All work and no play makes for a boring day. Actually my sister got married over the weekend and I had to go to Georgia. Ended up fishing part of one day on lake Lanier. Ended up catching a nice size stripper, a smaller stripper and several spotted bass.
My tractor is broke and it doesn't look good to be back in shape to get the patch tilled so I'm probably going to rent a Bobcat with tiller and try that. I need to till about 2 acres that I'm planting in trees anyway. It just means that I have a lot of patch work to do before Thursday. All the pits are dug and 2 and a half of the sites are deep forked, 2 and half to go (my arms are going to be sore tomorrow, not to mention the blisters).
Just looked back at my journal from last year and the patch was too muddy to work in for another week, I have been out in it this year for two weeks all ready. I'm still toying with the idea of starting early. It depends if I can get the cloches up in time.
My wife decided to go with the 982 Northrup (1101 Northrup x 810 Dill). An unproven seed but it should throw orange.
I started my tomatoes and peppers last week. Many of them are up. I will hopefully have them ready to go out into there new greenhouse before I have to use my germination box to start my pumpkins
The time has arrived (almost anyway). I pulled the seeds out of the closet today. Filed the edges and will start soaking them tomorrow. My typical starting date is the 23rd, so this will be a whole week early. Trying to get a jump on the spring but also get a few more pounds on in the fall when my season comes to an early end because of frost. It's been a great spring. The soil work is done. I still have put the plastic on the hoophouses. The frames all in. I deep forked all planting sites. Added 200# sulfter and 50 pounds of nitrogen to the patch. The miccorhizae arrived this last week.
The lineup is as follows. Brian's = 1101 Northrup, 670 Daigle, 869.5 Calai, 500 Northrup, and 857 Christensen. I made that last subsitition after I was asked why I was growing someone elses unproven seed when I had good color and genetics in several of my own crosses. Karie's = 857 Christensen. As backups I have 2 seeds each of the 857 and 504, and one each of the 605 and 562. That's one for each main plant in case they don't germinate or something. Blake = 1131 Timm and 895 Hester with 2 of his 262 (848 MacKenzie x self) as backups.
The cabbage were all transplanted to bigger pots last week and now it is the tomoatoes turn.
The pots, 44oz pepsi cups turned upside down with the bottom (actually the new top) cut out. They are filled with Miracle grow potting soil and being warmed overnight. The seeds are soaking in the little drinking cups. Each is appropriatly labeled. It is so easy to screw this part of things up. I will plant them in the morning and I will strive to keep a temp of 85 degrees until the seeds come up. The plastic isn't on the greenhouses yet. I hope to get that done in the next day or so to give the soil a chance to warm a bit before the plants are put outside. Typically they are ready to go out in 7 or 8 days.
April 17th,
The greenhouses are up. Now the soil can warm up for a week before the plants go outside. I got all of the plants potted this morning. Now its wait and see which ones come up. Typically start seeing plants in 3-4 days.
Out of 14 seeds started all but three are showing signs of life. Many have not completely freed the surface but they are pushing towards the light. The only ones that are not showing life are my sons two squash the 895 Hester and 1131 Timm, a 605 Christensen that is a backup plant is not showing green yet either. Its still early so they may well show up yet. The 869.5 Calai 2000, is the oldest seed that I have tried to germinate is pushing through the surface now. It should probably be up tonight.
The weather has turned cold and crappy. The hoophouses haven't seen two hours of sun since the plastic went on to warm them up. Just looking at the seeds it will probably be tuesday before they are ready to go out. They might have to wait until Wednesday because I'm supposed to go bear hunting tuesday. Thats another story.
April 25th,
No pictures for a while. I can't find my camera!
All but the 895 Hester, one of Blake's 262 is flat vine. The rest of the plants all look good. There was a little leaf burn around the edges. I should have planted them outside two days earlier but I was too busy chasing bears. All plants are out in the garden now.
April 29th
The leaf burn was more serious then I originally thought. I'm not sure why that happens. If the plants would have went out two days earlier they would have been fine. I may lose the 670 from it. The rest of the plants will recover but will be set back a bit. I'm still a week earlier then normal so a couple of days set back should not be too bad. It's been gorgeous weather the last couple of days so it's good timing on getting the plants outside.
I found my camera, It had fallen out of my truck on one of my hikes and then got snowed on. It spent 9 days out in the rain and snow. Amazingly it still works. I will try to get some pics of the leaf burn.