HortClub's cooler

Hi everyone,

I'm the only one who's cleaning up the cooler nowadays, and this is not cool at all. Everyone is welcomed to take stuff from the cooler, but you need to clean up after yourself. Take a closer look at the photo; people are not only taking stuff, but are specifically looking for good produce, which messes the whole pile up.

This is the first and last notice. If this happens again, the combination lock will be changed and only members who help out in the greenhouse will get the code.

Thanks for your understanding and cooperation.

Peter Le

New stepstool.

I got this step stool for your convenience. From now on you don't have to carry the heavy woody chair around when you're pruning those tomato and cucumber plants.

I also got a box of latex gloves for everyone; you can find the box on the HortClub's shelf in the loading dock area. Please do not remove the box.

Peter Le.

Week in photos (Week of Feb 9)

Student's life

Start of the semester:



First week:



Second week:



Before the mid-term test:



Once know the exam schedule:



7 days before exam:



6 days before exam:



5 days before exam:



4 days before exam:



3 days before exam:



2 days before exam:



1 day before exam:



Night before exam:



1 hour before exam:



During the exam:



Walking out from the exam hall:



After the exam, during the holiday:

Plant instruction care

FRESH HERBS:
If not used immediately, the herbs can be stored in the freezer and they will be great for soups and stews.

PLANT CARE:

Basil
Basil is best kept in medium-rich, moist soil with a pot that drains excess water. Keep in full sun and in a warmer part of the house. Basil leaves are best used fresh in pasta sauces or on pizzas. Always add near the end of cooking so that it doesn’t lose its aroma.

Sage
Keep sage in full sunlight. It is important to keep the soil moist. If re-potting, use a light soil and make sure the water can drain through the bottom. Harvest leaves before they flower. Sage tastes great in stuffing and on meats such as pork.

Catnip
Keep in moist soil and in a sunny place. The leaves and stems of catnip can be infused for tea.

Thyme
Thyme grows best in moist, gritty soil under the sun. The leaves taste great fresh or dried on any meat!

All the pots were filled with greenhouse special soil less media + perlite. The media is disease free and the perlite helps to maintain adequate aeration in the pots. Herbs don't require lots of care and water, but do need some sunlight for photosynthesis. Place your herbs near big windows, or where light is available.
Water twice a week and always make sure that the water drains out the bottom. In most cases, people water the top soil, but fail to water enough causing the bottom soil layer to dry out. With twice a week watering schedule, you will never over water. Always use temperate water to prevent root shock.

Please let us know what you think and what plant do you prefer, so that we can do better in the future.

Once again, thanks for supporting the HortClub.

Brought to you by the Horticulture Club - Greenhouse group.

Nutritional information available here

HortClub Herb Sale

This year the HortClub is hosting a herb sale. This is a brand new venture, and we hope it will be well received by students and faculties alike.

To those who are new to the HortClub, we are a student-organized club based on campus that focus on all things horticultural. One of our project is the greenhouse project. Our main focus are student hand-on experiments outside the classroom and producing fresh produce that are both sustainable and affordable.

In the past, we provided fresh produce to CHEP and on campus Foods Service.











List of potted plants that will be in the herb sale:

Herbs:
Green basil
Purple basil
Catnip
Thyme
Sage

Flowers:
Double columbine
Carnation

Fresh herbs: U pick ~ fill a bag with your selected herbs.
Basil
Thyme
Oregano
Sage
Peppermint
Catnip
Swiss chard

Here are some pictures of our greenhouse as well as the plants we are currently growing:

For plant care instructions, please click here

Please let us know what you think and what plant do you prefer, so that we can do better in the future.

Thank you for supporting the HortClub.

Brought to you by the Horticulture Club - Greenhouse Group

Week in photos (Week of Jan 26)

Greenhouse week of Feb 2

Here is updated information

Good news:

The story of greenhouse insects:







5 weeks ago - unwelcomed guest







4 weeks ago - explosion of insect --> extensive damage







3 weeks ago - Bio control taking place








2 weeks ago until now - We're covered.

Insects: Basically the insect population is under control for now. Although they are still around , damages are much less than 2 weeks ago. Most of the herbs and peppers are doing well, and are coming back.


Tomatoes: It is hard to say with certain that we will have a good yield, but we definitely have quite a few tomatoes and some of the cherry tomatoes are ripening. Even though there are some BER (blossom end rot) on selective varieties, overall calcium deficiency is not a concern. There are a few issues with the wilting leaves on selective tomato plants. Once again, this is because of the variety. I don't know why it showed that physical disorder. This could have been caused by a lot of reasons, like water, temperature, fertility regimen, pH, etc. However it would be an interesting question for us to find the cause?

Cucumbers: Due to precipitate and salt built up in the injectors and the fertilizer tanks the cucumbers have not be doing too well. All the injectors and fertilizer tanks have been cleaned, and hopefully they will all work again. Some of the crop-like cucumbers did not get any fertilizer at all for a long period of time. This and insect damage are the reasons why the cucumbers were doing so poorly. And it's not a good idea to feed weak + damaged plants the same way you would healthy plants, so I will tear down all the cucumbers and plant new ones instead.

Lettuce: Lettuce is doing great. ~100 heads are coming up soon. This time, we have 3 different varieties (2 buttercrunch varieties and a leaf lettuce). Don't harvest them before I say so, since all of them are fed with tons of fertilizer --> highly concentrated nitrogen --> toxic --> who wants toxic lettuce? The solution is: before harvest time, ~ 3-4 days earlier, I will water the lettuce with plain water (no fertilizer) to drain out all the fertilizer concentrated in the lettuce, then we can harvest. This is just the recommended practices, but I think it makes sense.

Bad news:

White flies: I have noticed some white flies around on the eggplants. This insect could cause some yield loss for our tomatoes. So we need to keep an eyes on these guys. For the tomato members, if you see significant amounts of them around your tomato plants please let me know. For more information about this insect check here.

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


Odd news:

The greenhouse is back on track for now. It's up to us to keep it as an experimental learning environment, where we can produce "organic food", or simply learn how to grow plants.

From now on is it possible for the team leader of each group to organize schedules for their team members to come and look after their plants, as well as to report what has done each week? The plants are getting bigger, so regular maintenance needs to be done weekly to make sure the plants are free of disease, and to ensure good yield.

• For the Herbs: Please keep on thinning, trimming, cleaning up dead leaves and planting new herbs where desirable. Please also make a list of the herbs present.
• For the Peppers: Oops... whoever signed up for the Pepper group, please report to your team leader Valerie Adrian at vaa932@mail.usask.ca, since we have a little difficulty in communication.
  
• For the Tomatoes: Please keep pollinating the plants. You guys have done a great job, so keep it up. One more thing, please be extra careful with the tomatoes, since the branches bearing the fruits can easily bend, so put the clips on for extra support if necessary. Keep putting more clip as the plant grow, watch where you put the clips; try to avoid the flowers.
• For the Cucumbers: I have cut down most of the cucumbers, and have planted new ones. Put the clips along the string as the plants grow.

I have lots of midterms coming up, so I won't be around. Please contact me if you're not sure about what to do.

Thanks everyone,

Peter Le.

Congratulations to Katie Senn!!

She is the winner of a new iPod shuffle for placing first in our photo contest!! Thanks to everyone who participated!!

Check out the winning picture, 'Colors of fall'

Greenhouse week of Jan 26th.

Hi all,

There are some good news and bad news.

Good news:

Bugs were a big concern 4 weeks ago; there were lots of plant damage, especially in the peppers and herbs. There were lots of yield loss and the plants' growth was greatly affected. However, after 4 weeks of commitment and work with the bio-control agents, the aphids, thrips, and white flies are under control. If you take a close look on the pepper leaves you will likely see the dead aphids due to our bio-control agents. So the peppers are back and recovering.

The tomatoes are doing well; the bugs and diseases on the tomatoes are not a concern. The yield is pretty good and there is not a lot of "blossom end rot".

What is "blossom end rot"?
Blossom-end rot, a physiological disorder of tomatoes, and peppers is caused by a calcium imbalance within the plant. Fluctuations in soil moisture, excessively wet or dry soil, excessive nitrogen fertilizer, very high or low pH, or soils high in salts can all prevent the roots from taking up enough calcium to satisfy the plant's rapid cell development. The result is a water-soaked spot at the blossom end of the plant that enlarges, turning dark brown and leathery.

Bad news:

What is wrong with the cucumbers?

Some of you may have noticed that the cucumbers are not doing well; the leaves are yellow and curling, and the yield is not doing any better. Lots of fruits have been aborted, therefore we won't get as much cucumbers as expected. So what is the problem? At first, there was definitely bug-induced damage on the leaves. If you take a closer look on the leaves you may recognize lots of dark brown dots. However, there is a bigger concern regarding plant nutrients, since one of the Calcium nitrate tank got mixed up. This could have been a result of someone forgetting to turn/close one of the valves before opening the other valve from the "Macro-micro nutrients". As a result, the calcium tank now contains a mixture of Calcium nitrate and Potassium Sulfate --> Calcium Sulfate is insoluble in water (precipitate).

Ca(NO3)2 + K2SO4 --> 2KNO3 + CaSO4

How is the precipitate affecting our plants? Simply put it plugs the injector and the plants are not getting enough fertilizer. This is just one simple example that we need to be aware of later on.


How has everyone been lately? I don't see lots of us around recently. I know all of us are busy. Midterms are coming up and there are more assignments and paper work, but the plants are getting bigger and bigger as well, which means they do need care and some maintenance regularly. I have been the only one working on the peppers so far. Where are all the pepper members? Like what I have said before, peppers don't need a lot of care since they grow really slow, but they do need someone to look after them and to prune them regularly. The point here is to keep one main shoot in order to keep the plant growing straight. This work only takes 15-30 mins per week, but it really helps the plant. While you're pruning the side shoot off, you're already helping to pollinate the flowers as well. Two birds with one stone.

This also applies to the tomato group. So far the tomato group is doing great. However, be careful when you put the clips on, since I have seen several clips placed right over top the flowers. Please do not do this; if the flowers get damaged, then we won't get any tomatoes, but only tons of biomass (does anyone want tomatoes leaves?) instead.

Research project:


There is one student in PLSC 433 (Greenhouse production) course who is doing some research on our tomatoes. Be aware of the sign in the tomato pots. Check on 'greenhouse set up' for more information.

Dr. Doug (pepper trial):

There are 8 pepper plants on the trial line. Check the greenhouse setup for more information. These pepper plants are flowering and fruiting, but please do not harvest these peppers. This is a grad research project and they're saving all the seed as well as counting every single pepper seed. Once again, do not take these peppers. These plants are not HortClub peppers. If you have any concern on this please contact me for more information.


Last but not least, I hope everyone can set up a time suitable to your schedule to come and enjoy your horticulture experience. This is one in a life time experience in your university education. Remember, everyone else using greenhouse space has to pay big bucks, but we get the benefits for free. So please make good use of this. It may not seem important now, but it's really important later when the university re-evaluates our eligibility to continue using this space.

Things to do this week:

If your group hasn't established a schedule, then this is time to do it.
If your group has done this, then this is a good time to give it a start.
If you don't know what to do, please feel free to send me an e-mail @ ttl541@mail.usask.ca.
Decide when is a good time for the plant sale: some time during the week of Feb 9th before spring break. Tell me what do you think.
Strategies for the plants sale, like advertisement, deciding who will be the leader, pricing and signing up volunteers.

Things that have been done:

Big thanks to May Guan and the herb group on spending time transplanting all the herbs and flower plants for the plant sale later. We really appreciate this.

That is all for now, thanks everyone for giving your time,

Greenhouse setup.p...

Hosted by eSnips

Peter Le.

Week in photos (Week of Jan 19)

New Year's Potluck

We are having a New Year's Potluck, this coming Monday, January 26, 2009, at the Sutherland Hall. (1112 Central Ave, Southerland Area) With doors opening at 5:30, and supper starting at 6:00pm.

Please RSVP your dish & number of people by:

A) Commenting on this post below
B) Calling 664-8581 and leaving a message
C) Emailing: hort.club@usask.ca


I know this is short notice, this date also coincides with the Chinese (Lunar) New Year, with this year being the year of the Ox. We will also be going over our events for this semester and approving our new constitution. I hope to see you there!!


Map to the hall:

http://www.canpages.ca/page/SK/saskatoon/sutherland-hall/1715142.html

Greenhouse (Update Jan 11)

Hi everyone,

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with your family and friends. Here is some updated information on our greenhouse. After two weeks running low maintenance, we currently have some problems with bugs, such as thrips, aphids and white flies. The most susceptible crops to bugs are the peppers and some of our cucumber varieties. What caused the disease on the cucumbers is not clear but it caused aggresive damage on the leaves, as well as the cucumbers. Therefore, all of the trial cucumber varieties have been removed and planted again with our "standard" variety, which is "Corona". I have harvested quite a few english long "Corona" variety cucumbers; all of them have been wraped for storage, and placed in the cooler #111.3

Having bugs in the greenhouse is the last thing wanted in the greenhouse; unfortunately, what will we do with this unwanted gift? Will we quit, spray, start over or will we fight? I don't know what to do, but I know this is a great opportunity for us to test out how the bio-control works. I think I have mentioned this before. For now, if you come to the greenhouse you'll probably see those hanging white bags on the plants. Those are our friendly bugs, so don't remove those bags.
I hope this will work out and we'll still get good yield and a great learning experience.

For all plant groups (herbs, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers) please set up a schedule for your group members, arranging the times for when you can come and look after your plants.

• For the herb group, you need to thin some of the pots.
• For the pepper group, you need to carefully look for insects, remove the auxiliary stems, and put on the clips.
• For the tomato group, you need to remove the auxiliary stems, put on the clips, and tap the plants lightly to pollinate them.
• For the cucumber group, you need to remove the auxiliary stems, put on the clips, and harvest the ready cucumbers (they're ready when they're ~25cm and both tips are firm).

Note: be extra careful when you put on the clips, be sure to place them under one of the main/thicker branches (this helps to support the plants), and keep the strings tight to ensure that the plants will grow straight. I have seen so many clips placed above the branches or right on the tomato flowers. This provides no support and may even damage the flowers. So please be careful.

Thanks everyone and hope to see you guys soon.

Peter Le