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.
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.
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.
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!
Monday, October 12, 2009
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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:
Field project (running during the summer)
Greenhouse project ( running all year round)
Ornamental plants
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.
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)
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.
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:
Remove any dead plants from the benches
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)
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.
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.
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:
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.
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:
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.
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
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: