dale and i planted flats in the field...broccoli, purple broccoli, pac choi, tatsoi, dill, head lettuce and artichokes. more salad beds were planted (leaf lettuce, mesclun mix, rhubarb swiss chard, arugula and spinach). a second planting of spring onions and spring root crops (carrots, beets, turnips and radishes) was planted. another 100 (or was it 150?) raspberry plants were planted. second planting of peas was planted.
all those seeds i started for plants to sell at landis valley were repotted this week, from those small cells to 4" pots - tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and tomatillos. the parsley and basil plants are not ready to be transplanted yet. all the plants are still young, but the hope is that they will grow in these larger pots in the next three weeks before the sale. once i figure out the final numbers, i will post them. i had some poor germination with some varieties, unfortunately.
onions and leeks arrived this week. we receive them as very small plants. think of a leek, now downsize that by about 100 times. that is the size we receive them. the onions are slightly larger. we receive them as bare roots, basically...they are not in soil, but bunched together. we received 1800 leeks, 1800 walla walla onions, 1800 candy onions and 1800 red zeppelin onions. we will direct plant the onions in the field on plastic. the leeks will not be on plastic as they need to be 'hilled' (more or less buried) every few weeks throughout the season. the hilling is what creates the white part of a leek. since the leeks are so small, and in previous years they have pretty much gotten lost in the field, this year we are planting them in cells (slightly larger than the 72 cell trays) and waiting about a month before planting them outside. they should grow to a more manageable size in the cells, then we will plant them out.
we had a frost warning for thursday night. that kind of sucked because we had to spend a lot of time on thursday making sure all the plants that have been planted out were covered with clear plastic. then we had to spend a lot of time friday morning uncovering all the plastic rows. but, you neither take the time to protect your plants, or you risk losing everything you've done so far...
that is just about it for this week. i am not sure my 'to do' list will ever be finished. it seems like every time i cross one thing off, i add three more. but nonetheless, progress is being made and things are getting done. for the most part, plants in the fields look good and the things we have direct seeded are sprouting. before long, we will be harvesting for markets.
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