Weather Forecast: high 40s, 50% chance of rain Tuesday, 90% chance of rain Wednesday.
This week on the farm we'll continue our work with seeds and starting plants from seed. We know that for those of you who had never heard the terms "hybrid" or "open pollinated" prior to last Thursday's class, our crash course in plant genetics probably left you confused. Never fear! We will go over that again with lots of time for you to ask questions and to discuss the implications of each type of plant breeding.
John is also going to teach you a different way to propagate fruit crops through grafting. You'll be working with apple varieties, so in order for you to come to class with a little background about the cultural history of the apple and why it is usually propagated using clonal techniques (like grafting), please watch the first 31 minutes and 25 seconds of Michael Pollan's documentary "The Botany of Desire," available at this link: http://naturedocumentaries.org/126/the-botany-of-desire/.
Finally, please come to class with ideas about the crop you'd like to steward for the next nine weeks. In the comment section of this blog post, please answer the following questions:
What crop are you thinking about growing?
Should the seeds of this crop first be started indoors or can the seeds be planted directly in the garden soil?
What time of year should the seeds of this crop be sown?
How long will it take this crop to produce a harvest from the time you plant it?
Looking forward to seeing you on the farm!
I’m a big fan of salads, so I’d love to grow some type of lettuce. From my understanding, you can plant most varieties of lettuce pretty much as soon as the ground thaws out in the spring. According to what I’m looking at online, it’s less likely to be successful when it is extremely hot, which means it’s often a spring or fall crop. (Although I am finding information about which varieties can handle hot summers!) I’m seeing conflicting opinions online about whether it’s best to start lettuce indoors or to plant it directly in the garden soil. A lot of what I’m reading says it’s useful to start indoors if you’re not sure that it’s late enough to avoid worrying about frost, or for spacing purposes in your garden. However, I’m also seeing some people say that it’s not necessary.
ReplyDeleteLooking through our seed catalogues, there a few varieties that immediately looked interesting to me:
Dragoon (43 days) – mini green romaine
Truchas (47 days) – dark red mini romaine
Alkindus (45 days) – red butterhead
Little Gem (30 days for baby, 55 days for head) – cross between butterhead and romaine
I’d also be super open to trying other varieties! Amy and John, I’d love your input on what would be most likely to be successful out at the farm. There are so many different types, and I’m not sure which ones would flourish. (Again, I have essentially zero knowledge about farming.) I’d appreciate any advice or suggestions that the two of you might have.
Also – in doing some research, I kept seeing discussions about lettuce “bolting.” What does this mean and why is it bad?
After spending five months in Beijing I have become a big fan of cabbage! A lot of the meals I ate included Chinese cabbage, and after learning a few recipes I would love to try growing my own Chinese cabbages and seeing if I can recreate some of the delicious Beijing dishes I grew to love.
ReplyDeleteAfter looking through the catalogues I discovered that this type of crop can be grown in spring and fall seasons, and it can also tolerate hot summer weathers better then some other European cabbages. The catalogues recommended that they should be planted inside, and later transplanted after 3-5 weeks.
The three types of Napa/Closed head type cabbages I am interested in growing were the Minuet (48 days), the Rubicon (52 days), or the Bilko (54 days). I am worried that they might not be ready for harvest by the end of the quarter, so it might be best to try the Minuet cabbage, which has the shortest growing period.
I also read that this crop does have a risk of bolting, which I am not familiar with. I was wondering what bolting is, and what preventative measures can be taken to avoid it.
Amy and John, would this be a good crop to try and grow?
I love sweet potatoes made anytype of way. I can eat a whole sweet potato pie by my self in one seating.
ReplyDeleteThe seeds of this crop can be started indoors since it requires a warmer climate.
This crop should be planted after sings of frost have been cleared and the soil is at leat 60 degrees F. So more towards the summer.
It takes about 3-4 months for sweet potatoes to harvest.
I really enjoy eating cucumbers. I remember my grandmother growing cucumbers in Chicago. After the cucumbers were ready, we would pickle them and eat them in the summer! For these reasons, I am thinking about growing Chicago Pickling Cucumbers (It makes sense based on my history with growing and pickling cucumbers in Chicago with my grandmother!).
ReplyDeleteThe cucumber will need full sun exposure, so it will need to be planted directly in the garden soil.
The cucumber needs to be grown late spring/early summer, mid summer.
It is estimated to take up to 58 days.
I love cucumbers, especially for the Spring and Summer months when something fresh and crisp fits the summer heat. I am thinking about growing Corinto cucumbers that can be planted in either greenhouse or field. Cucumbers should be grown when the soil is warm. It takes 48 days to produce a harvest from the time the seeds are planted.
ReplyDeleteI would love to grow some cilantro (pokey joe). It takes 55 days to grow. The catalog says it takes 55 days to grow. I looked it up and it says to start cilantro right in the garden. It can be harvested all season but should start in late spring.
ReplyDeleteI want to plant radishes (either variety would be great)! They grow super fast, in only 25 days, and like cooler weather so are perfect to start in the spring. Also apparently they should be planted right in the garden.
ReplyDeleteI'm not gonna lie, the most difficult part of this class is deciding what I want to do with my little corner of the farm. I think I'll want to plant cherry tomatoes. My family always had some when I lived with my parents back in China, and I miss them quite a lot! And I don't like the store variety; they taste like little rubber balls or half rotten depending on where I am getting them.
ReplyDeleteThe Sweet Treats breed sounds like the kind I had back in China (deep red color and very sweet), but I don't know if that breed will do well in the farm. So any breed that's sweet is good for me.
They could be planted in either locations, indoors or outdoors, but since cherry tomatoes are super sensitive to frost we should plant them indoors - at least a week should pass since the last frost, but this is Michigan.
We can harvest roughly 6-8 weeks after we plant them, so roughly early summer if we start now.
Magda (Zucchini)-- I think it can be planted right into the soil? But since it needs to start late spring, maybe we can get them started inside? Not sure.
ReplyDeleteThe catalog says it needs 48 days (~7wks)
I plan on growing radishes and carrots, two of my favorite vegetables. In addition to enjoying the taste and appearance of these two plants, I also enjoy the idea of an unseen source of food growing beneath the ground, out of the sight of humans. Most of the radish varieties grow in 25-35 days and grow more vigorously in cooler weather (early spring). The smaller carrot varieties take a little longer than radishes to finish growth and the larger ones take about 55-60 days. I also started two rows of a hybrid variety of turnips, so that I can compare the development of the three root vegetables. The radishes will definitely be ready by the end of the quarter; the carrots and turnip on the other hand, may not be fully ready by that time, but with the help of some synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, it shouldn't be a problem (just kidding about that last part). All three plants seem to be able to withstand the elements better than some, due to the fact that they're root crops, so planting all three at the current time will hopefully work. I planted all three varieties indoors so that they can transplanted later, but I also may try to plant those seed varieties directly into the ground, in order to compare the two methods.
ReplyDeleteI am thinking about growing strawberries, because once I was taking gardening class in my sophomore year, I picked one of the strawberry grown by professor, and that taste was so soft
ReplyDeleteAnd sweet, which is the best strawberry ever in my life. So I am very interested in growing strawberries as tasty as that one.
Strawberry seeds should be started indoors, kept in trays under bright fluorescent lights at a constant temperature of 18-24°C.
Strawberries could be sown in any time, but it is recommended to sown in winter.
Usually it takes 2 weeks to germinate, 4 weeks to bloom and 4-6 weeks to harvest. So in total it should be 2-3 month.
I finally decide to grow some Napa. The seeds should be started indoor since it needs the temperature around 70℉. Napa can be sown either spring or summer. During summer time the seeds can be directly sown in the garden soil. It take about 50 days to grow. The bigger the napa, the longer of time. It is an easy question but also a hard question. The catalogue contains bunch of different crops. I choose napa because it is common in my life. And it is easy to storage, and I do not need to worry about the expiration.
ReplyDeleteI realized I never posted for last week, but I have all the information so I may as well post now. I'm not sure if I will still get to plant things because I missed last week on the farm, but if I were to plant things I would choose carrots. My rabbit (who let's me live with him so that I can feed him veggies) and I love carrots. He likes the carrot tops for dinner and gets the actual carrot root as a treat and I often steam carrots for dinner. However, most grocery stores don't sell carrots with the full greens still attached, so I think it would be great to grow my own.
ReplyDeleteThe carrot varieties with the shortest time until harvest are adelaide carrots at 50 days or mokum carrots at 54 days full size or 36 days baby size. Both of these varieties can be sown in early spring but they're optimal temperature is right around 77 degrees F so they would probably be happiest if they were first planted indoors and then moved outside.