The Farming Engineers

It’s almost spring, but the weather is taking its time warming up.  I’ve been spending a lot of time in Farmer’s Purgatory, washing out seed containers to reuse them, mixing up seed starting media, and fussing with my seedlings.  Using rainwater to water them is a new thing this year for me also.  So far I have no complaints, other than that I like to let it warm up to room temperature before using it.  Just have to remember to dump the barrels over before mosquito season!

This week I planted some tomatoes, eggplant, lavender, and potato seeds.  I’ve never grown potatoes from “true seed” (i.e. NOT little chunks-o-potato) before.  I ordered 100 seeds, and they sent me something approximating 500.  I called the seed company last night to see what the germination rate was, thinking maybe they sent so many because germination is low.  No, they said, it’s 80%.  So I have about 300-350 seeds in the trays right now.  Good thing we have a lot of space out in the field, because I also have a pile of normal seed potatoes coming later.

The broccoli and some of the onions are taking their first trip outdoors today in their trays.  Hopefully I remember to bring them in before they get too stressed out.