Update March 5:
These are Echinacea plants sprouting their primary leaves. A big improvement over last year (when no echinacea sprouted).
Now the trick is to keep them alive. My role is to provide neither too much nor too little water and some air circulation, the rest is up to the plants.
The New Zealand Spinach has started to sprout as well.
Unfortunately, I will have had to start the onions again, the first round has germinated very poorly. Both varieties planted germinated poorly. If only one or the other had not germinated, I would have suspected the seed lot was compromised (or perhaps a little old). Though a 90% failure for 160 seeds seems a bit much.
I'll do two germination tests to check this - one in the nursery, and one at the house.
In the meantime, I've planted another variety of onion in the nursery. We'll see how that goes. We still have time to get the onions started, even if a third try is required in a week.
We have sold another Picnic Basket as of last night. We now have room for just three Picnic Baskets or six Snack Baskets. Order soon!
Update February 22:
Hey everyone. Things are going well here at Whitsend. The first couple of onions are starting to sprout. If the first round of seeds germinate well, I'll post a photograph of the seedlings.
The echinacea has moved from the freezing cold into the nursery. Hopefully the minus twenty temperatures have been enough to crack open the seeds. We'll know in a couple of weeks.
The next big task is to start to move some of the snow away from the outer walls of the barn. The ground level outside the barn is slightly higher than the barn floor, which traps run-off. This was unanticipated last year, and i wound up with a couple of inches of ice and water in the barn until April last year (which froze the stacked lumber and saw horses to the ground). So lots of grunt work over the next few days to get me into shape.
Feb 15
The nursery is holding its heat, over the past few days;
the air temperature has ranged between 5 and 25 degrees, which is
adequate.
The soil temperature is in a range between 10 and 25, the
cooler trays near the front of the nursery and the warmer ones in the back
(suggesting to me I might tighten up the seal on my doors for next year). For onions, the ideal germination temperature
is between 18 and 24 degrees. These will
get sown in the trays at the back of the nursery. The New Zealand spinach prefers a cooler soil
to germinate in (my experience about 16-19 degrees), so this tray will go at
the front. I’ll also start the celery
and celeriac at the front; it prefers a slightly lower temperature, 19 to 21
degrees.
Rosemary is a tricky one; I’ve seen different
references suggesting its ideal germination temperatures. I’ll have to give it whatever space works
best (read at this point as ‘whatever space is available’). Once it starts to germinate, the plants will
get “promoted”, and then it will be placed in the warmest area of the nursery,
as it prefers a lot of warmth.
As for the Echinacea, it has been sown and placed in a
protected spot outside the nursery. The
variety I’m growing has really hard seeds that need a period of freezing to
crack the seed coating. Some varieties
require freezing for as much as three weeks.
There are several challenges to growing food in extreme
temperatures, and growing food in nurseries.
Cold: Most lethal to cold weather crops are rate
of temperature change and the drying action of wind. As the nursery is inside, wind is not an
issue. On the coldest nights, the
nursery air temperature can fall quite low.
So long as the nursery is well insulated, and closed up by mid afternoon
(to allow the air temperature to stabilize before the night cold), this should
not be a problem. In addition to the
insulation, the nursery is built to allow a continual circulation of the
air. Space has been left between the
shelves to allow the cold air to return to the heater.
One fact I learned some time ago (I’m certain it’s in
Eliot Coleman’s book “Four-Season Harvest”, though after searching through it
can’t seem to find the relevant paragraph) is that young plants are more
tolerant of cold than mature plants.
This seemed counterintuitive, until I reasoned that most plants evolved
to start sprouting in spring, when temperatures are still unstable.
Starting
Seeds in Nurseries: It
drives me up the wall when I come across references such as “starting rosemary
from seed is too difficult, just buy the plant and transplant it outside when
the weather is warm.” Please tell me
(everyone, for that matter), what’s so difficult?
Damping
Off: One of the most common responses I have heard
about failed attempts to grow plants from seed is that the seeds sprouted, the
plants grew for about a week, and then suddenly fell over and died. This is a fungal condition called ‘Damping
Off’. A fungus infects the plants where
the sprout stem contacts the moist soil.
Molds prefer a damp environment with poor air
circulation. Providing air movement
(such as with a fan) inhibits the mold growth.
With some air circulation in the nursery, damp air is
taken care of. (Recall above, the air in
the nursery circulates past the heater, which helps dry the air somewhat).
The next place to prevent dampness is on the plant
itself. The upper parts of the plant are
in the direct path of the fan, so they are taken care of. Where the stem touches the soil is another
factor to consider.
I start each set of seeds in a pair of trays. The bottom tray is waterproof, and acts as a reservoir
for water. The second tray has a
perforated bottom. When this second tray
is full of soil, I place it into the first (water filled) tray. The water then wicks up into the soil, where
it can be taken up by the plants roots.
This keeps the soil surface relatively dry, ensuring that the sprouts
are getting the moisture where they want it, at the roots.
When the water reservoir
is empty, and the soil starting to dry out too much, I lift out the top tray,
replenish the reservoir in the bottom tray, replace the soil filled tray, and
let the process start over again.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I also use a natural
mold suppressant as an added layer of protection. However, there are many molds in the soil
that are beneficial. The ones I want to
suppress are at the soil surface. After
the soil tray has been inserted into the water tray, I mist the surface of the
soil with the chamomile. My theory is
that as the water is wicked up into the soil, it keeps the chamomile at the
surface, protecting the beneficial molds in the root zone.
The trays I use for seed starting are typical plastic
salad containers (re-purposed from my previous employer). The trays are deep enough to fill with about
two to three inches of soil. This is
more than required for starting the seeds, however, the added soil and the
moisture it holds acts as a heat sink.
This is another trick that helps moderate the temperature change as the
outdoor temperature starts to cool at night.
I am required to use trays that only contained
certified organic produce, to prevent cross contamination from
pesticide/fertilizer residues. As well,
the chamomile and potting soil are from a certified organic source.
All of this activity is recorded in a journal, the
keeping of which is also a requirement for organic certification. It is also essential for keeping track of
which practices work, and which ones don’t.
Earlier in this post, I mentioned ‘promoting
plants’. I’ll go into detail as to what
this term means in the next post or two, when the sprouts are ready to be
promoted.
Saturday night, we ate a good meal of local, mostly organic food, followed by a concert with the Sadies. The venue was a fine little place called The Neat Café in Burnstown Ontario. If there is anywhere that foodies and rockers can learn to appreciate what each other has to offer, then this might be the place.
Just head west on the 417 (about 45 minutes from Stittsville), then 15 minutes or so down hwy 508.
If you don’t miss Burnstown, then you can’t miss the Neat, its right in the middle of town in a remodeled schoolhouse.
They serve Beau’s, which come to think of it, is another example of great music and food under one roof.
No one paid me to say any of this.
Bob