2019 - The Farm

TrentL · Mar 28, 2019

Ruid said:
Pay for help on getting that completed so you can get those out sooner.

High tunnels don't improve nighttime temps much, 1-4C, so unless I throw a really big heater in there I really can't take peppers out until we are past dangerous low temps. We'll still have hard frosts (< 28F) here through mid-April, and light frosts until about the 2nd week of May.

I can probably get them out there in about 3 weeks, give or take, but have to be prepared to bring them *all* back indoors if nighttime temps will drop below 40F.

Bottleneck is I don't have annuums potted up yet; there'll be about 3,000 plants there which need potted up still.

If I move all of the brassicas out (they are more cold hardy) I will clear up room for about 900 peppers indoors at home, but that still leaves me short about 2100 spots.

The annuums are ready to transplant, well, hell, last week would have been nice. They are getting too big for the starter cells. Last year I transplanted annuums 3 weeks from now, and most were barely ready; this year they're already crowding each other out.

Even after I take peppers out to the high tunnel and can transplant the rest of the annuums, I'll have to be prepared to bring all 6,000 plants back indoors if temps drop too low.

Yeah got a hell of a log jam forming.

Maybe the electrical will come in handy w/ regards to heat, I might be able to plug a few space heaters in if it looks "close" and don't want to move all the plants.

I could drop plastic down to partition off the unused part of the high tunnel to make less space I have to heat, too.

stettoman · Mar 28, 2019

You sound a lot like zone 3 to me Trent.

tsurrie · Mar 28, 2019

Those plants man.... daamn, they look so cool. Congrats!
I need to recheck now what you've done with the soil :drooling:

TrentL · Mar 29, 2019

stettoman said:
You sound a lot like zone 3 to me Trent.

We're 5b. Can see hard frosts for the next 3 weeks (last year we got 8" of snow on April 15), and we can still get frost in to early / mid May. I don't risk peppers in the dirt until May 15 at the absolute earliest, because I've seen nighttime temps drop below 40F well in to middle of May. Last year we started transplanting peppers over memorial day weekend.

I got a plan tho.

I just ran 60 amp 240v service to the high tunnel (well, about half done, anyway.)

I can drape some plastic to shrink the interior space and run space heaters on cold nights. It should keep the space above freezing, at least.

TrentL · Mar 29, 2019

tsurrie said:
Those plants man.... daamn, they look so cool. Congrats!
I need to recheck now what you've done with the soil

Thanks, appreciate it. They are growing SO DAMN FAST now I'm a bit concerned. Hopefully I can get electric done in the high tunnel very soon and (more importantly) get plastic pulled soon. we've had nothing but high winds for weeks now. Makes working out there a real bitch, and also makes it impossible to stretch plastic over the frame of the high tunnel. Work is paused until at least Monday as we get 2-3" of rain Fri, Sat, Sunday.

The field is a muddy mess, I missed my best planting window for broccoli and cauliflower / etc. I spent (too much) on low tunnel stuff and can't even think about getting anything in the dirt yet. Kind of stings a bit. I have strawberries, cauliflower, broccoli, leeks, onions, kale, and a bunch of other stuff I need to get hardened off and in the ground ASAP.

I was wanting to experiment with an early planting of corn, too, but I can't get the tractor out there to run the mulch layer until the dirt dries out a LOT. Was going to do black plastic, row covers, and see if I can get it to germ. Then put it under 3' wide by 4' high low tunnels for a few weeks, see if I can be the first guy on the block with corn. But that plan, along with the early melon plan, is going sideways due to weather.

Meh. Can't control weather so I'm not gonna stress too much over it. Last year we had the opposite problem, was too dry!

As far as the potting soil goes I got that nailed down REAL good (too good, actually, plants are growing insanely fast). Now it's just a matter of subtle tweaking, then lab testing for Guaranteed Analysis labeling, OMRI listing, and I can put it on the market.

In the latest test I *sprouted* in the stuff, I have 100% germ on two trays of annuums in my last mix, and they put on true leaves 3-5 days after sprouting. No fish emulsion, nothing. Just stupid rapid growth right in that organic mix.

I have about 12 different species of plants growing in it now, including a couple varieties of tomatoes, and the plants are all stunning looking (except for one batch of swiss chard, for some reason that variety didn't like it, while two others are doing fine in it..?)

internationalfish · Mar 29, 2019

Holy crap, dude, you've got a seriously mixed bag going on. Fortunately, it's pretty obviously going to be full of peppers.

TrentL said:
No fish...

PtMD989 · Mar 29, 2019

Did the flooded wheat field survive? Glad this years grow is more productive than last years grow. [emoji106]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

TrentL · Mar 29, 2019

internationalfish said:
Holy crap, dude, you've got a seriously mixed bag going on. Fortunately, it's pretty obviously going to be full of peppers.

We'll have to sell some plants off, going to have more than I have room for! A lot of these will also have to go in to transitional acreage, I had my certified organic field heavily loaded with peppers last year and have to rotate in different veggies. Got about 3 acres total I can plant, but something like 70 species of plants to grow, over 400 individual varieties.

So yeah quite a mixed bag.

PtMD989 said:
Did the flooded wheat field survive? Glad this years grow is more productive than last years grow. [emoji106]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No, the flooded acres of wheat are dead, dead, dead. Going to have to figure out what to replace it with when it dries back out.

Might roll out some cereal rye if it is still early enough, rye has to get a frost while it's growing or it'll dead head though. So if I miss that window (likely, given more rain this weekend), then .. yeah dunno.

Ruid · Mar 29, 2019

I'll spread the word about your website in my area about a month before you start selling pods.

TrentL · Mar 29, 2019

Ruid said:
I'll spread the word about your website in my area about a month before you start selling pods.

Much appreciated. I've already got plants flowering so could be an early year for pods, if they keep growing at the current clip.

I have lights on half during the day right now, trying to slow them down some, and keep temps lower (we've got a bit of a heat snap right now).

This is going to be a nervous waiting game with the unpredictable spring weather. I have a feeling before it's time to go out, I'm gonna be a nervous wreck

Wermland · Mar 29, 2019

I visited your site, impressive [emoji106] I always wanted to have a farm and grow largescale so this is very inspiration to follow.

Good luck this season!

TrentL · Mar 29, 2019

Wermland said:
I visited your site, impressive [emoji106] I always wanted to have a farm and grow largescale so this is very inspiration to follow.

Good luck this season!

Thank you, very much appreciated! It is a lot of work, to be sure.

Today I'm taking a day off - hurt my elbow yesterday, tore a muscle while tightening raintight EMT conduit fittings, and I'm about to go stir-crazy. I'm not used to "doing nothing"

Yesterday I bought an old, OLD 1940's grain planter attachment for the tractor, and a heavy disk for field prep. Also located a cultivator.

I'll use the old grain planter mainly for spreading cover crops, very little set-up required to use it, so will be quick just to hook up and go.

Waiting for parts for a used Great Plains 12' grain drill to show up, then I'll have one of those at the ready. That is a much more complex contraption, but capable of punching through ground cover and debris in the field (corn stubble, etc), so I'll be able to use it in a wider range of scenarios. It can seed three different types of plants, each at a different sowing rate, so it will be interesting to use for cover crops, etc.

Still missing a moldboard plow and rotary cultivator, and by next year want a flame weeder attachment for the tractor.

The old school attachments will help keep us chemical-free at the farm.

TrentL · Mar 29, 2019

I haven't posted pics of the basement grow room in a while, with everything being so damn busy.

Since I'm laid up with an injury today, figured what the hell.

mixed annuums from saved seed, growing in Mix I

Sage (growing in Mix I)

Cabbage (pure coco coir, with fish emulsion)

Reaper re-plant (lost a lot of them to scorched trays) left, white hot peppers / pepperlover tray right. One guess which ones are from Justin?

Two pepperlover trays

Swiss chard, doesn't like the heat or soil much. Right tray is mixed forum members seeds sent to me in 2018

More forum member seeds, and (to the right) another pepperlover tray. I'm not gonna sling any shit, but rather, just let the pictures speak for themselves. Never gonna order from them again.

Tomatoes, 2 weeks old, plus some replants on barren cells, growing in Mix I

TrentL · Mar 29, 2019

Raddicio growing in mix I

Kale growing in Mix I

Refining Fire seeds, several no-shows, or low germ rates

Saved seeds; biker billy, tekne

"Whatcha doin boss?"

Later planting of cabbage - these do NOT like the heat.

Two more trays of our saved seed, Poblano and more tekne

The end result of $80 in frigging strawberry seeds. I *really* suck at growing flowers and fruits.

Swiss chard, quite unhappy with the heat.

Cabbage, in Mix I. Could use more light but it gets too hot down there, lights are usually on half, instead of full.

Leeks, in mix I, doing Ok. Had one strike-out with Johnny's seeds (megaton), but two other types did well.

TrentL · Mar 29, 2019

THE DUKE

... Has flower buds.

More plants unahppy with the heat. Top shelf gets hot, only have so much airflow. They're alive, but not quite happy about it.

"Control" peppers and onions that needed to go out like last week.

Sure, go ahead, bite the hand that feeds you...

Not everything is pretty.

Quite a mess from seeding, most of that needs to be sown but have no room left...

TrentL · Mar 29, 2019

Always a set of eyes on you now.

TrentL · Mar 29, 2019

Current pics (taken today) of chinense and aji grow

TrentL · Mar 29, 2019

2/3

TrentL · Mar 29, 2019

3/3

Wermland · Mar 29, 2019

Man that's beautiful! Every single one of those plants looks great, crazy.