It is a delight to be the spouse of a hard working, joy-filled, dedicated man.



Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Whew!

Man what a busy day today. I planted two thousand five hundred onion seeds today.

Okay, so it really wasn't that hard. I plant them in clumps of about twenty five seeds in 2x2 pots all connected and sitting in a solid flat.

The soil mix is sterile combo of peat and perlite. I wet it by filling the solid flat with water and the peat mix wicks up the water and wah-la they are watered.

I did a little adjusting to my propagation shelves so hopefully they will be just right.

Once the onions germinate (hopefully they will, onions have the shortest seed life of veggies and these were left overs from last spring) they will go under artificial light for about eight to ten hours, they are day length controlled onions so it is important that I match the light with what they would receive outside.

I expect that they will need to be trimmed before I get them outside, it is important that they be kept under five inches tall. If they bend at the base they are done. But they should be ready to go out to the garden bed 'bout the time I plant my peas.

So I really didn't get a lot done today but my body thinks it did a lot.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

what kind of onions?

i did not know that about the stems bending at the base.

Lanny said...

Nancy,
Mostly Walla Walla, next some Copra, some Red globe, a few Borrettana Cipollini, Purplette, Guardsman.


Planted them now because if they don't germinate well then I still have time to order more and get them planted for this year.

I think it is funny that I can cut the stem, at about five inches, but if the stem bends to near the base it's caput.

If you want your onions to stop growing in the summer and harden off for storage you can bend their tops over and sure enough they get the message.

Empress Bee (of the high sea) said...

you do know you can buy onions in the store. right? ha ha ha

smiles, bee
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoox

A. Joy said...

Hey! Thanks for stopping by our blog ~ yours is the first listed on our 'favorites' so I check in to see what's goin' on down on the farm each day. Man, after reading yours and seeing the photos of all of the work you've been doing outside ... I'm exhausted! I always have to let Gardener Tom know what Lanny's been doing in the garden at her place!

Susie said...

Sounds like lots of work to me! Interesting about bending the stem of the onion. Never heard that before. Okay, you can call me stupid but do you raise all these veggies to sell? I guess I haven't read enough of your blog to know this.