The plants go outside!

Climbing temperatures mean that the seedlings took their first plunge outside of the greenhouses. We began setting out the transplants last week to harden off and get acclimated before we stick them in the ground.  This will help reduce the shock, speed their recovery and hopefully lead to the plants producing fruit sooner than they would otherwise.  However, Spring weather is still unpredictable and Tuesday night brought us temps back in the 30′s along with some much appreciated sleet and rain. The plants were happy to stay back inside by the heater on those cold days and nights.

 

Jill and Justin also went to pick up some more alpaca manure from a nearby farm.  Alpaca manure breaks down in the soil faster than horse or cow manure so it is easier for the plants’ roots to absorb the nutrients.  Llamas and alpacas contain multiple stomachs so it is also more digested and less likely to contain unwanted weed seeds or pathogens.  We also soak the manure  in water to make a tea and water the transplants to keep them growing and healthy.  In the pictures you can see Jill sitting in the truck on the phone while Jane (the farmer who graciously gave us the manure) skillfully maneuvers her tractor to dump the manure in the truck bed.   You can also see our brilliant idea to quickly unload the manure from the truck bed using bailing twine.  Yes, the twine snapped and we ended up unloading the bed with a shovel anyways…

And lastly to report, we set out some of the tomatoes under walls of water earlier this week.  This cold wet weather may be too much for them, but hopefully they will survive OK.  The walls of water are basically sleeves of plastic filled with water that stand like a teepee around each plant, acting like a little greenhouse for each individual plant.  The idea is that the sun heats the water during the day, and it radiates that heat throughout the night to keep the tomatoes from freezing.  Some of these tomatoes already have blooms so if they make it through, they should have a head start on producing ripe fruits!

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That’s all for this week.  We hope you are staying cool/warm depending on the day.  Make sure to stop by the farm stand for some bedding plants to take home with you!  They are selling for 1 dollar each, or 6 for $5.  We will post the “OPEN” sign out front when they are available to purchase.  Thanks for visiting the blog and see you next week!