Early April: Latest events at the farm:
I can hear the distant chatter of groundhogs in the hedgerows, and have no desire to have one set up lodgings within the growing field - easier to exclude rodents than to remove them.
Now that most of the snow is off the ground, time for the first field task of the season - switching on the electric fence. This is always a milestone; a cue that the ground will be ready for working very soon.
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| Looks like fox tracks |
While at it, I also watch out for animal signs such as prints, burrows, or unfinished meals. One of the more unusual discoveries over the years were eggs (from someone else's farm!) buried by a fox.
After the charger is turned on, I do a second walk, listening for the tell-tale snap of any shorts my visual inspection may have missed.
Inside the nursery, the next event is the sowing of the peppers. I start these a bit early in the season as I use a cold treatment technique that improves yield later in life. Peppers germinate around 24 degrees. I grow the seedlings in the warmest part of the nursery until they have about three true leaves. After that, I move the seedlings to the coolest part of the nursery, ideally about 16 degrees. At this time, the plants start spending days in the outdoor nursery, as they require full sun at this time, which is more light than the grow lights are able to provide.
Less than a week after sowing, the peppers are sprouting. (pictured above).
The celery, celeriac, parsley, and onions are all coming along nicely as well.
In addition to improving yield later in the pepper plants life,, this technique allows me to transplant the seedlings about two weeks earlier than I otherwise could. In turn, this increases the number of weeks that the plants produce.
Which means it is time to prepare the outdoor nursery.First task is to clean it out - a sweep to get spilled soil, washing shelf surfaces to eliminate plant pathogens and all of the diseases that rodents spread about
After that, switching on the high frequency pest chaser and loading up a few mouse traps just to make sure.
After that, I start watching the temperature readings and comparing them to the outdoor highs and lows. This usually takes a couple of days until the leaks are found and patched with old tattered row covers.
Two important concepts to keep in mind when growing seedlings in cool weather.
- Young plants are more cold tolerant than mature plants. Plants are always in a race to beat their neighbors to the optimal amount of sunlight in the spring. Two common strategies they use are to grow quickly, or grow early. Growing early will expose the plants to cooler temperatures, so they have evolved some cold tolerance at this stage in their lives.
-Rate of temperature change has a bigger effect than the low temperature itself. A plus four reading can be less damaging if the reduction in temperature is more gradual than a sudden plus 6 temperature. I use a few ceramic tiles and bricks to act as thermal masses to release their warmth overnight.
Once the temperature is stable, cold tolerant plants such as parsley, onions, and the peppers go into the outdoor nursery, making space inside for the chard and second round of green onions.
With some time yet to go before the plants go into the outdoor nursery, I have time to make improvements.
Last year, I lost the third round of celery and a few other plants due to either too much heat or not enough air circulation. Leaving the nursery door open is too risky, one of the local fluffy tailed rodents (or the brown and white striped rodents) might get in and dig/knock trays over/trample seedlings/do their business etc while burying seeds from the neighbors bird feeder.
Due to the limits of my carpentry skills, I had few choices. Despite being a little awkward, I have built a screen that I can insert into the open door.
Another problem solved!
(photograph to follow)
More to post in a couple of days...