. Further details will be posted and emailed.

The map is below, parking is available a couple lots West of the Hall.


View Larger Map

Greenhouse meeting March 26

Bedding plants for your garden:
- 2 trays per member (10 members max. Register by replying with your name under the comments tab)
- Valerie Adrian, Kaila Hamilton, Colin Kindrachuk, and Christina Huvenars (6 more to go)
- Do it on your own time, or come to the greenhouse this coming Thursday, April 2 at 4.30pm (Please confirm with Peter Le at ttl541@mail.usask.ca if you're planning to come).
- Trays and media will be provided, but you must bring your own seeds.

Greenhouse Key: ( Greenhouse key is found)
- Big security concern
- Eldon will leave the front door unlocked for active greenhouse members only.
- Concerns about one HortClub member who never shows up for meetings, or activities, but was spotted in the greenhouse even when the greenhouse key is missing ??? (under investigation)

Scale of production:
- Vegetable production : Personal vs Commercial scale?
- Supply to CHEP? CHEP needs ~600 cucumbers every 2 weeks, so who will bring produce enough for CHEP?
- Focus more on fresh herbs: this year the winner is basil.
- More to come: thai basil.
- Include recipes for herbs during herb sales.

Flower bench - MICHELLE HUBBARD (Ornamental manager)
- Plant identities and cares
- Specialty plants
- Short term: herbs, succulents, flower plants (low maintenance, low fertilizer feed)
- Long term: cacti and orchids (low maintenance, low fertilizer feed)
- Cuttings (ornamental, herbs, etc) - faster growing cycle
- Tissue cultures

Suggestions:
- Rosemary, catnip, Thai basil
- Carnivorous plants (Venus fly trap, Sundew, etc)
- Orchids from Nair?

Horticulture week:
- Promo for club - 2nd week of September

Greenhouse group award: (greenhouse members only)
- $500 (this money will come from the award I got this year)
Qualifications:

• Most active group
• Best plant choice
• Able to make profit for the greenhouse project
• New ideas
  

Greenhouse project meeting

There will be a meeting on Thursday, March 26th at 5:00pm, location 1E80 Agriculture Building. I will report on the greenhouse project this year. In addition, we will discuss the activities we have done in the past 5 months. We will also discuss what everyone wants to do next year, as well as activities for future years. We also want to lay out the direction to take, so that we can be more focused next year.

Since we have a new greenhouse manager, this will also be a good time to share new ideas as well as look for new greenhouse group leaders.

Please come to the meeting if you are interesting in the greenhouse project. The reason why we need to make a plan for next year is because we need to know which plants to grow for the plant sales next year (if we decide to do so at all).

Hope to see everyone on Thursday, March 26th.

Peter Le

Hortclub greenhouse 360

I just took a panoramic picture of our greenhouse and I hope everyone likes it.

Harvesting technique.


I'm not sure how everyone is harvesting stuff in the greenhouse, but here is how I do it. As you can see, I place 2 green trays on the cart, one for the tomatoes and one for the cucumbers. Tomatoes don't need to wrapped up, so they can go straight into the tray. However, if you are harvesting cucumbers, there's plastic wrap set right beside the tray for easy harvesting.

Underneath the cart is a yellow tray, which I use as my waste tray, so I don't have to go back and forth to the garbage can. You also see there are 2 blue bins where I put the tomatoes and the cucumber after I'm done harvesting. These blue bins must go into the cooler for storage once you're done.

Greenhouse Update

We will have a lot of cucumbers and tomatoes for a while. Cucumbers need to be harvested when they are approximately 25cm long, and tomatoes need to be harvested when they turn red. It's important to harvest these fruits in order to reserve the plants' nutrients for younger fruits. I have harvested quite a few cucumbers, so the next harvest day will either be this Wednesday or Thursday.

For the tomato group, as soon as anyone from your group comes to the greenhouse, please harvest the tomatoes on the right hand side facing the cucumber line.

Peppers are looking good. Right now you can see 3 kinds of peppers: yellow, orange and red. Harvest them when they completely turn color.

I have transplanted some of the lettuce; this time we will have butter crunch and red leaf. I have seen some aphids on the lettuce, therefore I placed the blue sticky board between the lettuce and the rest of the herb section. Please do not remove the sticky board. There are aphids on the chamomiles, as noted by Danielle. Please keep harvesting the chamomile if you have time this week.

The missing key

Once again if anyone has the key please return it to the lock box. I have discussed this with Jackie, and for now only active members who are working on the greenhouse project will be allowed access into the greenhouse. Others members who want to get into the greenhouse will have to come to the Plant Science office to get the key.


Peter Le

List of Wine Making Participants

Here's the list of people who are eligible to receive three bottles of homemade Hort Club wine. There should be a few extras left over so if I missed you, please let me know and I'll add you to the list :)

adrien, valerie
Ansari, Omid
Ask, Amalie V.
Beaton, Delaney
bell, jacey
bertelsen steffen
Brunet, Nathalie
Butcher, Susan
claasen rachel
Drinkwater, Jenna
Farrokhnia baharak
Gadzella, teri
gillott, cedric
Gralian, Daniel
Guan, May
Hamilton, Joseph
hauber jillian
Hill, Angela
Hilsden, Kathleen
kindrachuk colin
Kovach, Erica
Kristiansen, Thea
Lajeunesse, Mandy
meaden justin
munson, matt
nair
Popoff, Margarita
Ramey, Robyn
Reimer, Peter
Rohr, Veronica
tanino, karen
Taupadel, Megan
taylor jamie
thorimbert lana
Walters, Jayne
watkiss, ellen

Dates for pickup are as follows:
Tuesday March 17 - 5:00-5:25
Wednesday March 18 - 5:00-5:25
Friday March 20 - 5:00-5:25
Monday March 23 - 3:40-4:00
Thursday March 26 - 10:15-10:45
Friday March 27 - 3:40-4:00

The deadline for pickup is March 27th unless you make other arrangements with me (danielle). You can email me at del321@mail.usask.ca.

Greenhouse update - March 15

The HortClub shelf was cleaned and all the tools can be found there. New plastic wrap is available as requested. If you borrow tools, please put them back where they're located.



From left to right: tomato, cucumber, herb, and pepper notebooks. The herb group is doing an excellent job in recording their duties, as well as notes for future work. Nothing have been recorded in the tomato notebook, so it seems like the tomato group has some communication difficulties.


Valerie Adrian is doing a great job here. Your pepper is doing great and some of the orange and yellow peppers are ready to be harvested. Pruning should STOP at this point, but shaking the plants for pollination is still necessary.




The new cucumber line is doing great; I have seen some cucumber fruits on these young plants. Pruning the leaves is not recommended at this stage since theoretically each leaf is the food source for the fruit. However, pruning side foliage and side vines are necessary. There are a few cucumbers on the old line that are ready to be harvested, you can find the plastic wrap on the shelf, and make sure you wrap them appropriately, or they will go soft if the skin gets exposed to cold air in the cooler.

The new lettuce set has been transplanted. This time we have 2 varieties (red leaf and butter crunch). I did water them on Sunday morning, so they won't need any water until Wednesday. Do not put on the spaghetti tube, since they don't need a lot of water at this stage. Please water them with the red water container in the greenhouse.

Lots of chamomile are ready to be harvested; please harvest these flowers and I will put them in the dry room in Phytotron.

No picture for the tomato group since I've seen a lot of broken main stems. Please keep in mind that it takes a lot of time for a new main shoot to emerge, and yield will be put back for weeks. If you guys regularly prune the side shoots properly and do not let them grow wildly, you could have saved a lot of plants and fruits. In addition, you also need to harvest the ripen tomatoes, and place them in the blue box in cooler #111.2. Once again, this is what you should do this week:

• Pruning off all the side shoots (only 30mins maximum, but this is really important).
• Removing some of the fruits to maintain ~4-5 fruits per cluster.
• Putting on the clips.

New member: We have a new member, her name is Amy Cheng and she would like to help out in the greenhouse, preferably with tomatoes and herbs. If either groups are looking for new members, please contact Amy.


Member appreciation: Everyone have been working hard and have contributed a lot to our greenhouse project. Therefore to the members who have been helping out from the beginning until now, there will be a small gift. Some members already got their gift last Thursday during the joint meeting and I hope you like it. I apologize to those who didn't get a gift, since I didn't receive your email confirming you would come. However, you will get a different gift.

You can collect your gifts during the general meeting this Wednesday, location and time TBA :( .

Here is the list of members:

• Herbs group: Danielle, May, Christina, Thea, Amelie
• Pepper group: Valerie
• Tomato group: Colin, Rachel, Peter
• Cucumber: Nathelie, Mercedes, Kaleigh

There are 3 more names: Katie, Janel, and Mandy. I will contact your group leader to get more information.

Hope to see everyone this Wednesday at the general meeting.

Peter Le

Week in photos - Week of March 2

Herb and Plant Sale

Here is the schedule for the plant sale so far...

To sign up to help, email your preferred time to hort.club@usask.ca or comment below.

Herb/Plant Sale – Thurs March 12 2nd Floor Bio
9:30 – 10:00 AGRC 2E45	Chelsea T.
10:00 – 10:30	Danielle L. Chelsea T.
10:30 – 11:00	Danielle L. Chelsea T.
11:00 – 11:30	Danielle L.
11:30 – 12:00	Danielle L.
12:00 – 12:30	Danielle L.
12:30 – 1:00	Danielle L.
1:00 – 1:30
1:30 – 2:00
2:00 – 2:30
2:30 – 3:00
Cleanup @ 3pm To green-house	Chelsea T.

Tomato and cucumber

There are lots of tomatoes to harvest, but don't take them for now since we have a joint meeting this Thursday. Your group have done a great job so far, but you guys still need to be careful when you lower the plants.




Nutrient deficiency- Calcium deficiency is no longer a threat, you may have noticed that the beefsteak tomatoes were really susceptible to blossom end rot.
I have also noticed some tip burn on some of your plants, which could be due to some nutrient deficiency in your plants. Environmental factors may also play an important roles on nutrient uptake such as the greenhouse was quite cool during the day and hot during the evening.

Cleanliness - Since you guys have been harvesting your tomatoes, plz clean up all abandoned tomatoes left in the pots. I have noticed quite a few tomatoes lying around in the pots. When these tomato decompose, it will be a source for diseases later on. Clean up those abandoned tomatoes if you have time.

Keep updating your note books. This will really help later.

As you have seen, it is not feasible to feed on these weak, damaged cucumbers. No matter how hard we tried to feed and care for them, the damage was non-reversible. Therefore, I will terminate these old cucumbers soon. I have one full tray, ~25 cucumbers, ready for transplant sometime next week.

The young cucumbers are doing great and flowering. We lost a few fruits, since some members were confused on which part should be pruned off. In addition, you may have noticed there are two sets of cucumbers: one with the white tag, potted with regular sunshine mix #4, and the other with the orange tag, potted with regular sunshine mix #4 + perlite (3:1 ratio). The white tagged cucumbers show faster growth than the orange tagged ones.

Question for ya: What does this mean to you, and why is this so?

Peter Le.

Pepper.

Peppers are ripening, but please don't take these peppers for now. These ripening peppers will produce ethylene and help to speed up starch converting process. If you remove these ripening peppers at this time, they are not quite mature enough, so it won't taste good, and the sugar converting process will be delayed and consequently delay the ripening process for other peppers.

To pepper group members, we (Pete and Pete) :) have been spending quite some time working on your pepper plants. They are in good shape now but don't forget to take care of your plants. Your help will really help us to have more time to do other things.

Do you know that your group has a blue note book located on the HortClub shelf? Every time you come to the greenhouse, please write a short report about what you have done, and what you have seen, such as any bugs, disease, wilting plants, etc... This will not only help me to take care of your crops better, but also help inform your members. Last but not least, this note book will be kept as a reference to provide useful notes for next year's members.

Peter Le.

P.S Not sure what to do, pls contact me.

Cucumber care

Things you need to know:
There's been some confusion on the pruning of the cucumbers. There were a few cucumber flowers accidentally removed instead of the side foliage.

For your information.










Side foliage











Cucumber flower











Which one should you prune off?

Hope this help.

Peter Le.

Week in photos - Week of Feb 23

Greenhouse group meeting - Feb 27th

Meeting minutes.

News:
• Members Award application is available for download
(Deadline is March 13th )
• Joint meeting is Thursday, March 12th with guests from other colleges.
• Greenhouse books* are available, keep yourself updated and this is a great source of information for the next generation.
• Lots of cucumbers and tomatoes are in the cooler.
• Lettuce is available for harvest, check for sign on the flood floor.
• Coffee and tea are available in the coffee room.
• New tools are available such as step stools, latex gloves, syran wraps, fruit storage bag, as well as brown bag.

Greenhouse information:
• Greenhouse budget is available for review here.

Member appreciation:
• Lunch bag will be provide for volunteers during any event.

Recruit:
• Looking for new greenhouse manager, co-manager as well as group leaders.
(Tentative nominate date is March 18th)

*There are four separate books for four main crops, such as herbs, peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers.The group leader is responsible for keeping the book available to group members, as well as recording information on their crop.Members are responsible for keeping track of their attendance, as well as reporting any work or diseases during their time slot.All the book are place on the HortClub shelf where all the tools are for easy access.

Joint meeting

"Rooted" is an on campus club whose members have a particular focus on local food production, especially through urban gardening and helping to preserve our loacl ecosystems. The HortClub and Rooted are planning to hold a joint potluck at the Agriculture Greenhouse. Rooted is interested in seeing the greenhouse project and hearing about HortClub activities. I think it is a great to have so much interest in horticulture on campus (never enough!) and since both clubs seem to have common interests, a joint potluck at the greenhouse seemed like a good idea.

Please vote on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday or Friday by Feb.27.

Thanks

Karen Tanino

Harvesting time

Hello HortClub greenhouse members,

Harvesting time: --> Exciting

Lots of tomatoes are ready for harvest. You can start harvesting, but remember not to harvest all the ripen tomatoes. Leave some left as these ripen ones will produce ethylene, which will speed up the ripening process for other tomatoes. You can find a tray in the cooler and leave all the tomatoes in the blue box as indicated. Some of the "Trust" variety are ready for harvest as well.

For cucumbers, I have been harvesting and placing some cucumbers in the same blue box with the tomatoes. Cucumber group can start harvesting those similar in size to the one indicated in the photos. There're around 3-4 eggplants that are ready for harvest, and I left them for you to pick yourself :) . Remember to wrap up all the cucumbers before placing them into the blue box for longer storage. Without proper wrapping, the cucumbers will go bad quickly.

Solution for the fresh herbs: we can dry them. Herb group is responsible for cutting the herbs, and placing them in a brown bag. Please let me know when you're ready, so I can come and pick them up, or you can bring them to the agriculture building and give me a call. Chamile, basil, oregano, catnip, etc are ready for cutting, therefore you guys may want to do it some time this week.

Peppers are doing well, but not quite mature enough for harvest. So please wait a little longer until they change color. We didn't plant any green peppers, since green peppers are not worth the effort to grow in the greenhouse. If you compare the price of colored peppers to green peppers in the store, then you will easily understand our reason.

Working time: --> Not so exciting

Tomatoe group may want to spend some time lowering the cherry tomatoes (ie. arrange at a steeper slant). They're growing fast and are getting big again. Please, please be careful with the tomatoes !!! I have seen many broken main stems, and it will take a very long time for the plants to produce another main shoot. By the time they're back, they probably will not make it since they'll be overlapped by other plants. So be extra careful when you're working with the main stems. Last but not least, keep shaking --> yield is looking good.

The cucumbers are doing all right. The small cucumbers are going fast, and hopefully we can get some cucumbers soon. The old cucumbers are looking green again. Even though they're quite damaged by insects, we can still get some cucumbers along the way. Keep watching out for white flies, since I've seen a few. Thank you Nathalie; it was a good idea to keep documenting what you've done, so that other people can know what's been done and what to expect. Other groups may want to do the same.

As far as I know there is only one member working on the peppers. Therefore are there any volunteers willing to work with the peppers. If no one is interested I will step in.

Herb group alway has it easy going, but you guys may want to start harvesting and putting the herbs in bags, so I can dry them in phytotron. Let me know when you guys plan on doing it.

That's all, thanks everyone

Peter Le.