by Briscoe White | Feb 15, 2010 | Flowers, Gardening, Growing |
Working in the greenhouse this weekend, I performed the daily tasks so everyone else could be home. One task is checking the germination chamber twice each day. The seed flats are left in only to the point of germination. The seeds do not sprout at the exact same time. Depending on the seed, they germinate over a range of time from one day to several weeks. So, when the first few seedlings are seen, we move that flat to the greenhouse.
Germinating seeds is more like fun than work. From so little, so many plants spring forth (no pun intended). The germination chamber is great for seeds, but disastrous for seedlings, they quickly stretch and are to weak to stay upright. That is why we check twice a daily, even one day in the germination chamber will ruin seedlings.
The seedlings pictured were my amazement for the day. At 8:00 AM there was no plant life visible in these flats. When I returned at 4:00 PM the tomatoes, moonflowers, and morning glories had all grown to one-inch tall seedling! That is some fast growth!
by Briscoe White | Jan 20, 2010 | Exploring, Flowers, Growing, Life on the Farm |
I planted these yellow flowering Campis vines several years ago. The gate is into our farm orchard, but the Trumpet Creeper was planted so that it would grow up and over the arch and imitate the vine encircling the pages of the first version of The Growers Exhange.com, which is based in the nursery next to this orchard.
Who would have guessed the web-store would grow faster than a Trumpet Creeper? The newer version sacrificed art for function so the vine no longer lives in cyberspace, but should reach the top of the arch this summer here in Charles City. Trumpet creeper grows so well here it can actually be a problem in some places, we chose a yellow hybrid to be a little different from the wild cousins growing in nearby trees.
The plan is to bind the vines to keep it growing a along the fence and up the arch over the gate. Each winter we wrap it with old baling twine to keep a neat column of foliage along the cedar post. Look for a picture this summer when it will be covered in Yellow Trumpet Flowers, which is also it’s name!
by Briscoe White | Jan 18, 2010 | Growing, Herbs, Miscellaneous |
I have a little experiment going in our greenhouse using some really cool towers that let us grow vertically. The towers are a series of stacking bowls which allow for 6 plants on each level. We have been experimenting and looking for a crop we can grow in these towers; it turns out herbs work great.
What we want to do is be able to cut fresh herbs in winter, vertical growing lets us use more of the heated greenhouse space. Mints work great, but we worry they will become pot bound soon. Peppermint is most popular followed Spearmint. Chervil still demands some shade, even from winter sun!.
Oregano has a lot of variations: Italian and Greek, also Marjoram and Zataar. Parsley: Italian for cooking and curly for a garnish. And for our furry friends, we grew Catnip, as most of us have at least one. Herbs do not grow as fast in winter, so we wait for sunny weather and see how fast the plants grow. Being an experiment, we are not sure how well herbs grow in winter.
by Briscoe White | Jan 14, 2010 | Gardening, Growing, Inspiration, Miscellaneous |
It is done! These are our favorite words around the nursery. The Growers Exchange staff has created our first plant catalog. Yes, after all the light years of journey through cyberspace to create our internet web store; we had to step back and make a printed catalog. It just seems gardeners and paper plant catalogs go together like a companion planting.
The Growers Exchange catalog will be available on request, ORDER ONE TODAY. Spring getting closer every day!
by Briscoe White | Jan 8, 2010 | Exploring, Growing, Life on the Farm, Miscellaneous |
I know that I have said more than enough about the cold weather, but since last time temps have dropped more and it is still really cold!! What it means daily is that some of us are spending more time inside than we normally do. Fortunately we have plenty of busy work sowing seeds and transplanting seedlings. Even with these activities to focus confined energy, the greenhouse crew came up with a new idea for our company garden.
Someone working in the greenhouse pointed out that the hardest part about growing Shiitake mushrooms is finding the proper logs; which are just like the one we heave in the wood-stove each day. We found some logs to our specifications and ordered some spawn online.
Yesterday we followed the instructions and inoculated some oak logs with Shiitake spawn. On a whim oyster mushrooms were added because the culture requirements were almost the same as for shiitake. Our logs are here in the greenhouse waiting for the first mushrooms to appear. Hopefully we will have some this summer, we will report our first shiitake mushrooms here!
The Growers Exchange limits itself to growing herbs for all uses: Ayurveda to Culinary. Our spring annual collection reflects our favorite selections of plants that perform well. Check out our collections and selections: herbs, flowering annuals for spring planting in containers and beds. The mushrooms are just us playing; they will go well with our salad garden!
by Briscoe White | Dec 17, 2009 | Gardening, Growing, Herbs |
Winter is here! When it is really cold even when the sun shines, it is winter. In the greenhouse we follow the same old seasonal path year after year. One thing we have learned is that our propagating table is not warm enough in winter to root cuttings.
Usually we delay cuttings until after winter equinox, we are pretty busy sowing seeds this time of year.
We have an urgent call for cut mints from one of our culinary customers: give me cut mint ASAP! Unfortunately we will have to start by rooting some mint stems, and this may be tricky in December. I always say where there is a will; there is a way! Working with our seedlings, we noticed the germination chamber satisfies all the requirements for rooting: warm and humid with indirect light. We took some stem cuttings from Peppermint, Mojito mint, and Spearmint ‘Kentucky Colonel’.
In two weeks we have roots! They are not quite ready for life outside the chamber, but soon they will move to the greenhouse and finish filling their little cells. As soon as weather permits these little plants will be growing in the field; providing pounds of cut mint for tables in NYC.
