Growing onion and scallion transplants

Germinating onion seeds

1. Add about 1/4 inch of vermiculite to a plastic container.

2. Spray with water.

3. Scatter onion seeds on top, and then press them into the vermiculite.

4. Cover container and place on heating pad at 75 degree Fahrenheit.

5. Check seeds daily. Spay with water to keep vermiculite moist. After about 12 days, the sprouts are ready for transfer.

Transferring sprouts to pots

1. Make paper pots.

2. Fill pots with growing mix.

3. Make a hole about 1 inch deep. Gently lift 4 seedlings and hold together. Push roots into the hole with 1/2 inch of stems buried.

4. Pull the mix around the stems.

5. Sprinkle vermiculite on top. This reduces any damping off problems.

6. Place seedlings under indoor lights or outside in a cold frame. After 12 to 14 weeks, the transplants are ready.

2011 growing season begins!

There might be snow covering the garden outside, but inside it's time to start germinating some seeds. Leeks and scallions are the first I get going. I'll plant them into a cold frame and under plastic covered tunnels sometime in March.

I've tried various methods to germinate seeds, the most reliable is to put the seeds on a 1/4 inch layer of moist vermiculite. Cover with plastic wrap and place on a heating pad.

After a few days, I'll transfer the sprouts to individual cells.

Garden status - end of October

Cool season plants are waiting to be harvested. After I started to spray the broccoli with Bt for cabbage worms, the broccoli has been doing amazingly well. Next year I need to grow four times as much.

I placed a wire tunnel over the Swiss chard. If a frost is predicted, I can quickly throw on a cover. I know the plants can survive a frost, but they seem to do better with a little help.

Looks like I'll have lettuce and arugula into November!

The cold frames have lettuce, arugula and scallions. The leaves on the arugula are somewhat large, but I pull the leaves off the stems and toss them into my salads.

Garden status - end of September

For the last few days my garden was trying to survive some very strong winds and rain. I held my breath, hoping the remaining fruit wouldn't be knocked off. There was an open bucket in the garden that collected 3 inches of water. Plants survived okay, but slugs are having a party.

Can I stretch the season a couple more weeks? I still have peppers, tomatoes, and squash growing. Much of the fruit is almost ready, and would have been in the hotter summer air. But September days are cooler and warm loving plants are growing slower.

I could pick the green tomatoes and let them ripen inside, but the texture and flavor is not quite the same as vine ripening.

Lettuce is back! There is a wire tunnel over the lettuce bed, just in case I have to quickly throw on row covers for a cold night.

 

The cold frames are doing better this year. Arugula, chard, mache, claytonia, carrots, and scallions could use another month of growing before November when I can expect some snow.