Starting with a pile of some old 2×4’s that I cut down and some old barn siding… I knew there was something good to be made here. A quick trip to Home Depot secured a 12′ section of wire closet shelving cut into 4′ section… and a few other supplies (to be shown later).
But with the wood and the shelving (total cost was under $35) – I was set.
One of the challenges we have to solve every year in our greenhouse-less operation is finding enough places in the basement for the trays and trays of light hungry seedlings to reside. There’s always this juggling act of moving plants around from “good light” to “not so good light”. For some reason this year seemed a fitting time to finally “upgrade” some of seedling space to a fancy vertical plant rack… only not for the $200+ price tag they start at.
The end result may not be as fancy – but for a build it yourself – takes about 15 minutes to make – seed starting light rack… I think it will work out just fine.
The 4′ width of this seed starting rack is perfect since the cheap $9 shop lights are 4′ long. The metal edge on the front of this shelving give a lot of stiffness so 4 plant trays full of damp soil and seedlings won’t cause a collapse. The back of the shelving that does not have the wire edge has a small board that stiffens the frame and provides support.
I did also buy 4 shop lights that have yet to be hung – but they will go under each shelf and the plants that live on the top will be lit by lights already suspended from the ceiling. Basically this rack will become the landing pad for seedlings that have germinated on the warm surfaces of my homemade soil heaters. Right now that’s about 3 flats of leeks, onions and parsley (amongst other things).
I did consider purchasing a pre-made shelving system to do this – but for under $40 for all the materials I was hard pressed to find something that was 48″ wide and also had open shelving so any spilled water would “go away”. Most importantly – this configuration has a future ahead of it in the era where it can live out in a green house!
In a departure from some regular posts – I wanted to offer a mild detergent distraction. There’s a lot of people who seem to like to give something special fresh for Easter. A gift that’s “spring time fresh”. Well, I thought I’d share the freshest idea you could possibly give – some amazing hand crafted hand made soap. Even if you think you don’t want any – have no interest – whatever your excuse – you need to look at the stuff the Sudstress makes! Check out her gallery here.
No – this isn’t a paid for ad – I happen to know the elusive Sudstress – and just think a hand made gift like this is way better than a box of “Made in China”.
Last spring I decided it was time for me to get down to the heart of the matter when it comes to snap peas, variety and the question about adding inoculant at planting time or not… But before I get into my findings of a year ago there’s obviously a small disclaimer here: these results are for my soil conditions, my planting techniques and the very wet year last year.
So with that out of the way – I have a rather sandy soil that actually holds a lot of water (yes – should not be – but it is). I also have lots of naturally growing white clover all over the place… so that suggests my soil is already rife with N-fixing bacteria (although they are different spp.). But – on to the results.
Last spring I planted 4 distinct test patches: classic Sugar Snap and the more resistant Super Sugar Snap – both with and without inoculant. Both of these seeds were untreated as it seems treated seeds and inoculant are intuitively opposed to each other (a lot of treatment is anti-fungal not bacterial so this statement depends on treatment) . I also planted a patch of treated Sugar Snap (Thiram as the treatment – a fungicide).
|
Germination – 1w |
2w-harvest |
harvest volume |
disease resistance |
| Sugar Snap |
good |
vigorous |
high |
moderate |
| Sugar Snap (I) |
good + |
vigorous |
v. high |
moderate |
| Super Sugar Snap |
very good |
vigorous - |
average |
high |
| Super Sugar Snap (I) |
very good |
vigorous + |
high/average |
last to die |
| Sugar Snap (T) |
best in class |
vigorous + |
v. high |
moderate |
So what did I discover? Well – first and foremost you stand there after you plant your seeds and wait… and the seeds treated with thiram emerged sooner and in greater numbers. What I should have added to the test was treated + inoculant as thiram has no effect on Rhizobia nodulation1. I also noted that after you watch these guys grow until late June – the “more disease resistant” crop of the Super Sugar Snap fellows were not so “super” in terms of production. They had lots of good growth but just didn’t set peas like Sugar Snap.
Now – the last column is important to note – we had a wicked wet spring and summer last year. Somewhere in June we got 5″ of rain in a 24 hour period… so these peas had to deal with drenching rains and cool damp disease conditions. Here – it was very clear that the Super Sugar Snap peas that had been inoculated did the best (likely because they could uptake more nutrients - had more root surface area to get oxygen from the flooded soils and have the bred in disease resistance).
So what am I going to do this year with my data and insight? Well – if you read here – I’m going to do a face-off between two different untreated seeds and see how things grow. Ideally – I’d be planting thiram treated Sugar Snap peas – but I didn’t want to order just those from one place and pay all that shipping… so I bought what I could and we will watch for the outcome.
There are several obstacles challenges in consistently providing fresh and yummy veggies to people (or even yourself in your own garden), aside from disease, weeds, deer, weather and everything else… One of the most daunting challenges is ensuring that you have a steady supply of veggies throughout the season. And the very honest fact of the matter is – the produce section of your local store isn’t exactly “like nature” at all.
So – one of the best tools we have when growing (because we control it completely) is to watch the starting times of seeds and to pay attention to the length of time it takes for a plant (or seed) from when it’s planted to when it’s “mature” for harvesting. And – again – unlike the bin of greens in the produce department in the middle of January – we don’t get to spray the plants with a preservative to make a crop that’s ready one week early “last” until we want to bring it to market the next week… we don’t get to simply “source” our plants from another region or country… we don’t get to turn off the weather… and we sure can’t turn up or down the heat!
Now – in a perfect world we could calculate all those dates – start all the plants when we need to – and sit back… but, if you have ever been to a farmers market over the course of a summer you will see how each farm has different things that are ready at different times… the soil – the weather and all the other things you can and sometimes CAN’T think of can conspire to move those dates around. All we really can do is plan – plant a plan – and build into that plan buffers that can hopefully absorb all the miraculous challenges nature sometimes throws at us.
And if you are wondering – here I’m starting Celeriac – also known as celery root – it’s AWESOME when mashed up with potatoes. Off to my right there are several other trays full of 6 packs like what’s in front of me – FULL of the same.
