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.