Already planted 1/3 of my tomatoes in the high tunnel. I will plant the next 1/3 next weekend and the final 1/3 the week after that. I haven't figured out when I will plant my cherry tomatoes, probably next weekend.

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Double row cover, one piece of plastic and water bottles and they have been 15-20 degrees above the outside temps.

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Onions are in the ground, in the movable and stationary high tunnels.

Lettuce transplanted

First planting of potatoes are in the ground

Beets, Turnips, Radishes planted outside More planted inside too!

I also planted all my leeks and broccoli and cauliflower will be in soon. I have also planted napa cabbage and red and green cabbage on the outsides of my tomato rows.

slick,

How much room do you have?

Mike

We live on 4-5 acres.
We have 6 high tunnels. In a year we have 6,700 square feet covered.

1 30 by 48
3 18 by 45
2 16 by 32 movable tunnels. The currently have two locations, probably three after this year.

We grow on about 1/2 acre, but we are going to til up another 3,000 plus square feet, always growing and expanding!

Jay

Jay, I don't know when you sleep.

Myself, LOTS of maters, peppers and eggplants. First tomato plantings are close to 2' tall and want to be outside. 2nd planting, just planted this month are up but not quite ready to transplant into cells. Cabbage and marigolds are outside in greenhouse, seems to be doing well. Finally bought a row cover from Sams, 8 degree, it's over the cabbage/marigolds. Potatoes and onion sets in greenhouse are sprouting and looking good.

The plants aren't the only ones that want this weather to settle down and get into the 50s. Me too. I'm running out of room in the house.

Marla

Marla,

That is what everyone tells me, I just enjoy working. Between school, computer time, family time and garden, I don't watch a lot of TV and I don't see a need to go to the gym. I get plenty of "Work-out" time outside.

I also combine a lot of activities, family time and planting potatoes.

It also helps that this week was Spring break for me. I was able to get a lot done. Most things are either planted, or tilled and ready to plant or cleaned off and ready to be tilled.

The next 3-4 weeks is really the hardest of the year. Closing up buildings, putting on and taking off row cover, constantly checking the weather, and everything else.

I need to get my plants transplanted and more seeds started. But I can work on that during the evenings.

Jay

And you're young yet, which helps alot. It's amazing how much I used to be able to do, that I'm not now.

At what temp, in your greenhouse, do you plant out your tomatoes? I don't want to send them out too early.

Marla

I am looking for weather patterns to even out. I am looking for low temps to be 27 or above on the 15 day forecast. I am able, with out heat, to keep it 15-20 degrees above the outside temperature in my tunnel. Usually this is around the 18 to 28th of March.

Our weather is staying cool and cloudy for the next 4 days. Highs in the 40's, lows around 28-32. I can handle this weather, if the sun comes out.

Tomatoes need 50 degrees nights to continue to grow. So if you can't keep them warm, I wouldn't plant.

Jay

Jay,

You have better luck than me. It's 37 outside, 47 inside my GH, and that's with a 425 watt heater running. It's not completely sealed, and we have had three days of very little sunlight to warm up stuff (ground, boards, soil, trays, barrels, etc.) inside. With the heater, I was running close to 20 degrees warmer inside. But, I have a 10,000 BTU kerosene heater I can run real low (uses about a quart a night) to keep the temps at 60 or so. I've got about 2100 tomato seedlings, 1600 peas, 300 Romaine Lettuce, three flats of peppers and about 300 Swiss Chard seedlings growing/sprouting. It will be at least two weeks before I can transplant anything so I should be in decent shape.

Mike

Thanks Jay, for your advice. I used to use the 2-lt bottles in the outside garden. It was funny one year, I had bottles next to the tomatoes, and planted greenbeans in the same row. Well, we had a really cold night or 2 and the bottles saved the greenbeans and tomatoes, but only near the bottles. The row had a ribbon effect with low beans, the high beans near the bottles, then low beans again, so on and so on. It was an interesting experience.

Marla

Zone 5a and b West central/SW Ohio

Have been harvesting over wintered spinach, spring mix, leeks, raab, kale, broccoli and lettuce. Have done 2 successions of lettuce into the ground, have direct seeded , lettuce for spring mix, snap peas, parsnips and more raab.

We have several flats of kale ready to go out.

Finished cleaning up the strawberries today (put down compost, sulfur and a pelleted fertilizer 2 days ago). Put a hoop house over them about 3 weeks ago and they are beginning to flower so should have enough berries to distribute to the CSA by the first week of May (if the voles don't get in and eat them)

Had 6 yards of compost delivered 10 days ago and have been putting that down on beds. Lightly tilled the asparagus beds to keep the weeds under control.

Waiting for 300 strawberry plants to arrive (Due Wednesday).

Will start pepper plants in another 10 or 15 days. Will start more broccoli, lettuce this week along with parsley and basil. probably should start cukes, zukes and other things going into hoop houses in late April.

Our CSA starts up in 17 days

Jay- that new high tunnel is sweet. Ever think about growing fruit (black berries, plums , cherries, etc) in a hightunnel? You can make 9x what you can off tomatoes. Double that when you turn them to jam and sell it.

Hardening off plants now, setting out April 1. I double dug my raised beds, added peat and layed down clear plastic mulch. 2 inch depth have been getting 80 degrees. Outside air temps havent been out of the 30s and nite time in the teens. So I havent been able to bank a lot of that heat yet.

There is suppose to be a high pressure ridge building in the southwest and raise our temps up 60-70s in april. We need it, its been cold.

Today, we had a neighbor stop by and asking if we could clear out his horse poo pile. Sure, he loaded it into 2 grain wagons, we pulled them home. Only 2 miles max, and 2 blow out tires. Tomorrow, will put the spares on and get more. Today's load was about 7-8 yards of compost. Last time, he had the compost hauled away was last summer. This neighbor boards some expensive horses, I think 5-10, and he cleans the stables regularly. We'll take all we can get, it might need to sit for awhile, but it's free.

Marla

Joe,

I am looking at adding some Raspberries for one of my movable tunnels. I don't think I will try Cherries, not a big demand, but Raspberries and maybe even Strawberries (on a small scale about 512 square feet and see what happens)

Despite cloudy and dreary days, we have been able to hold 45-50 degrees under the row cover even over night. I am very pleased with that. I am planning on planting out another 70 tomatoes on Thursday and all 56 cherry tomatoes, if I don't run out of energy.

Then I will finally plant the last 70 the following week or maybe even this weekend.

You have to start sometime. If I am going to grow in these tunnels, you have to take some calculated risks and hope for the best.

Jay

We finally got all our soil prep work done--lime and fertilizer. Soil test last year stunned me. All I can say is three years of floods must have taken their toll. It snowed like the devil Saturday, but we fortunately got no accumulation. Got most of the fruit trees pruned and sprayed with dormant oil. I've got a lot of spreading work tho' to do on them. Managed to get in about 800 onions and 75lbs of potatoes planted. I can't recall being so far behind, but I also don't worry. It'll get in when it gets in. We don't get spring break, and I've also been teaching a night class. We did get a lot of jam and jelly made this winter. We prefer to freeze our fruits and process them in winter when it's cooler and we're not so busy. I've also been turning many of our leftover gourds into bird and toad houses. Anyone ever try selling those??

Brook

I always like to do up my fruit in the summer quickly, and then when winter comes around do the jams and jellies. This helps heat up the house when needed, instead of the summer.

Brook, they're calling for more snow tomorrow night. Also talking for sticking on roads. Are you getting it now?

Marla

That's why we do the fruits that way too. Of course, that means our freezers are pretty full by then.

As for the weather, we're supposed to get a wintry mix that turns into just rain. Hopefully this is the last of this stuff. I noticed the beginnings of some flower buds last night on the peach trees. Fortunately, nothing has been nipped. Asparagus is way late this year, but the rhubarb hasn't been damaged. Blueberries and blackberries are just now starting to leaf out.

Brook

Brook, I also have a number of hollow swan gourds. Do you spend much time cleaning them up? Bleach, scrub, sand and drill holes? Whats your process? A lady at the local farmers market does a great job of painting scenes on them during the winter and sells them summers. Make high end sales dollar wise. tony

I get mine pretty smooth--wire brush off the loose stuff, then take a rasp to it, and finally a good sanding. It takes a while. I use a hole saw and clean out the inside real well. Then I use oil based tractor paint in about twelve different colors. Usually two coats of this is enough. Then I turn it over to the wife, who adds the finer decorations. Some good, clean gourds with interesting patterns we use shoe polish and other dyes/oils to bring out the natural beauty. I also make toadhouses out of the heavier Bule gourds. Then there are bowls. It gives us something to do when we can't be outdoors.

Brook

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Top picture is young lettuce. Bottom picture is everbearing strawberries and pots of onions and leeks