What a cold spring it has been. We have had below average temps for a month now. March 11th was last day we were "above" average. March was the second coldest month in recorded history with the average temp. being 15 degrees lower then normal. I am so ready for spring. I still have a little snow in the patch but I have been working around it trying to get my pits dug. I don't know if I will have time to double dig the greenhouses. Last year I started my seeds on the 16th. I afraid that may be a little too early this year. It just depends on the weather and how much time I can spend in the patch. Forcast is for 56 degrees by Sunday but that is only average.
It looks like my son will be the only other one growing this year, both my wife and daughter decided not to grow.. That will leave me room for 7 plants (plus his one). I will have most of the other side in cover crops for the summer in preparation for the following season.
My line up for this year is expected to be as follows. 955 Brinkley, 1101 Northrup, 869.5 Calai, 857, 1071, 1040 and 1016 Christensen. My boy is leaning towards my 1071 but he has not decided yet.
I transplanted my tomatoes into 5" pots today. Notes for next year. There is no reason to plant more then two seeds per pot as they have about 100% germination rate.
April 11th,
I got 5 pits filled in, two more to go. The pits are roughly 3' x 3' x 2', they are then filled in layers with about 2-4" of aged horse manure, partially composted hay, leaves, and then dirt, repeated until the pit is full. I would like to get at least one of the seven sites deep forked. I spoke with the guy who does my tilling. He will be here Wednesday. I hope the weather man is right with temps in the 50's and perhaps 60's until then. It is still a bit wet but I'm hoping things will dry more before he arrives. I shoved the remaining snow drifts around in the patch hoping to help them melt faster.
April 12th
THE SNOW IS OFFICIALLY GONE FROM THE PATCH THIS EVENING!!!
Big work day in the patch. Finished all seven pits. 4 1/2 of the 7 planting sites have been deep forked. The last of the wooden frame for hoophouses has been erected. The forcast is for nice weather so the patch should be dry enough to till on wednesday.
Applied 56 pounds of nitrogen to the patch, 50 pounds of Phosphorus, 200 pounds of sulfer, 2# manganese, 5 pounds Magnesium (the mg was only to the south side as I ran out)- this was all done according the soil test I had done last fall
April 13th,
WARMEST DAY OF THE YEAR 58 DEGREES RIGHT NOW (12:30) AND SHOULD GET A BIT WARMER THIS AFTERNOON.
3 days until I start the seeds. My list looks like it will be as above. Blake wants to plant the 1040. I will start a couple of 876's as backups as that is also a nice cross I would like to grow. I wish I had enough time to care for more plants I would love to grow several other seeds as well namely the 730 Dill and 603 Muller. I will not be starting backups for every plant but just to cover my bases in case one doesn't germinate. Once they are out of the ground it is very rare for me to lose a plant. Once these plants are planted I will start another batch to give away to neighbors.
April 14th,
Finished deep forking the last of the planting sites today. Waiting for the guy with the tiller. 70 degrees today with 30 mph winds great way to dry things out and melt the remaining snow. Winter is supposed to return tomorrow with a high of 39 degrees with rain and snow. Yippie I'm so excited!
April 17th
TODAY IS THE DAY! I put the seeds to soak this morning and planted them this afternoon. I couldn't get the patch tilled yesterday because we had two inches of new snow. It was gone by noon but just enough moisture to think twice about tilling. I have rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Seeds should be ready to go out by the end of next week. I have to get the hoophouses up and let the soil warm up for several days. I did start a 919 Richards as a backup. If they all come up I'll really have to think about which one to cull.
April 18th,
The patch is tilled, 3 of the 4 hoophouses are up and warming the soil.
April 21st,
5 of 10 are up or will be in the morning. The first one out of the ground was the 869.5 which is the oldest seed (2000), the 857, 1101, 1040, and the 919 are close. They will need to go out by the end of the week. The high temp today was 41 degrees. I hope I'm not too early.
April 25th
I planted my plants today. No sign of leaf burn yet which is the problem that I run into if I leave them inside even for another day or two. It's a little chilly outside but it is toasty inside the greenhouses. I have the heaters hooked up to come on at night (there goes my power bill). The 955 Brinkley failed to germinate. The 1071 is just barely breaking the ground is going way too slow for my liking. I think if I dug it up there would be a problem with the root structure.
Here is my planting plan. (this is primarily for my reference as it is easy to get a marker pulled out)
1-North, 869.5 Calai 2-North, 1016 Christensen 3-North, 919 Richards 4- North is Blake's plant it failed to germinate the backup is not up yet
1-South, 857 Christensen 2-South, 1040 Christensen 3-South, 1101 Northrup 4-South, 876 Christensen
April 26th,
RECORD COLD THIS MORNING!!!! @#$%^&* The record low for this date is 30 degrees, the low recorded in town was 23 and I had 20.6 at my house. Not a good thing. two of my greenhouses didn't keep the temp warm enough and I lost the plants #2 and #4. Go figure why two are fine and two are not. All of them had two 1500 watt utility heaters running in them. So I'm now soaking new seeds for these three positions. A later start then I would like. The interesting thing is that the three plants that I lost are the my seeds from last year. It means they are easier to replace then the others but it is still a moderate set back.
April 30th,
Typicall spring nice for a few days and now it is snowing. The four plants remaining alive are doing fair. The backups have not broken ground yet.
Transplanted the tomatoes on Saturday. (note for next year start two weeks earlier). The kids planted peas, onions, carrots today.