You keep on keepin’ on Diana. Here’s a link to your Greeneyes memorial thread, I am hoping someday her family will find it. Many wonderful tributes there. https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4035070/posts
Counting down the days to starting my onion seeds……
Garlic... Easy or not easy to grow? Italian wife wants it in this year’s garden. In 6a/6b zone..
Thanks...
Central Missouri received about half of the oh-my-god-we’re-all-gonna-die snowmageddon that was predicted by the weather guessers last week.
Roads were mostly cleared by the end of the day yesterday. Pops took the little Massey out on Thursday and bladed all of the neighbors’ driveways. Saved me from needing to warm tired old Nanner up enough to get him started.
Nothing going on in the garden. I’ve got a greenhouse design bouncing around in my noodle. I need to put it on paper and make a materials list. I’d really like to have that project done by the end of the month. If I manage to collect all of the materials to do it by the end of the month I will call that a victory. lol
We are having such warm weather here in SoCal (in the 80s this coming week) - which is good and bad. While it is beautiful to sit out on the patio, we desperately need rain.
My roses are starting to bud and bloom and so are my fruit trees - which shouldn't happen for at least another month. If we get a cold spell, the blooms will be off the fruit trees meaning no fruit.
Apple blossoms:
And rose: French Lace:
Christmas amaryllis, blooming a bit late:
And Sticky Monkey Flower, which is also blooming early:
I am praying for rain.
Good Morning!
RIP, dear greeneyes. We’ll miss you.
Greetings from southern New Hampshire. Well, our swayback hoop house survived the ice and snow storm. I went out a couple of times to knock the snow and ice loose from the inside, and it slide merrily off…I could hear tiny little “WEE” sounds.
We have a couple of bare root Honey Crisp apple trees now planted in pots, downstairs in the garden launching pad. Right now, it is over run with coleus. I have to get the plumbing finished down there.
Bad news. It looks like my pellet stove in the shop has committed suicide. I have to call Englander service on Monday. Apparently, the auger jammed and the fire went up the pellets in it, charring the chute and melting the nylon gasket at the top. A local service guy said that the whole stove is shot. I just put in new glass in the door and a new blower. I am going to the horse’s mouth. I am wondering if this guy is just trying to sell me a new stove.
We will be sitting down to list seeds we need for the garden. I noticed at Lowe’s that the seeds are out and selection is great. I remember driving all over, looking for pole bean seeds, last summer. We had a terrific harvest in the fall. We had 21 lbs of beans that Barb put by in the freezer. Still enjoying them.
I spent part of the day sorting seeds. Not even the ones in my seed bank, just the ones I’ve bought in the last 3 years but never really sorted, and I only sorted them into “hope to plant this year” and “maybe later”. I really need to get my whole seed bank sorted out. I haven’t done a real inventory in far too long.
The “hope to plant this year” seeds filled two 4-gallon buckets and an Imperfect box. To be fair, I only went by type, I didn’t separate out quantities. So, If I was planning to use 5 seeds out of a gallon-sized ziplock, the whole ziplock went into the bucket. But still, I need to cull my plans again.
All links below open in a new tab/window.
These are soil blocks for those that have never heard of them
They're slightly compressed soil mix and can be put together as above or you can just start out with the biggest one without a dimple for accepting a smaller block. I'll probably go with the bigger two. I'll be making my own block makers because they're not cheap and I am. I'm also a fabricator so it's not a big deal for me to make them.
Block maker - soil blocks negate the need for pots.
The standardized components mentioned above are mostly about the trays. Nursery trays are called 1020 trays because the inner tray, if used, is about 10" x 20" in size.
Here's an inner and outer tray. The inner tray is a 72 cell tray and they're available from 32 cell up to 200 cell for different seed/seedling sizes.
They also make clear plastic covers from 2" to 7" tall for keeping the humidity up during germination. Once all the seeds have popped up, the cover is typically removed.
Next is lighting. One of the cute little seed starting kits has a groove in the lid where you set a special LED strip light. Setting the light on the lid seemed a little hokey to me and I don't know if it comes with light hanging hardware, chains and s-hooks. It would be great for micro-greens which are smaller than baby greens like the ones they sell in the stores for salad.
So I started looking at grow lights and all the grower's supply stores want a hefty price for them. I ended up finding a 2 foot grow light from Lowes and also found the same thing on ebay for a couple of bucks more for a pair. Lowes is a 90 mile round trip for me so ebay it is.
Here's what I put together with most items being from Wholesale Growers Direct.
BOOST LIGHTING 2 FT LED Grow Light Full Spectrum, 1,900 lumens from Lowes for $19.98. From ebay 2 for $42.99
Jump Start Hot House w/Heat Mat, Tray, 72-Cell Insert, 7.5" dome for $29.99 from WGD
The Heat Mats normally raise the temp 10-20 degrees but since we heat with a wood stove only, it can get pretty chilly by morning sometimes so I'd like more control. They make a temp controller that allows you to set a temperature on these heat mats.
$35.30 from WGD
According to johnny's, these are the proper trays to use for soil blocks(out of stock at johnny's) so I'll be getting a few of them and will use the 72 cell trays to start seeds in the high tunnel.
Mesh Tray, 10" x 20" again, from WGD - Wholesale Growers Direct as they had everything I needed and at the best prices. bootstrapfarmer.com also has low prices but didn't have everything I need.
I realize I don't need this fancy setup. I could use whatever I can find laying around for trays and covers but I'd still need the heat mat, temp controller and grow lights which is most of the cost. All the plastics, trays & lids, are cheap so why not go with standard, interchangeable items? The heat mat is $20 and the heat mat plus bottom tray, inner 72 cell tray and clear lid is $30 and then the mesh tray is $1.45 so for an extra 12 bucks per unit it's worth it in my book. I plan having two setups and will buy some cell trays with assorted cell counts. For a couple bucks per tray, I might as well get a bunch of them.
If you have better indoor climate control than me, here's the kit I mentioned above and it is standard 1020 tray based and comes with an 18" LED strip light that sets in a groove in the lid and runs at 1500 lumens. $41.51 at WGD or on ebay starting at $43 with free shipping
