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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.
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.
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