2011 Spring Dig-ins

Our spring dig-ins for 2011 got off to a great start last weekend. About 40 volunteers met at Soma Vida on East 11th where we gathered plants, tools, and compost. Mitch filled everyone in on our mission and how the day would proceed. We then divided into teams with a dig-in leader on each and headed out to either refurbish an existing garden or install a new one. Our goal is to refurbish new gardens for the next 3 seasons after which the recipient becomes self-sufficient and we just supply compost and plants.

I led a team that refurbished a garden for Jude Filler. Jude takes great care of her garden making our job much easier. We pulled a few weeds – avoiding her parsnip seedlings -top dressed with compost, and planted tomatoes and herbs. We also retrieved a melon volunteer from her compost pile and relocated it to the garden.

As usual, the best part of the day was getting to know the team and visiting with our gardener. I always learn something new about gardening and usually pick up a recipe or 2. We have 2 dig-in weekends left this spring – I hope to see you at one of them. You can sign up on our website.

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David -

Spring 2011 Seeds to Start Part 2

Five weeks after we planted the seeds, the starts were finally ready to transplant. For some reason unknown to us, the starts this year were a bit slow coming up and had a low percentage of germination. In any case, the starts that did make it looked great and we had wonderful workshop to transplant them into individual pots. As I mentioned in the post from the first workshop, I described the process last year and won’t bore you with the details again. Here are a few pictures from Saturday and I’m looking forward to putting these plants in the ground at our dig-ins starting March 12th. I hope to see you there!

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David -

 

Spring 2011 Seeds to Start Part 1 continued

Eight days after we started the seeds at the workshop, a few of the tomatoes and eggplants sprouted. I don’t think they’ll be ready to move to individual pots on the 29th as we first planned, but they should be ready the following week on February 5th.

Here’s a look at how they’re doing at the St. Ed’s greenhouse.

David -

 

Spring 2011 Seeds to Start Part 1

In spite of the weather, we had a great turn out for part 1 of our Spring STS workshop. It certainly didn’t feel like spring, but we’re getting the plants ready for our dig-ins coming up in March. Since I described our process last year, I’m not going to go through that again, but I do have a few photos to post. I’ll follow the progress of the plants over the next couple of weeks, and if they grow as planned we’ll have our follow-on workshop on the 29th to move them to individual 4 inch pots.

Thanks again to everyone that helped and hope to see you at future events.

David -

Plants With a View

The starts from our 2010 Fall Seeds to Start workshop are alive and well at the St. Ed’s greenhouse.

We have about 500 total plants including broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, and chard. Mitch has been watering them several times a week and is now adding a liquid fertilizer – Lady Bug Brand, John’s Recipe.

The plants are on track for our Fall dig-ins starting September 18th – registration is now open on our website. Dig-in leader training registration is also open for September 11th and 12th. And of course our annual fundraiser, Cook Globally, Grow Locally, is set for October 24th.

Hope to see you at one of these events.

–David

Seeds to Start Part 2

We continued the 2010 Fall season with round 2 of our Seeds to Start workshop. We originally thought we would hold it on July 24th, but the plants weren’t quite big enough. After a bit of a growth spurt, they were ready on the 31st – 3 weeks after we planted the seeds. About 15 volunteers joined us to move the plants from the flats where we started them to individual 4 inch pots.

We started the workshop with Mitch explaining the process and telling his favorite (and apparently only) gardening joke – I won’t give away everything here, you’ll have to attend a workshop to hear it.
We then divided into groups of 3 and filled our 4 inch pots with Lady Bug Vortex potting soil from The Natural Gardener.  We’re trying pots made from compost this time – this will allow us to plant them directly in the ground and possibly start some varieties that are more sensitive to having their roots disturbed. The pots are loosely filled with soil to just below the top edge.

One of the tricks to handling transplants is to disturb the roots as little as possible. We use spoons to “tease” the plants out of the flats and then separate them very carefully if any roots have grown together. We also suggest holding the plants by the leaves and not the stem – the leaves are stronger and damaging a leaf is less of a strain on the plant than damaging the stem.

We also use the spoons to create a hole in the 4 inch pot by inserting it into the soil and gently pulling back. It’s possible to do this step with one person, but it’s much easier (and more fun) with 2.

Finally, we loaded up the trays and took them to the beautiful greenhouse space St. Edward’s has provided to us.

It’s important to maintain the 3 key elements during the next phase – water, light, and temperature. The plants need consistent moisture, good light, and temperatures below 90 (preferably closer to 80). Keeping them outside can work as long as they get sunlight in the morning, but are protected from the scorching afternoon sun. A fan can help control the temperature as well.

Stay tuned for a progress report and get ready for our fall dig-ins.

David–

Fall Seed Starting Workshop

We kicked-off our 2010 Fall season with our Seeds to Start (STS) workshop. Thirty volunteers participated in the event to learn about  starting seeds and help us create about 40% of the transplants we’ll need for the Fall dig-ins. We planted 10 flats of broccoli, cabbage, mustard greens, kale, and cherry tomatoes.

Our board president, Mitch Mills, led the workshop and started with a discussion of the benefits of starting your own seeds including more varieties, better transplants, and more efficient use of your garden space. For Green Corn Project, starting our own transplants is also a big cost savings.

We then divided into teams and filled the flats with soil. Home gardeners can start seeds directly in 4″ pots, but with the number of plants we need, flats work best for us. A variety of soil types will work, but a light, fluffy mixture is best – high nutrient content isn’t essential at this stage. We used Thunderhead Soil graciously donated by Geo Growers.

Your containers should be evenly full,  just under the top, but not packed or rounded. You can lightly moisten the soil before filling the containers if it’s dry, but don’t over water.

Tweezers make handling seeds much easier. When planting in flats, chicken wire screens help keep the seeds evenly spaced. You can use your pinkie (or a friend’s) to help keep track of where you are. When all of the seeds are in place, gently cover with a thin layer of soil.

The containers must be kept evenly moist until they sprout. Water thoroughly after planting and each day until they sprout.

Along with controlling the moisture, controlling light and temperature is also important – steady light and moderate temperatures are essential. You can use grow lights, standard fluorescent lights like shop lights, or natural light. If using fluorescent fixtures, grow lights work well but can be expensive. I’ve had success with standard fluorescent tubes using 1 cool-white and 1 warm-white tube in the fixture. Keep the fixture within a few inches of the containers.

If using natural lighting for Fall transplants, a sunny window indoors is best. If one isn’t available, make sure the containers are in an area outside that gets good morning light but are protected from the hot afternoon sun.

We’ll transplant the starts from the flats to 4″ pots in our second workshop in two weeks. Registration is already full, but our fall dig-ins and our dig-in leader training workshops are coming up. Registration will open in mid-August.

–David