Hopeful Seeding

With the cold weather we have had I'm not really sure when to start my main indoor plantings. We had been having weather about 10F degrees below normal. But things seem to be moderating. Our average temperatures for the end of March are supposed in the low 50s. If I ignore Saturday which is predicted to be in the mid 30s, we will be getting that for the next week with some higher temps and some lower temps, but about what it ought to be. So some nicer weather. My seeding plan says I start my main plantings on March 20th. I decided to start them yesterday not quite a week late. I'm still a bit worried whether it will be warm enough by mid April to plant them. But I'm hopeful.

I love soil blocks, but not everyone does. I use the 1 1/2" ones for almost everything. Today I calculated that I needed 180 blocks. That makes 2 1/2 flats of them. One flat was filled with all the baby Asian greens. Usually I don't grow so many transplants of these. I often put in some for early greens, but then I direct seed the rest as it is less work that way. This year I won't have time to direct seed as the ground won't thaw soon enough. So I'm doing this batch and I'll do another smaller batch in a couple of weeks. This batch contained choy cum, Hon Tsai Tai, mizuna, tatsoi, and bok choy.

Covered to retain moisture until they germinate

The second flat was my other brassicas - Michihili, broccoli, three types of cabbage, kale, and kohlrabi. I wanted to do three different kinds of cabbage this year to try different early cabbages. I have Early Jersey, Point One, and Golden Acre.

The last half flat has my chard, marjoram, and savory. I've never had so many flats all in there at once. Usually my onions are already outside hardening off. At the most I might have three flats going. Often just two. But with switching what I grow this year (to get rid of most legumes) and the weather issues, I needed three lights turned on. I've never ever done that before. And if things don't melt out quickly enough I might just try to do spinach inside for the first time. Usually that isn't worth it, but I really want my spinach crop. We will see.

Sunshine

We are supposed to have a warm up so I've started bringing the plants outside for some real sunshine today. I really want them to have bright sun for a bit. Leaves that don't get enough light can have nitrate build up. Usually it is an issue for greenhouse growing in northern areas. I figure the fluorescent lights aren't any better than that, though I haven't done the research to be sure. So I'm going to let the plants get a couple weeks of real sun before starting to eat them.

I would have put them outside earlier, but it has been really cold here. About 10F below normal, even if it has been sunny. Yesterday only got to freezing and one day last week didn't even get that warm. Brrr. In addition it has been very windy. I even went out and tossed some snow on my rosemary plant. It is by the foundation of the house to keep it warmer, but the snow melts off of there very early. And the bitter winds weren't doing it any good.

Beds 1 and 2 are starting to melt out a little.

In Beds 3-8 it is just the path melting out. But it is a start. The Farmer's Almanac says April and especially May will be warmer than normal. I hope they are right and our weather changes because the snow needs to melt. Kathy was putting her pea planting dates from previous years on her blog, so I looked mine up.

• 2014 April 5th (but only half the bed as the other half was still frozen)
• 2013 March 27th
• 2012 February 22nd
• 2011 April 2nd
• 2010 March 19th
• 2009 March 26th

So last year was actually one of the later years that melted out. And it had only melted out half of the bed by then. I have to keep telling myself I have time. But it is hard when you get such cold weather so late in March. We will get into the 50s this week, but another day of 30s is predicted for later. And there is even more snow in the forecast for Monday, but that is a long way off. Maybe it will change to rain or miss us entirely. I can hope.

Planning and Reorganizing

I tend to grow things in the same groups and in the same position each year. Some years I change things around. I was intending to do what I had last year, but I really can't eat legumes anymore, so I decided to change it up a bit. Before the beans were running down the middle of the bed. But I found the beans blocked the water and the lettuce didn't grow well. Also why would I want to grow a lot of beans when I can't eat them. I didn't want to totally get rid of them. My townhouse mates like beans. So I decided to just grow them along the end of the bed. The ends are never the best spots in a bed. The soil is not deep as the foundation for the brick path goes in about a foot. But I think be beans will do OK there.

Instead of beans, I expanded my chard bed. Chard is a mainstay of my winter frozen greens. It produces a lot in a small space. I'm adding 6 sqft this year. So I'll be able to freeze a lot more and maybe I won't run out at the end of February. In addition I'm expanding my spinach. I have space in the late planted two sisters beds. I think I can get a good crop of spinach in the spring to freeze before the squash and corn need to be planted at the beginning of June. I hope so at any rate. We are having close to record lows right now and we didn't even get above freezing yesterday. And more snow is in the forecast for Friday. At least it isn't much snow. But if the bed does melt out in time I ought to be able to get a good crop of spinach out of it. I'm going to try. I need the extra greens for winter.

The next change was my peas. I usually run them along the whole back of a 16' bed. The bed has spring carrots and herbs in it. So I've expanded the carrots as I can always use more of them. Instead I'll grow peas in two small spots at the ends of the beds and see if I like pea shoots. I think I can eat those. I'm pretty sure it is only the seed of the legumes that I can't eat. In addition I'm not growing fava beans and that was a whole bed in the spring. So I've expanded the kohlrabi and Chinese cabbage plantings (GR stands for Green Rocket, a variety of Michihili cabbage).

And in the bed that used to have Chinese cabbage and kohlrabi, I've expanded the European cabbages and added in some kale. The kale is another mainstay storage crop. I freeze it for winter. I've never grown it in the spring like this. I've always overwintered kale, but I'll see how it does and if it can get large large enough fast enough before the carrots need to replace it.

You can see that I don't do this on the computer. I have the garden grid on the computer that I just print out each year. Then I add what I want. At the top is the crop I want to grow. If there are successions I add an arrow before the second crop. Along the sides are things like RC. RC stands for row cover. I have three that are tall and fairly strong. They usually go over the brassicas. Net is my netting that is fragile, but cheap. I like it best really as I can see through it and the rain and wind gets through better. Also it is prettier. The heavy one is white and stick out like a sore thumb. But it won't rip and let the butterflies in like the netting can if I'm not careful. I also write down things like when I put biochar on the bed. Or double dug it. Or if it had some pernicious disease.

And as you can see my handwriting is really terrible, isn't it? Sometimes I can't even tell what I wrote. Though I think you can make out the numbers on there. that is how many good transplants I need. Not how many I'll grow. But the good ones that get into the garden. I always have a few that struggle so I always want extras.

Once I have a plan I print out the seeding schedule. It tells me what to plant, how much to plant, when to plant, and when to transplant. It has empty slots for how many I actually planted and when I did it. And when they go out to the garden. Often that last one doesn't get recorded on it. I tend to forget after they have moved outside to harden off.

I actually have two seeding schedules. One is for indoor started plants and one (the little one behind) is for the direct seeded plants. I'll be behind on my peas, carrots, spinach, radishes, and turnips. They are supposed to be planted on the first day of spring. Tomorrow. But that is not going to happen. But I'm still good. I did an experiment one year with peas. I found that peas planted on the first day the soil could be worked and peas planted three weeks later only have a harvest date one week apart. As long as spring arrives in the next few weeks and the cold weather pattern shifts I should be OK. A little behind, but not horribly.

Seeding

Yesterday I got around to another round of seeding. I had a flat that was mostly empty, but it had four rows of umbelliferae (yes I still use the old name) - some parsley, celery, and celeriac. They grow very slowly when they are small so they get started very early compared to most plants.

I filled the rest of the flat with soil blocks. I had 8 rows to fill up. I put in a couple of different kinds of black-eyed-susans, some gaillardia, and some edibles - lettuce and baby Asian greens. I think next week I'll start the major set of brassica seedlings. I don't want to start them too early as we still have a foot or so of snow on the ground. And after Tuesday we are getting more cold weather. Including one day that won't even get above freezing. So I'm afraid of starting things too early. There is a lot of melting that needs to go on. Oh and on Sunday we did finally set the all time snowfall record for Boston this year. I hope we don't do that again for a very long time.

I'm kind of wondering though if I should start them all on time and then just pot them up. I really hate the work of potting up. I tend to use my soil blocks and grow brassicas for about 3 weeks, then harden them off and plant them out. The less time under my indoor care the better for the plants. I have a tendency to forget to water and they grow so much better outdoors. I just hope the soil will be warm enough and the freezing temperatures will be gone by then.

Sowing Seeds

My earlier sown seeds are doing well. Usually my onions would be downstairs by the back door now. They would be going in and out each day and night, but with the weather, they have been stuck under lights. I think next week after the rain stops on Monday I'll be able to bring them outside though. The temperatures have started to moderate.

Today I sowed many of the brassicas and some more lettuce. I filled up a whole flat. I really wanted a few more rows, but I didn't want to start another flat.

Basically I didn't want to have to turn on a third light. I do have it, but I don't like to use it unless absolutely necessary.

So instead I decided to put the second sowing of baby Asian greens into little trays to start growing outside. They have covers that I can take off it gets hot, or leave on if it is cold. Well for the first week maybe. Then they have to come off as the plants will get too tall. But I can always bring them inside if it gets too cold outdoors for them.

I'm starting to feel more confident that spring is really here. I know the light is here as our solar panels are finally making enough to cover our electrical needs. But the warmth has been pretty late. The seeds I sowed today were a week later than my printed planting schedule says to start them. But I wasn't confident that it would be warm enough for them if I started them at the normal time. Usually I've planted my peas, favas, and spinach by now. But my garden is still frozen. The circle garden seem to be thawing out fine, but the main garden is still solid. I'm thinking of moving the baby Asian greens to the circle garden this spring. My plan has them elsewhere, but the soil there will be so much warmer. They will have to be out by June 1st so I can plant my melons, but that is not a big issue.

Interestingly enough last year was a bit late too, but not nearly as bad as this year. I planted my peas exactly a year ago today. Two years ago I planted peas on February 28th, which is so early as to be unheard of. But that was the winter that wasn't. This was a winter that didn't want to leave.

2013 Has Officially Begun

Doesn't the year always start when you put your first seeds in the ground? Or in my case the first seeds in potting soil. Yesterday I finally made up my planting schedule. It isn't hard. I made a spreadsheet years ago. Whenever I get seeds I put into the spreadsheet how long I want to grow them as transplants and how long before or after the last frost they go in the ground. The spreadsheet automatically calculates the day to plant the seeds be it indoors or out. I don't use the numbers as gospel. I give or take depending on the year or how I think things are going or just if I feel like planting that day. The spreadsheet told me that I should have planted my onions on January 24th. So I looked for my planting trays.

What I found was a pile of dirty trays. Oh ick. So I spent quite a while cleaning them all up. Most people will tell you to use chlorine, but I don't have any. I don't like chlorine so I just use detergent and water. Afterwards I didn't feel like planting anymore. But today was another day and I finally got to it.

I planted up a whole tray of Copra and a half a tray of Redwing and Ailsa Craig. Each tray has room for 72 one and a half inch soil blocks. I know from experience that that number will be more than enough to fill my onion beds. I'll be able to toss out the small and sickly seedlings.

As you can see I grow my plants under lights. Onions are day length sensitive so for now I'll have them on for 12 hours a day. Usually for plants I use a 15 hour daylight cycle, but that would confuse the heck out of my long day onions. They would think it was time to start bulbing up.

I do a couple of things to help along the seedlings. I sprinkle the tops with cinnamon. The hope is that it keeps down the damping off. Occasionally I have trouble with damping off, but very rarely. Also to help with that and to make it easier for the seed, I cover the seeds with vermiculite instead of potting soil. I find that seeds come up much better when covered that way. Once I was done I covered everything with plastic wrap. That will stay on until I see the first little sprout start to come up. I can't wait.

I'm Baaack

So yes I'm back home. I didn't wait long on Sunday to take a look at the garden. In fact it was the first thing I did. I didn't even go in the house and put away the luggage. The spinach called to me. The overwintered spinach looks fabulous.

And lo and behold my early sowed spinach all came up.

And I'm totally shocked that my peas came up. Almost every one of them. Just a few didn't show. It wasn't that it was so cold out. The ground did freeze on them, but really they were planted on Feb 24th. No one plants peas that early here. I thought all those early sown spinach and peas would be goners when winter really hit. But it never did. Usually I'm digging my garden for the first time around St Patrick's Day.

On Monday I got the rest of the spinach bed fertilized and sowed. I don't really turn over my soil on a regular basis so I just forked it a bit without turning any layers over. I wanted to get some air into the depths. Then I added a row cover to keep out the leaf miners. With the overwintered spinach I don't bother. But this year I think I'll have problems with them in that bed. The insects are coming out a month early. Hopefully I'll get a good harvest there before the miners hit.

I also seeded a lot of soil blocks. Since the soil is so dang warm outside I decided to accelerate the schedule, if I had been home I probably would have done it even more. I seeded everything that was on the March list. Some of them are a week early, but with the soil so warm I'm not too worried.

Sadly Monday night I came down with Montezuma's revenge. I had been lulled on the ship and in Costa Rica to complacency. At the Panamanian airport I got a sandwich at Quiznos (most of the food places were American chains). Sadly I didn't tell them to keep the lettuce off. Monday morning I had a small stomach ache, but it hit hard on Monday night. Tuesday I was pretty out of it. Mostly I sat reading blogs (too out of it to comment though) and writing. I wanted to be in the garden, but standing up made me dizzy. I finally made myself go out and plant the peas and carrots at 1pm.

The weather was beautiful. It was in the high 70s. It felt nice sitting in the dirt. It didn't feel nice standing up. I was tired so I decided I didn't need to strain my soil so I could put it over the little carrot seed. Instead I put on some vermiculite. As you can see I made a bit of a mess with it, but mostly it followed the rows and was so quick.

Here you can see the burlap on the carrots. The snap peas are the foot wide strip in the back. About 3/4 of the front 8' section was seeded before and are coming up. So I seeded the last quarter and seeded about a third of the farther 8' section of bed with snow peas.

I still have many things to do that I was hoping to get done today. I want to plant my onions. I want to seed some radishes. And interestingly enough some self seeded lettuce overwintered and I want to transplant it out of the paths and into the beds. There is a lot of other things that need doing. I never pruned my fruit trees. I'll have to do that soon. The buds are swelling already. I know I'm late.

Some of my Asian greens came up that I seeded right before I left. I want to over seed where there aren't enough. There is a little bit of raking to do. Oh and lots of weeding. All those winter weeds have got to go. I ought to pull out half of my cilantro bed and stir the soil. The seed remaining will germinate. I should check under the old sweet alyssum and if it is germinating already I ought to uncover it. So much work.

Soil Block Tutorial

I've been asked a lot this spring for a soil block tutorial. I have some pages that explain some of what I do, but I haven't put it all in one page. So this will be the page I can link to when people ask questions.

What is a soil block and why would anyone want to use them?

Soil blocks are just blocks of soil that have been compressed enough so they don't fall apart easily. They are a way of having a plant grow in soil without a pot. They are more fragile than a typical six pack in plastic. But once the roots fill the blocks they are surprisingly sturdy. Recently I left my onions seedlings with friends to take care of. The onions grew way too tall for the lights and when I got back two of the blocks had been knocked out of the flats by the edge of the light fixture when they were put back, but the plants and blocks were still fine.

There are two reasons that I love to use soil blocks over pots. The first is that I don't have to use all that plastic. I don't like buying more plastic that isn't necessary. I don't like washing out all the plastic at the end of the season. And I hate the plastic six packs floating around my garden during the season. You might be good about putting things away when you should, but I'm not. And for me the little six packs end up everywhere.

The second reason is that there is much less root disturbance when you transplant your seedlings. I've heard some people say that you don't have to harden off your seedlings when you use soil blocks. I don't believe that. They need to get used to the wind and the sun, but the roots are much happier. The roots never get root bound. In a six pack by the time the roots have filled out their container there is always a circle of roots at the bottom that you have to untangle before planting. With soil blocks the roots are air pruned as they grow. There are lots of little root ends at the edge of the block just waiting to grow when they get transplanted.

Soil

The first thing you need is some kind of potting mix for your blocks. Just about any commercial potting mix will work, however commercial potting mixes aren't made to be compressed as much as a block is and often don't have enough drainage built in. So they won't work as well. You can make your own with Coleman's mix (recipe is about half way down in the linked page). It is very inexpensive if you make large batches. I've done it all. I've found that my plants grow best with the Vermont Compost Company's Fort V mix. It is hands down better than the homemade mix. It doesn't hold together quite as well, but it is good enough and the plants grow amazingly well in it. They grow much faster and more stocky than with anything else. So they spend less time under my lights.

BTW even here in Massachusetts this mix is hard to find. You can get it mail order from Fedco but the shipping is expensive. The Massachusetts branch of NOFA (Northeast Organic Farmers Association) does a tristate bulk buy every year in March for MA, RI, and CT. You order early in January and February (don't remember the exact times) and have to go somewhere to pick up at a certain date in March. You don't have to be a member or a farmer. You can be a little tiny gardener, but you get a lot of things cheap. Including Fort V mix.

Soil blockers

Once you have your soil you need some kind of blocker. If you do an internet search you can find instructions for homemade blockers that are cheap. I recommend buying a commercial one however unless you have lots of time or don't have many plants. With commercial blockers you can make multiple blocks all at once and they are square so more space efficient.

Size does matter. I have three sizes. The smallest is a micro blocker. It is only made for germinating seeds. You put just one seed in each micro block so there is no thinning. After they come up you have to transplant them to the 2" (the largest of mine) right away. Most people love that system and size. Personally I hate it. I find seeds don't germinate well in the micro blocks. They don't have holes that are large enough for bigger seeds. I find the 2" blocks take too much room under my lights. Most of my seedlings I put in the 1 1/2" blockers. They fit 72 into a typical US flat. I would consider this size about equivalent to a six pack when you are growing plants. It is probably more soil and nutrients than you get in a six pack (remember that the soil is very compressed and there is less wasted space). You do get less light since six packs fit 48 to a flat.

I use the 1 1/2" size for onions, lettuce, chard, brassicas, herbs, and flowers. I only use my 2' size (without the mini blocker, I seed directly into the 2" size) for peppers. For tomatoes I start with the 1 1/2" size and grow for three weeks. Then I transplant to some tall bottomless newspaper pots. After a week they have filled out the pots and can be transplanted. Yes I only grow tomatoes for four weeks total. I like my transplants small (about 5" tall) and very well rooted. I'd say my newspaper pots are 4" deep. So the bottom is almost as large as the top. The greens I typically transplant at 3 weeks. The onions are 8 weeks (provided the weather cooperates). Flowers and herbs vary a lot. Some are very slow growers some are fast.

Making the blocks

The first thing you have to do to make blocks is to moisten your soil mix. You are always told as a gardener to not work your soil wet. Well here you want it wet. Very wet. As you can see above. I'm squeezing the soil and water is dripping out. If yours isn't that wet add more water. Beginners have a tendency to not get it wet enough. You aren't going for soup, but it will still work with thick soup, but it won't hold together if it is too dry. Most mixes have a lot of peat moss in them that is hard to wet. So use hot water. It will moisten the soil better. It is also better if you moisten your soil a day in advance. I never plan that well when making blocks, so I just do it right before. I mix well with my hands to break up any peat moss that isn't wet.

Twist as you make your blocks

Then you push the bocker down into the soil with a twisting motion. I often do it several times to make sure it is totally filled and compact (especially getting more in the two ends which tend to get less full). You are going for very tightly compact soil. Loose soil won't hold together. And here is where I differ from most instructions. I always check the bottom after I do it. I make sure the soil is well pressed in in all the cells. Then I take my finger and make the bottom flat. Usually it is rounded on the bottom. The blocks don't sit flat if the bottom isn't flat. Every other instruction I've ever seen says to not take soil off the bottom. I always do so that the bottom is even with the edges of the blocker.

Then you press out the soil onto your flat. Often at this point the soil wants to stick to the blocker. Other instructions say dip the blocker into water every time before making blocks. I've found that doesn't really help. It sticks just as much for me prewetted. So at the end I vibrate my hand so it releases. It is a very small movement, like you are shivering. This tends to release the block without any flaws.

After you are finished making your blocks wash your blocker. I once let mine sit for a several hours. I made some blocks in the morning and was going to come back in the evening to make more. The blocker had already started to corrode. So wash it right when you are done.

Once the blocks are made I dust the surface with cinnamon. This is helps prevent damping off. Then I seed the little holes in the top of the blocks and cover with vermiculite. Vermiculite is easier for the seeds to push up against and it also is pretty sterile compared to the soil. It doesn't have any of the damping off diseases in it so a good choice for seedlings.

Maintenance and containers for you blocks

You can use just about anything for for containers. I think Coleman recommends that you make your own wooden containers with a side missing (the side missing so they can be transplanted in the field easily). He mists the blocks to water them. I don't like that system. Wood sucks the moisture out of the blocks so they have to be watered more. My big sprayer is too cumbersome to spray neatly in a small area evenly (would work in a greenhouse, but not my room with wood floors). The small hand sprayers would take too much effort. Overhead spraying promotes damping off. His system might work well for a greenhouse and a large field operation, but I'm a home gardener.

So I figured out a system which I've yet to see anyone else use. It uses things I had or things I could get easily. I had flats. I had solid flats and I had mesh bottom flats (though a friend helped me out with more of these). The mesh bottom flat goes inside the solid flat so it doesn't drip. The mesh bottom flats were too uneven to hold the block well so I added some screening. In addition with the mesh bottom it lifted the block off of the plastic and and let the roots air prune a bit. I would like to get some wooden strips to lift the mesh off farther. Right now occasionally the roots grow into the bottom as it is moist enough.

Above is what my blocks looked like after making most of them. I think the blocker puts them too close together to root prune well and since a flat gives me the space I rearrange them to be even.

This is a flat that is finished. As you can see the 1 1/2" blocks fit very well at 6 across and 12 down. There is just enough space between them to keep most of the roots from crossing from block to block too often. They do cross occasionally. A good thing to do would be to cut the roots between them about a week before transplanting, but I never bother.

One of the nice things about this set up is that watering is easy. I remove the mesh flat from its bottom solid flat. The put it in another flat that I keep half filled with water. So I bottom water all the seedlings. Once they are moist on the top I move them back to their original flat. You could fertilize them like this too. I've found I don't need to. The Fort V mix has lots of nutrients. Even my onions in the 1 1/2" blocks have no trouble over 8 weeks. Other things need more space for the light when they get bigger, so I always pot up to bottomless newspaper pots for them.

The original flat is labeled on the sides with tape. So I'm careful not to rotate the flat when I put it in and out of the watering flat.

Thongs for moving a block

Coleman's flats had a side missing to take out the blocks easily. I don't. So I have a pair of tongs I use that makes picking up the blocks a snap. It isn't uncommon for me to rearrange the flats as time goes on. The cabbage family tends to stay in their flats for about 3 weeks (though future successions will be potted up in newspaper pots as I won't have their space ready yet). Somethings grow fast and shade out the small plants. I try to take this in to account when seeding, but some things are seeded much later than others. So my blocks will be moved around. The tape will come with them as they move.

Hardening off

Hardening off is easier. Usually there is massive transplant shock with plastic pots. The plants can be stressed in several different ways. They can get sunburned if they aren't used to direct sun (white patches on your leaves). They can get shocked by the wind (I pet my plants and use a fan at times which helps out with this). And they can have a shock to their root system. I don't have to worry about the root system. It stays intact and is never root bound. So my main issue with hardening off is the sun. The cool weather crops get a few days since the sun isn't as strong when they are being transplanted. But the tomatoes and peppers get a lot longer. The sun is very strong at that time of the year here. It helps if I plant them and put a row cover over them for a week. That way they get a bit of shade (about 15% with a lot of row covers) and less wind shock too. If I push their hardening off I'll always give them a row cover.

Hopefully I haven't missed too much. If so I'll edit the post after the fact.

Oh and just so I have it here. I grow my transplants under shop lights with cool white fluorescent bulbs. You do not need expensive grow lights for transplants. You need them to get something to flower, but not for vegetative growth. And even for flowers your plants will be healthier if you don't have flowers on them when they get transplanted out.

They're Baaack

I now officially have seedlings. Whoohoo! It took them about a week, but even last years seed germinated. Not every cell is up but most of them are. Above is Copra the most vigorous of the germinating onions. I tried to put three seeds in each cell since the seed was old, but it looks like in many, there are four coming up. Now THAT is vigorous germination. Either that or I can't count.

This is my Redwing plants. They are coming up fine too. But not so many in a cell.

And my Ailsa Craig is the slow poke in the bunch. They are coming up but slowly and feebly. They are supposed to be huge onions when they finally get big but as baby onions they have a lot to be desired.

And last time I showed my set up Mark was asking if it was to help harden off the seedlings. I answered there, but figured most of you haven't read it yet. So on to the plant vocabulary lesson. Plants grow more spindly and tall inside than they do if grown outside. Plants will change how they grow if they are touched. This could be by your hand, by the wind, or by the rain. The word for it is thigmomorphogenisis. If the plants get touched enough they will grow much more stocky and branch out sideways more. For onions I always just pet them. Yes I pet my plants. I just run my hand over them every day or two. For mixed plantings I'll use a fan as the mixed heights are harder to pet. I'll turn the fan on every couple days and let it run for a bit. If you want to read more about it there is a nice article on it. I warn you there is a lot of science involved.

But to answer the Mark's question, yes it helps to harden them off. Tall spindly indoor plants don't react well to being planted outdoors. My hope is that when I harden my plants off outside all that they need is to harden against the sun and the temperature fluctuations. I'm hoping they are mostly hardened off to the wind already. With the soil blocks they don't get a lot of root disturbance. So transplanting is a lot less stressful than it otherwise would be.

The Gardening Season Has Officially Started

All cleaned up

Tuesday I finally got off my derriere and started cleaning up after last year. All the trays I use to hold my soil block were still dirty. I always mean to clean them up in the summer and fall when I'm done with them, but of course that never happens. I always put it off until the last minute. I don't use chlorine. I know all the gardening experts tell you to. But I hate the stuff and I just use dish detergent and water and a lot of scrubbing.

I finally got them clean because when I was making my schedule I looked at last year's records. My onions turned out great last year. I had planted them on January 21st. It is already past that date. So I had to get a move on. I wanted more onions than I had last year. On Wednesday I planted two and a half flats of 1 1/2" soil blocks. There are 72 in a flat, so that was 180 blocks. I probably don't need that many but it can't hurt to have them. I'm pretty sure I will still have enough room under the lights.

The tops of my blocks always look a bit strange. I like to put cinnamon on the surface to help prevent damping off. I also cover the seeds with vermiculite so it will be easier for the seedling to push up. Then I cover them with plastic wrap until I see the first sign they are germinating.

There they are - the first three flats off and running. Some of the seed is a year old but it should still germinate. I didn't do a germination test. But if they don't germinate in a week, I'll reseed with newer seed. I do store my seed in an airtight container in the fridge. So onion seed usually lasts more than a year.

Just to record the varieties: 54 Copra, 54 Redwing, 36 Alicia Craig, 36 Varsity. The yellow storage onions are Copra and Varsity. I grew them last year and they are just starting to have some problems. Some are rotting; some are sprouting; but most are fine. I'm sure for not much longer since I keep seeing more with problems. The Redwing is a red storage onion. I've not lost one of them yet. They will be the last onions eaten since they store so well in my questionable storage area. I keep the braids at the top of the stairs to the basement. It is cool there, but not really cool enough. Next year I ought to store the braids at the bottom of the stairs where it is much colder.

And since I usually get questions about blocks. I'll leave you with a link to my last post on soil blocks.

Planning

I go through a lot of planning stages before spring. The first thing I do is go through my seed catalogs and buy seeds. I showed you my Fedco order before. I've since placed an order from Pinetree for seeds that I don't really need, but would be fun to have. I bought the following: Summertime lettuce, Ambrosia melon, Big Red Pepper (got to love that name), Alma Paprika pepper, Early Butternut, Soloist Chinese cabbage, Tetsukabuto winter squash, epazote, Masai bean, Jersey Supreme asparagus.

The last I actually needed. Quite a few of the asparagus I planted last year died. So these are a replacement. Sadly they have changed their shipping policy. It used to be a flat fee for everything. But now it is a flat fee for seeds and another fee for live plants. So sad. The shipping costs as much as the plants.

So my seeds have all been ordered. I hope I didn't miss anything. The next planning stage is getting the list of seeds together that I'm actually going to grow. I have sheet in my garden spreadsheet that can calculate the date that they need to be planted and the date they need to go into the garden. It assumes a last frost date of May 1st. I tell it how many weeks old the transplant should be and how many weeks before or after the last frost date it should be planted. I get it all compiled on another sheet in printable format. I copied it to the web so you could see it in its current state.

The first set of plants are the ones that will be done as transplants. The later ones are ones that are direct seeded out in the garden. I might do more direct seeding of things like Asian greens and lettuce, but I haven't made up my mind yet. At least they are on the sheets. This keeps me from forgetting them if I do want to start them indoors. I find that if I don't have these sheets I never know when to plant. I do not follow the sheets perfectly, but they give me an idea.

My next chore is to lay out the garden and figure out how many transplants of each variety I need. If you notice that information has not yet been added. I usually grow more of everything just in case of seedling failure, but I don't grow many more. So it is time to get out my graph paper and start figuring out where my plants go.

Today's Work

I went out in the morning to finish cleaning up the tomato plants. I couldn't however. It had rained last night and the plants were still soaking wet. So that and the spraying will have to wait. Hopefully tomorrow will be drier. At the very least it is going to be in the 70s all day tomorrow so I can always do it in the afternoon if I have to.

While I was out I did a little hand pollinating of both the zucchini and melons. Then I picked some chocolate mint. I decided it was big enough that I could dry it. And indeed it filled up my dehydrator just fine. I put it outside to dry. I have an outlet by my front door. The scent of the mint wafted into the house all day long on the wind. What a wonderful small.

Then I decided if I couldn't work outside in the garden because of the dampness. I'd go into the nursery and finally pot up my broccoli. The plants were getting really crowded in their little blocks.

They were much happier in their new newspaper pot homes. As soon as these are ready to be planted I'll rip out the old broccoli, which despite the heat is still giving me some good side shoots.

Since my hands were dirty, I made a whole flat of soil blocks. Then immediately filled them all up. I put in five rows of a kale mix. I put one seed in each block. I only need about 18 plants, so the thirty blocks should be more than sufficient. I was afraid of doing more than one seed though since it was a mix. I might pull out the weaker looking ones and end up all the same variety. Or I might leave some of the weaker ones and find out that they were actually week seedlings. I think before these get planted I'll be able to tell them apart a little bit more. At least I'm hoping. I haven't a clue what kind of kale is in the mix.

There are twelve rows in a whole flat (6 blocks per row). So for the next three rows I put in some bok choy. I don't get big ones during the heat, but little tiny ones will grow. They are so cute when they get pulled. They won't grow nearly to the size as in the spring or the fall.

The last four rows were lettuce - Red Sails, Deer Tongue, Little Gem, and Jericho. I propped the flat up so it would be close enough to the light.

In the middle of this somehow I got outside. Don't ask me how. I haven't a clue. But it was after I had made the flat of blocks, but I hadn't planted them up yet. I was probably thinking I needed to thaw out some of the seeds in the fridge. I know I did that. I have a tenancy to flitter from one thing to the next before the first one is finished. It is how I go out into the garden for 10 minutes and end up there for hours.

Anyway I noticed the ends of the tomatoes were dry. So I started to clean the first couple out. But sadly once I got to the third one it was still wet as it was closer to the middle of the jungle. So once again I went back inside. I'll get to it tomorrow. I know I want to spray now, but really we will have some rain in the forecast for the next couple of days so I ought to hold off until Saturday anyway. That way it won't get washed off.

Lunch was a very simple meal. Some lettuce with homemade French dressing. Some carrots. I didn't even bother to chop them up. Some left over grilled snap peas from last night (they are amazingly good cold the next day). And some cheese. I was going to eat my zucchini lasagna for lunch but I decided to have leftovers for dinner. I'll eat the lasagna and my hubby will eat some pulled pork.

In the afternoon I made some little slings for the melons out of bird netting. The melons really need support soon. I'll get it up in the next few days. And still to go this afternoon I have to make some seed tapes for the carrots.

Mid April Garden

GrafixMuse was talking about her seedling shuffle. It is a term I've heard before, but to me it isn't moving the plants and getting them outside and into the ground. It is moving the soil blocks around so that they are near more appropriate plants. I had two flats that had been up and growing for a while. But some plants were bigger and some I wanted to start hardening off outside. So all the blocks got moved around. I pruned a few roots that were growing out the bottom of their screens.

One flat went outside this morning and one stayed inside with plants that aren't quite as hardy. From left to right we have Achillea Cerise Queen, Krausa Parsley, two rows of cosmos, nasturtium (saved seed), borage (saved seed), forget-me-nots, Redventure celery, Bodegold chamomile with a couple of ground control marigolds in the corner.

I also have another flat that has been out for weeks now. Part of it is leftovers from planting the brassicas the rest are my bunching onions, leeks, and sweet alyssum. I tend to put the flats out by the lettuce as it is right outside the back door and in full sun. I can bring them in every night that frost is predicted. In fact a freeze was predicted last night, but we didn't even get a frost. The long range forecast is for highs in the 50Fs mostly with a couple of 60Fs thrown in. And lows in the 40Fs. It will be very strange if April 9th ends up being our last frost date. But if the long range forecast holds up it is certainly possible. I just don't believe it though. We have had such cold weather this spring.

The brassicas are doing very well. All except the only cabbage I'm growing - Ruby Perfection. It hasn't grown at all. I expect a thinning out harvest in about a week or two.

My Golden Sweet peas are all up. The other peas are up in scattered places. I'm wondering if the different way of soaking the peas made a difference in the speed that they germinated or if it is just varietal differences. The Golden Sweets were soaked in a puddle of water. The others were put between wet paper towels.

The spinach is coming up well this year. I'm very happy about that. I have a little over 3/4 of the 4'x16' bed seeded in spinach. The rest is in radish which is also coming up. These all have to be pulled when the beans, corn and squash go in, but I think they will produce before then. Usually spinach starts to bolt in mid to late May so they will have to be pulled about then anyway.

Areas of the turnips are germinating. Interestingly enough it is all the areas that get more shade than the others. I probably have to water more to get the rest up. These are under the row cover so I don't water every day like I did for the spinach and the carrots. And no the carrots are not yet up. As usual they are taking their own sweet time.