It’s June, and that means that school is almost out, Cayuga Lake is getting warmer and produce is starting to grow like crazy! Here in Ithaca, there are so many great ways to take advantage of the (finally) beautiful weather!

One way we’re welcoming summer is with Full Plate Farm Collective’s CSA, which began June 10th! You can still sign up for the 23-week long program of fresh veggies delivered to one of many convenient pickup locations, including GreenTree Garden Supply. Find more information and sign up with Full Plate here.

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We'll be open our normal hours this weekend, 10-6 Saturday and 11-5 Sunday. On Monday we'll close a bit early so our staff can have some well deserved R&R on Memorial Day. Our hours Monday will be 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

Happy gardening!

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GreenTree is accepting pre-orders of select bagged soils and amendments for the Cornell Cooperative Extension's Spring Plant Sale which takes place Saturday, May 16 at the Ithaca High School. Call, email or stop by the store to place and pay for your pre-order and we'll bring it to the plant sale for you and load it into your vehicle.

We're offering the following in this promotion:

SOILS

GreenTree Seed Starter^TM is a mix of buffered coconut coir, sphagnum peat, and nutrients. This growing medium is designed specifically for seed starting. Its fine texture helps maintain contact with seeds,...

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Recently the Sciencenter in Ithaca purchased a Sun System 3-foot, 3-bulb T5 fluorescent fixture from us for their new rhinoceros rat snake exhibit. Naturally we were all intrigued since we had never heard of a rhinoceros rat snake before. The Sciencenter was kind enough to share some pictures of their new residents with us!

Here is the enclosure:

What a cute little guy! Look at that face!

Rhino rat snake facts, courtesy of the Sciencenter:

"The rhino rat snake is an arboreal snake, meaning it lives in trees, from southeast Asia (northern Vietnam and southern China.)...

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Here are feeding schedules for some of the nutrient lines we carry here in Ithaca for hydroponics and for soil.

Aptus Plant Science Feed Schedule

Botanicare Nutrient Calculator

Botanicare "Pre-developed" recipes: See links down the left of the page the link leads to.

Dutch Master Feeding Schedules

Fox Farm Nutrient Schedules

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Did you know GreenTree has a special mix for raised beds that’s wallet friendly and saves work later? It’s a combination of coco coir, local Cayuga Compost and aged pine bark. These three ingredients create a mix that drains well with lots of room for the roots to grow. We usually make raised bed mix by order, in either 1-cubic-yard sacks or 1.5-cubic-foot bags.

Coco coir is a naturally wetting media with a stable particle size and will release nutrients over time as it slowly breaks down. Peat on the other hand needs a wetting agent to absorb water at...

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Sow. Starting seeds indoors is a little different than sowing directly into the ground. Usually, the seed package will tell you how to sow outside. Some packages include instructions for starting inside as well as when to start seeds inside, so you can follow those instructions if applicable. Generally, larger seeds should be placed at least an inch apart. Depending on the size of your tray's cells you may get 2-3 seeds in each. Medium-sized seeds can be a little closer together and small seeds can be about a half inch apart. Small seeds can be tricky to handle. You can...

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Jim Cosgrave will be representing GreenTree's Soils and Biochar division at the 33rd Annual Organic Farming and Gardening Conference put on by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York in Saratoga Springs. The conference will be held at the Saratoga Hilton and City Center Friday, January 23 through Sunday January 25.

This year's theme is "Soil: The Root of the Matter" so, of course, we feel right at home. The keynote speaker Friday is Dr. Wes Jackson, president of the Land Institute, and Saturday's keynote speakers are Farmers of The Year, Klass and Mary Howell-Martens of Lakeview Organic...

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A quick perusal of the Ithaca Farmers Market reveals that a good amount of local produce is grown in one of our own soils hand-made right here in Ithaca, that meet NOFA-NY standards.

Some of our Ithaca Farmers Market customers include:

Chicken Scratch Farm in Interlaken, NY

Dancing Turtle Farm in Ithaca, NY

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At GreenTree, we think everyone should get a garden for Christmas and we have lots of gift ideas for gardeners of all skill levels.

1. Grow lights

Grow lights keep the plants that you brought in over the winter happy. Plants need the correct light spectrum, light intensity, and length of day to remain happy and healthy during these long winter months. If the limited amount of light coming through your windows just isn’t cutting it, your plants need supplemental lighting. Smaller all-in-one grow light kits (such as SunBlaze fluorescents and the...

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