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Please, slap me, send me a virus...

wordwiz
13 years ago

Warmer weather, sunny skies... they are combining to infect me with the "I must sow seeds" syndrome. It's too early for tomatoes, even if I do want to transplant in late April. I need something to stop me from sowing them for two more weeks - maybe a self-induced coma?

Suggestions? Bad habits I can take up? Anything I can do so I don't have time to grab my packet of 600 Early Wonder seeds and five Horticubes trays and turn them into something?

Mike

Comments (20)

  • boulderbelt
    13 years ago

    Start lettuce, onions, kale, cilantro, arugula, broccoli raab, radishes, turnips and other cold hardy vegetable seed. And if you don't have fruit trees and canes it sounds like you need some just so you have something to do in late winter (and now is the time to plant fruit trees)

    There is much more to market farming life than tomatoes

  • wordwiz
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    boulder,

    The ground is frozen!

    Mike

  • myfamilysfarm
    13 years ago

    Sorry I'm infected with it also. I will be uppotting some of my Early Girl tomato into 4" pots today, and probably some Big Boy, Delicious and Lemon Boy. I hoping the rest of them will slow down some and hold off for alittle while. I had to set up more lights yesterday.

    Marla

  • mumsofthree
    13 years ago

    Here's a question! Why is it so bad to plant indoors too early? This is my first year starting under lights and I really have no idea what I'm doing, BUT IT SURE IS FUN! :) I've got the itch bad as well... It's beautiful here today.

  • myfamilysfarm
    13 years ago

    Why it's bad? Around here, it was beautiful on Sunday, Monday was dropping temps from 47 to 22. According to our forecasts we'll have some below freezing low within the next 7 days. Freezing temps will kill alot of plants. Plus, even if the plants survive, sometimes the fruits of that plant will have more imperfections. More imperfections, less perfects and less sales for me.

    mumsofthree, I don't see where you are from, perhaps you're in a much warmer area than I am, but be sure to harden off those plants that you are starting under your lights. Not only for temps but also the changes of lighting.

    Marla

  • mumsofthree
    13 years ago

    Hi Marla! I live in Ontario Canada. By nice outside I mean 3 degrees celcius, LOL! But the sun is shining and the snow is melting :) A temporary tease before winter dunks us again next week.

    What I have planted, (and have most become cute little seedlings), are mostly perennials. I am hoping to move them to a cold frame in about 6 weeks so I can start my veggie crops indoors...

    Plants include

    Shasta daisies
    Malva
    Viola
    Snow in summer
    forget me nots
    delphinium
    penstemon
    hollyhock
    red dragon
    cupids dart
    alysse
    astilbe
    and many more I cant think of right now...

    I believe I have gone EXTREMELY overboard!!!!

    BUT I would love to know if anyone else has experiences with any of these and a cold frame???????

  • myfamilysfarm
    13 years ago

    Sorry, first of all, I misread your previous post, thinking you said 'outside'. I don't have a cold frame, and I usually only plant veggies.

    3 degrees Celsius is like 35-40 degrees Fahrenheit, at this time it's 34F, but sunny.

    If I've read right, you'll need to harden them off some, in your cold frames, watch your temperatures, especially when it's sunny. You'll need to bring them in at night, for a few nights. Even after 2 weeks, if it gets too cold inside of your cold frames, you might need to bring them into a cooler area of your house, garage??? At least that what you would do for veggies.

    I just uppotted 16 tomato plants that had got to 10" tall. I put them into 4" pots that are 6" deep and buried them as much as I could. Some of them are bent around the bottom of the pots, and now then are only about 4" out of the dirt. These plants are dedicated to become 5 gal plants, this May.

    Marla

  • wordwiz
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    If I were to start toms now, they would be 18" tall by May! I and my customers prefer 8-10" tall, stocky plants. Plus, I don't have room upstairs for all I need and until early March, we have too many nights were it gets extremely cold - at least to plants.

    But on a positive note, by Saturday or Sunday, I should finally be able to dig up some horseradish, something that has been impossible since November.

    Mike

  • myfamilysfarm
    13 years ago

    I have some customers that want them bigger than that, almost ready to produce. Some of them will put them into their sunrooms and will have a few tomatoes by early June, if not before. A few customers will buy these HUGE plants for Mother's Day for grandmothers. I don't know if the grandmas appreciate the size, but they do look like real tomato plants, just not in the ground.

    Marla

  • boulderbelt
    13 years ago

    If start tomtoes now you will have to repot them at least 4 times and that is a lot of work and a lot of dirt as the last repotting will be into 2 gallon pots. So it gets expensive both in material and time. Also the bigger the plant the more it will go into shock when transplanted. Not to mention the fact it takes a lot more time to transplant a big plant than say a 4' seedling (by a lot of time I mean it takes me about 20 seconds to plant a small seedling through landscape fabric mulch. I cannot plant anything larger than 12" into this mulch at all, BTW and it takes me about 5 minutes to transplant a 3' plant as the plant hole has to be 5x to 10x bigger and there is a lot more plant to deal with.

    Also any fruit or flowers you have on the plant before transplanting will fall off so you do not get early fruit from doing this.

    But if you have the room in April and May for all these big plants and the extra time to fool with them, go for it. But remember that in a few months, if you start your own seedlings you will have hundreds, of not thousands of additional seedlings to deal with in April and May that will need the room being taken up by the 4' mater plants.

    Wordwiz I think it is time for you to clean and organize your barn, packing shed, etc.. That ought to keep you busy for a day or two. And as i already said, plant lettuce or kale as these things can be put out in March and April with minimal protection (or now if you have hoop houses or greenhouses

  • myfamilysfarm
    13 years ago

    Boulderbelt, since I can't get into my ground til usually the first of April, the time keeps me sane, and I sell these plants for about $15 each. By the time that my little greenhouse is able to be used by smaller plants, the large ones set on the ground, under the table that I use for the smaller ones. Seems to be working for me, just need bigger houses. I'm known as a plant lady, when it comes to veggies plants. Veggie plant sales makes up about $1,000 or more sales in the month of May. That was last year's and only 4" or bigger.

    My garden planting will not happen til March.

    Marla

  • myfamilysfarm
    13 years ago

    My son is taking some of the January started tomatoes to an auction (regular weekly whatever type), to see if they will sell. I'm asking a minimum of $2 for them. He only took 6, 3 varieties. The auctioneer wants me to start sending some of the plants and later on some produce to the auction. He said he will put a 'reserve' on them, so I won't be out anything, except the plants traveling away from home.

    This weekend I planted some old potatoes into a 3'x4'x3' wooden box in the greenhouse, just to see if I can get some really early new potatoes. Also, planted some onion sets, also to see if I can have green onions early.

    It's raining all weekend, and not much else to do.

    Marla

  • wordwiz
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Marla,

    Between Thursday and Friday I sowed 1400 Sugar Snap Peas and this evening plan on starting 208 more Early Wonder maters. The horticubes are looking good, so far. Better than 92 percent germination.

    Mike

  • myfamilysfarm
    13 years ago

    I forgot I did start some Peas, Sugar Bon, Oregon Sugar Pod II, and Lincoln. I used 96s because that's what I had free. I need to up-pot more of the first tomatoes and seed some more.

    It will be interesting to see if the auction sells the plants, and how much interest there was. I may need to start ALOT more seeds.

    Marla

  • wordwiz
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Marla,

    Another possible outlet is hardware stores or local supermarkets and such. Around here, they sell plants and may prefer getting them from a local source. I sold a few last year to a small hardware store (called Small's!) but it was toward the end of May before we did it.

    This year, I'm going with the 40-cell packs. I'm afraid to go smaller with toms and peppers - some Superhot peppers I sowed in December are already struggling for room. But I like the idea of starting them initially in horticubes then up-potting. It costs a bit more than potting mix all the way, but takes a lot less time and the plants get larger quicker.

    I'm sure we will compare notes this year!

    Mike

  • myfamilysfarm
    13 years ago

    It may cost more, but you also ask a higher price.

    Our local hardware and such stores buy from Bonnie Plant Farms, from AL.

    I'm also not sure if I'm ready to sell the amount that they might want.

    Marla

  • wordwiz
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Last year, it was a last choice! My main sale date, when I sold a bit over $200 in plants was a monsoon and the event was canceled. I was invited to another plant sale the following Saturday - the temp never got above 45 and we had constant winds, some as strong as 40 mph. Didn'st sell many plants there either.

    But I did hook up with a community garden group; between their members, I sold 100 plants, maybe 150. I'm going to contact more of these groups this spring. Right now, I'm set up to grow about 800 plants to sell but if I get good feedback from the community garden groups, I could expand it to 12-15 hundred.

    On a side note, I closed my office this week. I'm not a retailer per se, and quite honestly, maintaining an office that has maybe ten visitors a week seems stupid, especially since eight of them just stop by to pick up a paper or drop off news they can either leave here at my house or buy elsewhere. Total savings, not including gas driving there and back 12 times a week will amount to more than $1500/mo.

    Yeah, I think this will be a good year!

    Mike

  • myfamilysfarm
    13 years ago

    As far as your office, you might be alittle lost to start with, but not HAVING to be somewhere at a certain time is wonderful.

    I didn't think about hooking up with the community gardening people, I'll have to check that out.

    I sent 6 tomato plants to the auction last night and they brought $3.50 each, and 1 person took them all. I need to send more this next week. I'm pleased, only expected $2.00. Of course, the auctioneer's fee is 25% that comes out of that, still a good price.

    Marla

  • wordwiz
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Marla,

    That's great. I bet you wish you had a hundred of them to sell!

    Mike

  • myfamilysfarm
    13 years ago

    Oh, I do, if not more, but I don't want to send everything because that would flood this market and the price would drop. I'm only sending a few per week since it is SO early, when it gets closer to planting time, I'll send more.

    Marla

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