Meadowwood Garden » Coldprairie Chronicles

The Coldprairie Chronicles Part 4: Outdoors Finally!

Meadowwood Garden — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:13:01 +0000

The continuation of Tatiana’s series that follows the highs and lows of her very first vegetable gardening season. Will her dream of fresh, great tasting produce be realized? Be sure to read the Coldprairie Chronicles every two weeks to find out!

If your seedlings were started indoors, they will need a long period of adjustment, or hardening off before they can face the elements outdoors. Plants that are sheltered from wind, sun and chilly nights should not be transplanted unprepared or they will go into shock. Their growth will be set back by a week or two and the fragile ones may die.

The stems of plants need a bit of exercise daily, which is why it’s recommended that the stems of tomato plants in particular get brushed by hand each day. This simulates wind and promotes tougher stem cells and sturdier plants. The delicate leaves grow broad and wide to absorb all the light they can, and they actually need time to restructure their chlorophyll cells, and become more narrow to absorb the right amount outdoors. Unfiltered sunlight which they haven’t seen is enough to burn tender leaves.

To harden plants you simply take them outside for a longer period each day. Start with placing them in the shade for a couple of hours, then bring them in. Increase the length of time spent in the shade until about three days later they are out all day. Then place them in the morning sun for an hour, and put them in shade for the rest of the day. Increase the time in the sun until they are outside all day. The process should take about ten days, and your plants will be much much better off because of it.

Maxi-kap Tomatoes

Because of our ridiculously long and cold spring (we had snow two weeks ago), the first things that were able to go outside were my tomatoes. I planted them in self-watering containers, very much like the Earthbox, both due to lack of space, and to ensure they are always well watered and fed.

Greenhouse

All of the smaller stuff went to live in a small portable greenhouse – just plastic over a wire frame. The peppers, zucchini, cukes and strawberries still had a little ways to go before the nights get warm enough and it serves well as a cold frame to help them get hardened and ready to plant.

Hopefully very soon the night temperatures will climb to around 10C or 50F(at least), and I can get the all the remaining veggie plants in the ground.

Tatiana also writes about gardening and many other interesting topics over at Coldprairie. Be sure to visit and check it out! Want to offer Tatiana some advice or words of encouragement? Leave her a comment below — she will be thrilled you did!

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2011 All Rights Reserved.

The Coldprairie Chronicles Part 4: Outdoors Finally!

The Coldprairie Chronicles Part 3: Caring for Seedlings

Meadowwood Garden — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:00:29 +0000

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been waiting impatiently for the seeds to sprout, checking on them twice a day and worrying that they’re taking too long. But eventually they do sprout and there’s nothing like the joy of seeing a tiny sprout unfurl its two tiny first leaves. Which are actually not leaves but cotyledons (kot-ah-lee-don if you’re like me and have no idea how to pronounce that). Cotyledons provide the young plant with food until it gets enough strength to begin photosynthesis.

To photosynthesize properly your young plants will need light, and a lot of it. If your windowsill is getting less than six hours of direct sunlight, then it probably won’t do. In my part of the continent that meant grow lights, and I found a great T5 fluorescent bulb at the local garden centre. Fluorescent bulbs don’t get hot which means they can be placed only inches above the young plants providing them with more light. Get at least a 25W to give them enough light, and the great news is you don’t need a special hood or chain or stand for it. I balanced the tube right above the seedlings on yoga blocks and it hovered about two inches above them which worked very well. Plan to have the light on at least 16 hours and turn it off at night – that’s when plants do their growing.

Grow Light Setup

What is the danger of not enough light? Typically seedlings that don’t receive enough light get ‘leggy’. Trying to stretch toward the window they grow too fast, and their thin weak stems may fail to support them and they flop over and die. Light is food, so if you’re going to bother to grow from seed you might as well spend the few dollars to get a proper light.

Most plants that need an early start are heat-loving like tomatoes, cukes, peppers and eggplant, which means that they will also appreciate a reasonably warm environment during the day. During the night they should be kept cooler which probably meshes well with how most people keep their homes.

As the seedlings got a bit bigger, right around the time they develop their second set of leaves, I started to fertilize them, since the seed starting mix they’re growing in doesn’t have many nutrients. The danger with young plants is overfertilizing, so most books recommend a one half to one third strength dilution of kelp and fish fertilizers, about every week or two.

When the tomato seedlings get three inches tall or so, gently brush the tops of the plants with your hands once or twice a day. This will exercise their stems making them stronger and more resilient for when they get to go outside. Weak tomato stems that encounter strong winds for the first time may go into shock and get too much wear and tear. Some people even set up tiny fans to blow gently on them for a bit each day. I adore the smell released when I brush the plants though, so that’s the way I provide them with exercise.

The final step in caring for young plants before transplanting is to harden them off. The reason for this is to prevent transplant shock which will not only set back the growth by at least a week, but also stress the plant, reduce your future harvest, make them more susceptible to pests and diseases, and in severe cases kill them. Plants need time to adjust to cooler temperatures and fluctuations, unfiltered sunlight (which can burn tender leaves), and wind which can wreak havoc on the stems and leaves.

Sources differ widely on technique, but the idea is to take the plant outside and place it in a sheltered spot in the shade for about 15-30 minutes to let it feel the great outdoors for the first time. The next day you can place it in the shade for say an hour. Roughly double up the time they spend outside each day, with the idea of them spending the whole day out in the shade after several days. If the plants are not showing signs of distress place them in direct sun for an hour or two and slowly increase the time spent outdoors until they spend an entire day outside. The process should take a week or two depending on climate.

Most guides recommend transplanting on a cloudy day or by planting in the evening if sunny weather prevails. Be on standby with a shade cloth or a cover for a cold snap, and water deeply. Since by now I am just beginning to harden the plants, I will keep you posted on the process.

Thanks for reading! Next updates will be in real time.

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2011 All Rights Reserved.

The Coldprairie Chronicles Part 3: Caring for Seedlings

The Coldprairie Chronicles Part 2: Starting Seeds

Meadowwood Garden — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:00:30 +0000

Hello again – it’s time to start some seedlings!

The two gardening books that I found invaluable for a beginner, inexperienced gardener were: The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible: Discover Ed’s High-Yield W-O-R-D System for All North American Gardening Regions, as well as Gardening When It Counts by Steve Solomon

Both are simply excellent resources and when combined, contrive to answer all your gardening questions and guide you step-by-step guide to a successful result.

There are some very good reasons to start your own plants from seed. First, as Steve Solomon explains, the garden center may not have the healthiest transplants. A healthy seedling should have a healthy root system, be properly hardened off, be a good variety for the local conditions and be the right variety for the home gardener. Secondly, it’s plain fun to watch things grow. To watch a tiny seed turn into a luscious plant with nothing more than water is magic and alchemy. Third, and I suspect this is a very common reason the further north you go – it gives the gardener something to do while the weather is still not cooperating outside.

So even though I’ve killed several houseplants over the years, I bravely ventured forth and planted some heirloom seeds. And trust me – if I can do it, so can you.

Most seeds should be started 2-8 weeks before they go outside, so you’ll have to refer to each plant growing guide for specific info.

First – you take some peat pods.

Coconut Pod

Then a seedling tray. I’m starting ONE zucchini plant. Don’t laugh – I hear they’re prolific. So I’m using a tiny food container as a tray. Any plastic dish will do. And some water.

I also advise some vermiculite – you won’t see it in any book, but trust me on this one.

Vermiculite

Spread a healthy layer of vermiculite on the bottom of the seedling tray. Place the peat pods inside, and water in a slow trickle over and over again until they expand in size to about 1.5 inches. Gently drain the excess water from the tray.

Mini-Seedling Tray

Using a pencil make a small hole in the middle of the peat pod and plant two seeds at the recommended depth. You’ll see this info on the seed packet.

Zucchini Seeds

Then tap the peat firmly into place over the seedling to ensure it has good contact with the soil. The moisture in the soil will allow it to begin germinating. The reason you plant two is in case one is a dud. It’s always easier to overplant and thin the seedlings later than to not have enough plants later.

Seed Pot with Seed

Place the lid over your garden-to-be and put the tray in a warm place, say on top of the fridge. Most seedlings require warm and moist conditions to germinate so people improvise – some place them in a sunny windowsill, other in the oven (off of course). The vermiculite has absorbed a lot of water at this point and will help to keep the seedlings moist and provide moisture from the bottom. Kind of like a much more expensive watering mat.

Begin checking your seedlings twice a day after about three days. As soon as they start sprouting place them under a grow light, or if you’re lucky and get more than four hours of sunshine per day, in your sunniest window. Seedlings MUST have about 6 hours of sunlight per day, and 12-18 hrs under a grow light for optimal development. Otherwise they will stretch trying to reach the light, become thin, pale and weak – called ‘leggy’ in the gardening circles, and will often flop over and die. With adequate sun you will have sturdy, bushy, green plants that will grow much better veggies down the road.

Stay tuned for seedling care!

The Coldprairie Chronicles: Adventures in Dirt

Meadowwood Garden — Mon, 11 May 2009 22:08:42 +0000

Meadowwood Garden is excited to introduce this guest post by Tatiana, which is the beginning of a series of articles that will follow the highs and lows of her very first vegetable gardening season. Tatiana lives in a very challenging climate for vegetable growing as you will read about shortly. Will her dreams of fresh, great tasting produce be realized? Be sure to read the Coldprairie Chronicles every two weeks to find out!

Hello Meadowwood Garden readers!

I’m very excited to meet you, and tell you a bit about gardening in a vastly different climate than most of you are in. I won’t say we’re hugging polar bears up here in Calgary, Alberta, but with flurries forecast for tomorrow – we’re not far off.

I came to gardening by way of eating with my main motivation being to discover just what fresh picked produce tastes like. Like many others I am uninspired by out of season offerings at the supermarket with its woody strawberries and grassy tomatoes. Farmers markets fare a bit better with a greater variety and tastier produce but I was still seduced by the desire to taste a real vine-ripened tomato, to pick and shell fresh peas fresh off the vine, to eat something warmed by the sun and harvested at the height of flavor. Not to mention the fact that all the best varieties for eating are not the greatest at shipping. A commercial decision where taste often loses.

After reading about small farmers and gardeners for years but not really feeling motivated to start one, something finally clicked last winter when I realized that suddenly I very much want to plant a small garden, of my favorite veggies, right now. I’m not sure why the time felt so right all of a sudden. Perhaps it was the deep November dusk that prompted me to pick up the gardening book I ordered the summer before. Maybe it was the realization that there are no rules – you can plant what you will eat and are not obligated to plant chard for instance, (sorry chard – just don’t know much about you), just because that’s what every gardening book says to plant. Or maybe it was simply the fact that for the first time I felt capable of caring for a garden – not feeling burdened by its routine needs and maintenance rituals, but looking forward to the time set aside to enjoy nature right in my backyard.

This is my very first garden, so I had a heap to learning to do. I’m not surrounded by green thumbed relatives, with only my aunt and uncle having a small lettuce and herb patch, so I had to rely on some good books to guide me on my way. Calgary has some pretty tough challenges when it comes to gardening – we have clay soil that would make excellent bricks, we have a very short growing season, we’re guaranteed snow or hail at least once every summer, and we are surrounded by hungry wildlife that makes itself at home on our lawns and in our parks.

Despite all the obstacles I forged bravely ahead with visions of summer bounty and a piece of paper which quickly filled out with a small list of my favorite things to eat: tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, zucchini, carrots, radishes, and lettuce. I threw in some strawberries as an afterthought. I figured I’d better start slow with just a few plants rather than kill my fledgling enthusiasm with biting off more than I can handle and giving up on the project later.

Given our late frost date – May 23 by the calendar, but June 1 by common experience, my seedlings would not need to get started until about April. Which gave me just enough time to procure all the supplies necessary to get started – seeds, a starting container, peat pods, and a T5 fluorescent grow light – an absolute necessity this far north.

Coming soon — the Coldprairie Chronicles Part 2 — the starting of the seeds!