Potato Storage Experiment

These potatoes were left in our unheated clay basement for the winter to see how they would survive. I was quite surprised that they lasted as long as they did. The Red Norland seemed to sprout the worst, the Fabula's held up really well with little to no sprouting. The True Blues also did really well.

It seems our growing season keeps getting pushed back, we had strong winds and blowing snow today. Good news is week end they are calling for +10 degrees, how exciting. I'm sure spring weather must be just around the corner.

First Seeds of the Season

Sunday was our first planting of the 2008 season. Leeks and onions really like an early start and we probably could have gotten them in even earlier but that didn't happen. We make our own potting soil using our composted horse manure, peat moss, Jolly Farmer earth worm castings, nutrient balanced mix and we like to add in a bit of purchased organic balanced potting soil in case our mix was lacking anything (Jolly Farmer Certified Organic Grow-on Mix)

We planted seven trays in total, three leeks and four onions. We do not have enough room to start as many transplants as we would like as we use our front living room and there is only so much room. We normally do not plant onions from sets but this year we think we will have to as we do not have the room to grow as many onions as we would like. Most people do not realize that you can grow onions from seed and that you will get a much bigger bulb, plus there are so many more varieties to choose from.



Tiny onion seeds




The living room before and after. We use this room because it has a big south facing window.



Under the table on the left we now have plastic that hangs down to the floor with a tiny space heater. The trays will stay under the plastic with the heater untill they germinate. This usually takes about 5-6 days.

Chores

This will probably be the last "slack" weekend on the farm until next fall. Next weekend is the annual Acorn organic conference which will be filled with new information, meeting new farmers and learning as much as we can in two days. Seeding will begin shortly after that which will turn our living room into a seedling grow room.



Above are bales of peat moss that will be used for our farm made potting soil, and Derek working with the tractor putting in hay for the horses. Derek uses a tow strap and a chain to strap the bale to the front end loader, it works quite well.