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Tomatoes, cabbage, and some peppers were planted near valentines day. THe tomato plants are now 15" high or so. Very large - and in the taller lower bay. I will need to move the temperature of the outdoors up by several degrees to put them out now - but they are too large. We'll probably spend $100-120 to build a 'mid-tunnel' to plant them outdoors early. (I am making this up.)

A High tunnel is like a greenhouse with a simple ventilation system and no internal lighting. They tend to be 8+ feet tall. A low tunnel is about 15" tall and serves a similar purpose - to extend the season for growing.

A mid-tunnel will be about 4' high, 4' wide, will allow ventilation like a high tunnel, but will cover only one row. I plan to use rebar for stakes, 1/2" PVC electrical conduit for the ribs, and roll-up sides to provide ventilation. I've purchased some exterior grade clear polyethylene from Menards rather than using high grade greenhouse stuff - I am looking as much for heat as for light. I'll need tape but this way is less expensive by 2/3.

I'll need to bend the pipe - for which I plan to make a form with stakes and use a heat gun. I may use a spring inside the pipe to maintain shape. (There is an expensive pipe bending spring for PVC pipes, but I found an equivalen at mcmaster carr that is 1/10th the price.)

In addition to Tomatoes, we'll put peppers under the greenhouse. It will come down in June and be put back up again before first frost to extend the harvest.

And Juneberry plants have come in. We'll be planting soon. From the size of them it will take a few years to get some good hedges...

I also purchased a 10 HP BCS tractor. The 20 year old tractor came with a cultivator, a mower deck, a sickle bar mower, a plow blade and pieces of a sulky. Very much easier to use for tilling than the 6.5 HP front time tiller I have since sold. Works through wet ground much better than a riding mower.

Updates on the ten.

1. Chard - finally perished, or became so unproductive we pulled it. It was nice to have it for all those extra weeks. Would be good to do again. I've rad about root bags that make transplanting easy... might be worthwhile.

2. Snow Peas. I will not try them indoors again. At least not in the way I tried them this year: 1-2 feet below the lamps. Having the lights just a few inches above the plants makes a great deal of difference in the result with fluorescent lighting for some of the plants I've worked with. (I think I have enough total light, but too much leaks.) I believe peas do not respond well to transplanting, but that may prove false - If I ever try them inside again.

3. I gave up and kicked them out of the greenhouse. I have only 32 square feet - and they weren't progressing. I may stick some crowns back in the ground in late May, but otherwise the are over because:

3a. Stevia starts have done fabulously! Not the ones I did before, but starting them on a floating sponge tray made a real difference. In addition to the ~10 I got from the soil starts, I have 22 more from the sponge tray. Now the sponge tray I usually think of as a rotten deal - nothing worth the expense of $12.50 or so for 55 sponges, But with Stevia hard to start and the value per plant of ~$10, it's worked out well.

The difference may just be the continuous moisture and the fact that almost every seed I plant is counted. There was only about a 1/3 germination rate. (And there was a lot of mold and algae - Note to self: remember to chlorox the styrofoam base before each season's use.)

Unlike transplanting into the wild where transplant shock killed almost every one, transplanting into 3" pots indoors has gone really well.

The 'water only when wilting' appears to work well for stevia.

4. Still have the poor abused basil! A bit tall, and some has been given away. And more has been moved out of the greenhouse into a sunny window. Portulaca and snapdragons. Lots of Snapdragons.

Snapdragons do best - making larger flowers - when they are thinned. And DW is anxious to put all of them outside.

5. Onions are fabulous. I will definitely do this again. The best part of the onions is the greens available in the middle of winter. They grew very tall in our space - growing past the lights in many cases. Prior to transplanting we trimmed them all to 4" - keeping the greens to dry. In the garden they are growing.

6. Dill is tasty fresh in salads. Do it again.

7. More lettuce, less spinach. Spinach is day length sensitive. THe 14 hour light cycle I use drives the spinach to seed. Bad news.

8. Radishes, Turnips, and Beets. Radishes were good, others not so much. Probably a bit crowded in the planter boxes. Gave a very good illustration of hte differences in lighting between the full spectrum and standard white bulbs. Growth was greater with the full spectrum. We will do radishes again.

9. Based on what I've read, narcissus can be reused - but I doubt it is worth it. It cannot live in our area long term.

10. Some pieces of the vine are still alive. It does need to be at least partially above the surface.

How many pots to save??

DW is ready to transplant the Basil. We need more dirt.

And shading on the stevia doesn't seem to yield results yet. After growing for a bit, a shoot's leaves start to wilt. The stem is OK - just the leaves turn brown and die, lowest leaves first.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2081316_grow-stevia.html says to water just enough to keep plants from wilting... I'm watering more than that.

http://www.burpee.com/herbs/stevia/stevia-sweet-leaf-prod000486.html provides similar growing advice and calls for full sun (and a maturity time of 40 - 60 days.) I'll need to try keeping things dryer... After germination?? Burpee also suggests planting 1/4" deep rather than on the surface. This conflicts with the need for 'light' that others have indicated. (Sounds like I need to do some experiments!)

Plants in Progress

Time flies so fast - and I do a terrible job in documenting of this...

1. Chard

Late in December I put together the shelves I use as the planting platform and moved Pooka's Swiss Chard in. It had been rescued from the garden shortly after the first frosts, but placed in the living room where there wasn't enough light. New leaves emerged, but stayed very pale. With 500 watts of fluorescent lights on the bottom level (16 sq ft) there is enough light to get the chard leaves back to their normal mix of deep green and red. Plants are mature, about 6 total.

2. Snow Peas

Not all of the chard survived the transplant, so in the empty space in those pots I planted some old snowpea seeds. With a couple other pots I'm up to 17 plants - but I had to replant to get that many. I'm not sure if the planting depth (package said 1.5"), the age of the seed, or the planting conditions were the dominant contributor to the low germination rate. Current sizes range from 2 to 8"

3. Stevia-potted

It is a weak perennial, but I had a strong second year out of the potted plant a friend gave us 2 seasons ago. Last winter when I brought it in all the foliage died but I kept the roots going... they never really succeeded in sprouting. Last spring I transplanted the roots out to the garden - where it did well in full sun. In the process I found I had three distinct plants. Only two survived, but they had turned into seven by the end of the season when I brought them back inside after the frost.

Of the seven only three still show signs of life, but they seem to perform poorly - growing a bit and then losing all leaves. I may have the light too high? (2400 lumens/ sq ft) Or the wrong kind of light? (Standard fluorescent rather than grow lights.)

Yesterday I placed a screen around each growing area to reduce light to see if it helped.

3a. Stevia starts

I harvested the seed and sprinkled it (not separating seed from chaff) over the top of several trays and pots. Germination has occurred, but I couldn't say the rate is tremendous. Maybe 10-15 starts in 2 trays total? Stevia starts very slowly. Screens were placed over the top of the trays yesterday as well.

4. Basil and flowers round 1

DW planted basil in 1/4 of her 2 half trays of flowers. Most of her flowers didn't germinate, but the basil did. She repotted it all to 1 per plug, so we have almost 60 basil plants 1.5-3" high in February...

Portulaca emerged 100%. (Of course - its nearly a weed!!)

Planted early January (3-10th?)

Basil was the one which displayed earliest the effect of different lighting...

Using 6 3000 lumen 40watt cool white bulbs on one side of the shelf and 8 2200 lumen full spectrum (GE Sunstick 5000K) 40watt bulbs on the other side. DW saw Basil on the cool white side was taller (spindly?) and on the sunstick side had larger leaves and decided she should switch them about 10 days ago. The cool white side is noticeably larger now - but I can't determine if that was due to a btter start or a better current condition.

5. Onions - from seed

Red Globe. Looking for 2 months of development prior to setting bulbs out in another month. Planted early January (1st - 13th?) some before and some after the basil and flowers. 3 per small pot (square biodegradable), some pots germinated well, some didn't.

6. A few Dill plants were put in at the same time. I thinned them a bit and found it very pleasant - like parsley. I will plant more for the summer. Chives planted alongside the last batch of onions did not germinate.

7. Spinach and Lettuce.

Lettuce seeds (red sail) germinated poorly. Need to plant extra next time.

8. Beets, Radish, and Turnips were planted in a pair of long planters - one on each side of hte top shelf where the light experiment is taking place. Hard to say which light color is doing better at this point. Beets are slow starters and probably don't compete well for light. (They may be doing slightly better in the cool white lighting, but I suspect shading effects.)

The radishes are noticeably swelling - they should be ready in about 1 week. (Planted early January.) Turnips - well we'll see if they really produce in another 5-6 weeks. Beets may be on the same timeframe.

9. Narcissus

Grandma gave bulbs for Christmas. Starting them in a jar of water makes a fun experiment - but it takes up pot space in the end. And after the flowers are gone?? How do I get them to go dormant again so I can use them outside in the spring? (They are not hardy this far north.)

10. That vine doesn't count. Though it does appear that submersion for a week or more will kill it - mostly. And a couple of the sections have started to root and grow.