The heat-loving squash-melon-cucumber family are the last of the seedlings to be started. They’re coming up now and headed for the field as soon as they’ve fully emerged, no waiting for true leaves. Depending on the crop, each pot has 2, 3 or 4 seedlings to be transplanted together, with extra space between pots. This replaces single planting and spacing, which saves transplanting time and makes early cultivation easier.
The carrot germination experiment worked like a…charm! They were coming up pretty good three days ago, conditions looked great under there (moist, airy, seedlings nice and green), so I left the burlap on a while longer to push the germination rate a bit more, and that worked as well. This bed just had a 10-minute clean-up of some grass and dandelion, and I test cultivated a few feet at this end for smaller weeds getting started. With the moist soil, it’s all easy. Now it’s off with the rest of the covers and time for a little irrigated rain (since Ma Nature is presently not obliging). Excellent!
Welcome to my carrot lab! Carrots have been my biggest early spring headache. In cool weather, they take forever to germinate, 2 or 3 weeks, and by that time, the chance of weed competition is pretty good, and just about anything growing around the tiny seedlings makes excruciatingly time-consuming surgical hand weeding a necessity. What to do? Last year, I tried IRT (plastic) mulch over the bed. This worked great, heating up the soil, speeding germination to 7 days, and keeping weeds down. Problem was, miss the germination window (when a good number have emerged) by a few hours or a day, and the seedlings got toasted in the heat. Too delicate a balance. So, a new approach, something I’d read about. It involves a double layer of (untreated!) burlap. Simple. The burlap acts as a mulch to retain moisture and increase soil temperature, and it also allows in water and some light. What could be easier?!?! Now, all it has to do is WORK! (Update: it worked like a charm…)
For some reason, I have 250 grams each of Ramrod and Summer Isle bunching onion seed from two years ago. Onion seed is supposed to be good for only a year or two, I’m too anti-waste (and curious) to just toss it, and I don’t want to find out if it’s viable when it’s in the field and I’m counting on the crop… So, my first ever germination tests! Pretty simple: count out a good sample (I went for 100), roll ‘em up in a damp paper towel, stick in a plastic bag, wait, then count and figure the percentage. Both varieties were marked 88% germination in 2005 when they were fresh. Anything close to that and I’ll use it, around 50% and maybe I’ll double seed, lower and I’ll give it away… How scientific!
Tue, Apr 03, 2007 
Filed under Fieldwork, Spring, Veggies
O the excitement and satisfaction. The first 400′ of snap peas (Sugar Ann) are in! This is the first seed to hit the field this year!!
It’s a low-risk gamble for two-three extra early bushels for the market. With over a week of cold days, subzero nights and even snow ahead till mid-month, the peas may germinate unevenly, and there’s little more annoying and unproductive than picking a not-dense-enough pea planting (you pick forever to get relatively little).
Last year, I seeded out this early with two varieties, and neither worked out as well as the next seeding 10 days later.
Here you see the results of my current bed marking technique: using a 100′ reel-type measuring tape, I mark the path centers on both ends with a label stake, walk ‘em out, and pull up the stakes. Presto!
These beds are 4-1/2′ wide. The spacing between the double rows is a little wide to what I usually do (4-5″), but the freshly tilled soil made maneuvering the Earthway seeder close to the first row difficult (tight double rows for bush peas let the plants support each other and you don’t have to weed between).
It’ll work out! Delicious edible-pod peas in 60 days?!
The tray of Vittoria eggplant germinated quickly and thoroughly, with rows of seedlings all straight up and down in just a few days. This year (my fifth) is the first time I’ve deliberately gone through the seed inventory to use up anything that’s getting old, and the difference in germination rate and especially seed vigor between older and newer seed is clear. I noticed this from year two, but now, with several crops, varieties and ages all going at once, it drives the point home. There’s no more effective way to learn than seeing for yourself! I’ll be that much more attentive to seed storage and buying quantities from here on in. Waiting several extra days for a batch to fully germinate wastes lots of time and rack space, although it all evens up when regular growth (photosynthesis!) kicks in. (This is the first day of spring!)
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