Posts Tagged ‘seeds’
Starting Seeds
In Eliot Coleman’s book “The New Organic Grower”, he describes an intriguing process of starting seeds. Instead of the traditional plastic containers and flats, he recommends using a tool called a soil blocker. The soil blocker is filled with “blocking mix” and presses out squares with an indent for planting your seed. I was immediately on board with this method. It reduces our plastic consumption and provides a more suitable home for our seeds (less likely to dry out and no fear of root boundedness).
Unfortunately, the soil blockers can be hard to come by. They are hand-made in England and shipped over to the U.S. by only a few distributors and they can be rather pricey. They are available through Peaceful Valley (order early in the growing season as they can take a while coming from England). I also recommend buying the book, “Transplants in Soil Blocks” from PV as well.
Based on the size of our operation (we anticipate making about 20,000 starts for the spring/summer growing season), we opted for the professional stand up floor soil blocker that can make 12 2” blocks at a time. This is the ideal size for starting most seeds. In fact we are starting all but 4 vegetables from seed (we are direct seeding carrots, parsnips, rutabaga, and radishes).
Blocking Mix Recipe (adapted from Eliot Coleman’s recipe):
30 oz. coco fiber (we are using this instead of peat moss)
1/2 cup of oyster shell lime
20 oz. perlite (I’ve heard you can use rice hulls instead of perlite - something I am curious to try out)
Mix thoroughly.
10 oz garden soil (dug from our garden and sifted through a 1/2” hardware cloth)
20 oz compost
Mix thoroughly.
Add water. (The best advice I heard was that the consistency of the mix should resemble oatmeal - wet but not runny. I usually add about a 4:1 ratio of mix to water.)
A double batch of this mix fits perfectly in a 32 gallon trash can. Each batch makes approximately 250 2” soil blocks.
To make the soil blocks, I spread our mix out on a tarp in our hoop house with a 3 sided plywood tray ready and waiting. First, I make sure that the mix is wet enough by feeling it. Then I plunge the soil blocker into a large pile of mix, twisting side-to-side to fill it and rocking back and forth to ensure it doesn’t fall out. I then quickly and effortlessly lift the tool and scrape off any extra mix with either the side of the table/board or my hand. I then place the blocker directly on my tray and eject the 12 seed homes. The whole process takes about 30 seconds.
For our heat loving plants (tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants), we started them using a 3/4 inch soil blocker. I am not sure this is worth it. While more of them fit on the heat mats, they dry out too quickly. I think for our second seeding I will be sticking with 2” blocks. We will “pot them on” to 4” soil blocks once they get bigger. The 4” soil blockers come with built in inserts that press a 2” hole in the top of the block perfect for potting on.
I am really excited about how well this mix and method seems to be working for our seedlings. The germination rates are very high in our hoop house. We will be planting our first seedlings of broccoli, lettuces, cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and beets outdoors early next week.
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Rainy day
Today’s rain is allowing us to take a break from the outside work, to hopefully catch up on our planning, and take a deep breath.
Matt has been working on converting a 10’ x 20’ car canopy into a greenhouse, as well as building a couple of top-bar bee hives from scratch. In the meantime, I’ve been preparing beds, getting our first batch of seeds started in the small (8’ x 10’) greenhouse, and getting the rest of the perennial crops into the ground (the latest were artichokes and more blackberries) ahead of the rain.
We have a relatively short growing season here on the northern California coast (our place is about 1 mile inland). The farmers markets in coastal Mendocino, where we are, run from May to October. There is so much to do, that we are glad we still have a couple of months to get ready before the markets start… although we know the time will go quickly!
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Seeds ordered! Check.
Triumph. We hit our first milestone of the year today. All of the seeds for 2009 are ordered, paid for, done. Check that off the list. We order from Peaceful Valley (of course), and also from a handful of other companies. The grand total was…a lot…let’s not talk about that now. While planning for seeds, Logan and I made a detailed planting schedule to figure out the quantities we will need. The last step in this chain is to place all of these successions on field maps - once… Read the rest of this article »
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Transplanting
We don’t have a greenhouse on the Mueller Farm, which makes it pretty difficult to start seeds on our own. Thank goodness we have Dave Horton around to help with that! Dave just happens to live a few blocks from the farm, (yes, blocks; our farm is in a neighborhood), and for the last few years he’s been helping out John Wilkerson on the farm, in addition to continuing to volunteer at Gateway Greening. So anyway, Dave loves starting seeds. Just loves it. Lucky for us! He led an enrichment… Read the rest of this article »
GMO Companies Go Home, Right?
Monsanto is the largest seed company in the world now, having acquired Seminis in 2005. Monsanto not only sells more Biotech (GMO) seeds than any other business, but now (with the acquisition on Seminis) sells more garden variety (non GMO) seeds than any other company; and it is a multi-billion dollar business for them. Popular Monsanto Seeds include Big Beef Tomato, Gold Rush Zucchini, Beefmaster Tomato, Ambrosia Melon…the list really does go on and on and on. These seeds produce great… Read the rest of this article »
Tags: Ambrosia Melon, Beefmaster Tomato, Big Beef Tomato, buying habits, fruits, gmo, Gold Rush Zucchini, monsanto, seed company, seeds, seminis, the omnivores dilemma
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Growing In More Ways than One Ryan’s Journal
As a first-year farm hand, I was overwhelmed at first by the size of the field. I had the realization that the only way this field would be planted was by Andrew and my own bare hands. This should not overwhelm the first year farmer. Take one bed at a time and before you know it, half of your field will be planted. It is a journey watching the field ever expand and become the vision Andrew is dreaming. I never thought I would be so excited to go to work everyday just to see if the seeds we planted… Read the rest of this article »
Three farms are starting from scratch.
They are turning the dirt and hoping to be successful enough to turn a profit, and to become a valuable part of their communities as suppliers of organically grown food.
Peaceful Valley is giving them a head start by offering them special pricing as part of this Freshman Farmer program.
The Farm Blogs
| Freshman: | |
| New Farms Coming Soon! | |
| Sophomores: | |
 | Daily Grace Farms Crescent City, CA |
 | Freestone Family Farm Vernal, UT |
 | Wise Moon Farm Redding, CA |
| Graduates: | |
 | Coyote House Farm Palermo, CA |
 | DeepSeeded Community Farm Arcata, CA |
 | Driftwood Farm Fort Bragg, CA |
 | EarthDance Farm St. Louis, MO |
 | Ellwood Canyon Farms Goleta, CA |
 | Four Frog Farm Penn Valley, CA |
 | Hand Sown Homegrown Heritage Farm Poulsbo, WA |
 | Home Plate Organic Farm Orleans, CA |
 | Honey in the Heart Farm Nevada City, CA |
 | Willow Springs Farm Penn Valley, CA |
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About the Farms
| Coyote House Farm Palermo, CA |
| Daily Grace Farms Crescent City, CA |
| DeepSeeded Community Farm Arcata, CA |
| Driftwood Farm Fort Bragg, CA |
| EarthDance Farm St. Louis, MO |
| Ellwood Canyon Farms Goleta, CA |
| Four Frog Farm Penn Valley, CA |
| Freestone Family Farm Vernal, UT |
| Hand Sown Homegrown Heritage Farm Poulsbo, WA |
| Home Plate Organic Farm Orleans, CA |
| Honey in the Heart Farm Nevada City, CA |
| Willow Springs Farm Penn Valley, CA |
| Wise Moon Farm Redding, CA |
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Stories From Peaceful Valley
Tips on growing and pruning raspberries & blackberries February 2, 2012
Charlotte from Peaceful Valley
Charlotte from Peaceful Valley
Growing Raspberries & Blackberries February 2, 2012
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Planting & Growing Rhubarb January 31, 2012
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Jerusalem Artichoke Planting & Growing Guide January 30, 2012
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Planting & Growing Horseradish January 30, 2012
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Fruit tree pruning—specialized advice January 27, 2012
Charlotte from Peaceful Valley
Charlotte from Peaceful Valley
Planting and Growing Artichokes January 24, 2012
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EGG Demo January 20, 2012
Stephanie from Peaceful Valley
Stephanie from Peaceful Valley
Envirocycle Demo January 20, 2012
Stephanie from Peaceful Valley
Stephanie from Peaceful Valley
Mr. Soaker Hose Demo January 20, 2012
Stephanie from Peaceful Valley
Stephanie from Peaceful Valley
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