Monday, September 14, 2009

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:


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

Friday, September 11, 2009

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