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.