- Joined
- Oct 12, 2020
- Messages
- 407
- Climate
- Cold, Cool, Mountains, or Artic
I laid down the first seeds for starts in mid-March. This year, I’ve got a soil blocker system that I’m trying for the first time. The larger, 2” (5cm) soil block can be created with a dimple for seeding, or with a cube to accept the smaller 3/4” cube. My first seeds were set out in the small cubes…I don’t think I’ll do that again. The reality is that they are hard to keep moist as they dry out quickly being so small, so with any water beyond misting they tend to break down. The other thing, even watching the instructional video and product description, is that there was no guidance to when to transfer the small block into the larger block. With longer germinating seeds, this poses challenges I was unaware of going in.
That said, so far I really like the large cubes (granted, I first set them up yesterday). Hopefully things will work better with them.
Here are two trays. The near one and part of the farther one had the small cubes involved. The slender plants are leeks…in the far end of the farther one are rosemary and spearmint (tiny). Hot peppers (or chilies) are to the left of the near tray as well as paprika peppers. I see one variety hasn’t germinated at all so I’ll see if I can use the paper towel method to germinate a few and then insert them into the blocks.
Yesterday I also seeded tomatoes (4 blocks each of 7 varieties) and some additional celery. Aside from the spearmint and rosemary, all were sourced from the same heirloom seed company here in Manitoba.
As a bonus, the lengthening days has really brightened up our Castello lime (key lime). There are quite a few blossoms that will be opening in the coming days. I use a craft paintbrush to pollinate while it’s still indoors. We tend to set it out for the summer, although once there is fruit we will want to surround it with chicken wire…for some reason the local red squirrels like to pull them off and maybe take a bite. Unless things have changed from about 30 years ago, they are considered a fur-bearing mammal, so it’s illegal to trap or kill them without a trapping license…I may need to look into that in coming days if the poultry netting doesn’t work.
The snow continues to sublimate and melt. Temperatures have been bouncing around but most days have reached near or above freezing. I think the average high now is 5-6C (40F or so). Patience is required, but it isn’t my strong suit. The raised beds here in the city are now exposed…I need to wait, but as things warm, I want to rake back the wood chip mulch (apparently if worked into the soil it can tie up nitrogen as it decomposes) and add some ancient manure and compost before pushing some of the mulch back. I don’t know how soon I’ll be able to chip more wood. I’m trying to source some straw bales locally as well…I seem to have missed the boat on getting organic bales and fewer are using the smaller bales that I grew up with…there are large square and large round bales available but they are quite large and heavy which would make it difficult to deal with (the front end loader on my tractor is rated for 700 or so lbs and the round bales are in the 600 lb range but would be too high to lift if they were in the back of my pickup)…sigh…first world problems. On Friday, I did purchase a total of 80 lbs of cover crop mix (two different pollinator blends) that I will mix together for seeding out at the country place.
Patience is a virtue, or so I’m told…sigh.
That said, so far I really like the large cubes (granted, I first set them up yesterday). Hopefully things will work better with them.
Here are two trays. The near one and part of the farther one had the small cubes involved. The slender plants are leeks…in the far end of the farther one are rosemary and spearmint (tiny). Hot peppers (or chilies) are to the left of the near tray as well as paprika peppers. I see one variety hasn’t germinated at all so I’ll see if I can use the paper towel method to germinate a few and then insert them into the blocks.
Yesterday I also seeded tomatoes (4 blocks each of 7 varieties) and some additional celery. Aside from the spearmint and rosemary, all were sourced from the same heirloom seed company here in Manitoba.
As a bonus, the lengthening days has really brightened up our Castello lime (key lime). There are quite a few blossoms that will be opening in the coming days. I use a craft paintbrush to pollinate while it’s still indoors. We tend to set it out for the summer, although once there is fruit we will want to surround it with chicken wire…for some reason the local red squirrels like to pull them off and maybe take a bite. Unless things have changed from about 30 years ago, they are considered a fur-bearing mammal, so it’s illegal to trap or kill them without a trapping license…I may need to look into that in coming days if the poultry netting doesn’t work.
The snow continues to sublimate and melt. Temperatures have been bouncing around but most days have reached near or above freezing. I think the average high now is 5-6C (40F or so). Patience is required, but it isn’t my strong suit. The raised beds here in the city are now exposed…I need to wait, but as things warm, I want to rake back the wood chip mulch (apparently if worked into the soil it can tie up nitrogen as it decomposes) and add some ancient manure and compost before pushing some of the mulch back. I don’t know how soon I’ll be able to chip more wood. I’m trying to source some straw bales locally as well…I seem to have missed the boat on getting organic bales and fewer are using the smaller bales that I grew up with…there are large square and large round bales available but they are quite large and heavy which would make it difficult to deal with (the front end loader on my tractor is rated for 700 or so lbs and the round bales are in the 600 lb range but would be too high to lift if they were in the back of my pickup)…sigh…first world problems. On Friday, I did purchase a total of 80 lbs of cover crop mix (two different pollinator blends) that I will mix together for seeding out at the country place.
Patience is a virtue, or so I’m told…sigh.
