MEETING OF THE ECA – THURSDAY June 14th, 2018 at 7 PM at the Seattle Police Athletic Association Office (SPAA) site; 11030 East Marginal Way South, Tukwila. June is a particularly busy month in growing mums so hope you can attend the meeting and bring your questions!
The following supplies will be available at the June meeting to support your final potting on. Call Ronnie right away if you need soils
Pre-Orders from Speciality Soils
– M&R Mix 1 cu ft. bag
– Pumice (coarse) 1 cu ft.
– Farmyard Manure 1 cu ft.
Other Club supplies available
– Mid Season Fertilizer, 20-9-20+ You’ll need this once you have potted on to the final pot-9″ or 8″
– Early Season fertilizer, 12-45-10
– Marathon 1% Systemic Insecticide (For control of black aphids)
-Twistems of various lengths
-Plant tags
May 10, 2018 ECA Meeting Minutes
Present: Anne Schreibe, Steve Backstrom, Kris Stephens, Sue Joyner, Mark Ross, Ron Elliott, Erika Harris, Bob Ewing, Rich and Jill Aldrich, Sydney Ogilvie
Cultural presentation:
Discussed Stopping Dates – most plants are stopped April 15th through June 1st – refer to cultivar list on the website for specific cultivar stopping dates.
Final potting into 8”, 9” or 10“ pots
Prepare pots by washing them in a mild Clorox solution (1 Tablespoon per gallon of water) then rinse in clear water.
Place a piece of broken rock in the bottom of the pot to keep the drain clear. Place about 1-2 inches of dirt in the bottom of the pot. Add Marathon systemic to control black aphids. Place the 6” root ball on top of the dirt so that the top of the root ball is 1 to 2 inches below the rim of the pot. Fill around the root ball and stake in place with a shingle or bamboo stake.
When potting take place after June 1st consider dropping down one pot size because the roots will not have enough time to fill the larger pots.
After 3 weeks in the final pot start a mid-summer feeding program (1 to 2 Teaspoons of 20-10-20 fertilizer per gallon of water. Watch leaves to gauge fertilizing. If leaves become hard or curled then you are overfeeding. If leaves are weak and lighter green then more fertilizer would help. If leaves are yellow try drying them out. If drying the plant doesn’t help try feeding ½ teaspoon Epsom salts per plant or leaf feed liquid iron. Do not over feed liquid iron.
Review pest management program every 2 weeks. Spray with a fungicide every 2 weeks- Ortho Funginex or Daconil are recommended
Member Plant Sale – ****2018 project mum is Connie Mayhew. Everyone is encouraged to grow at least 1 plant.
Business meeting:
April meeting minutes were approved by Steve Backstrom and Mark Ross
Sydney Ogilvie gave treasurers report – $6578.48 total
Review of VPC plant sale:
Revenue from plant sales: approx. 1400
Critique of plant sale:
Layout and flow of lower greenhouse location – challenging to get people to other building; the plat pictures and layout worked well.
Suggestions for next year:
a) get Cisco to broadcast at plant sale;
b) use I-phone square for credit card sales;
c) historically there were two plant sales; early and late. Suggested that we should go back to that format. Perhaps a north and south plant sale location.
d) public purchases different plants than we grow- need to focus on plants public will purchase.
Looking ahead:
Fall show needs a set up person. Ron will be attending the national show which is scheduled the same weekend as our show.
Fall Show date – We and Thurs, October 24th – 25th setup; Fri – Sun, October 26th -28th fall mum show at VPC(this will be discussed at meeting)
Annual awards banquet – Thursday Nov 8th.
Meeting adjourned at 8:50 pm
