Whitsend Market Garden

April 2nd:

Hello Everyone.  

This is the thickest snow pack we have had for this date since arriving in Lanark.

Good for re-charging the ground water table.  

The hope is that the melt will be gradual, so that as much water as possible has time to seep into the soil as the ground thaws.  A rapid melt would send water toward the road and away down the ditch.

The bees know it's spring.  Despite the snow cover, there is a lot of activity around the hives as the temperature rises above zero.  

They don't show up well in this picture - the little spots are individual bees flying about.  While some clean debris such as dead bees, others are scouting for food sources and generally checking out the vicinity.  

These are older bees that hatched late summer.  The queen will be starting to lay new eggs around now.

The nursery is getting crowded.  Hundreds of onions are doing ther best to stay alive.  The challenge for me is to keep their soil from drying out as their roots are still fairly small.  However, leaving the soil too wet casues fungal infections (damping off) which young plants are susceptible to.

I plant a a lot more at this time of year than are required for harvest to make up for dampig off losses - there  are always a few per tray.  

Onions depend on day length to cue the development of bulbs.  Transplant too early or late, and the plants will not bulb or will produce small bulbs.  The seedlings require between 8 and 12 weeks of growth before transplanting.  So after about this week, it will be too late to sow any more.  Therefore, I have to get all of the seedlings I need for the year now - there is no second chance to plant some more.

 

Your peppers have arrived.    Most of them, as the hot pepper seeds failed to produce a single plant.  

The cayenne seeds were three years old so I planted all that I had - over 50 - expecting at least the 5 or 6  I require to germinate.  

At least this crop is fairly quick growing and though the first round might be a week or two late, there is still plenty of time to start over.

The other varieties are germinating well, especially one of the new varieties I am trying this season.  Milena is a green to orange sweet bell pepper.   The seed house advertised the seed as pricey but of high quality.  I'm usually skeptical about such claims but one can't argue with it after a 100 per cent germination rate.  

Picnic peppers (pictured above) are another new type I am trying.  Picnics are smaller and more elongated that bell peppers, and reputed to have a sweeter flavour than bell peppers.  These are a variety called yellow picnic - ready as green peppers after 60 days but turn a brilliant yellow at about 84 days.  It was bred by one of the seed houses I purchase from, High Mowing seeds.  For those of you into seed saving (or want to try) this variety is open pollinated.  

I am looking forward to trying these to see if they really do taste better than bells.

I've used the phrase "promoting" seedlings a few times, so I should go into some detail for those of you who are unfamiliar with farming jargon.  

I sow the seeds in trays to save sace.  The seeds have germinated and start grwoing,