Good morning to our friend, the classic Alberta Clipper. It’s a little chilly to work in the greenhouse today, with a nice layer of sticky snow covering it and struggling to get up to 10C, but we’ve got everything growing under wraps at a nice toasty 23C. It is hard to imagine that last year, 7 days from now, I was seeding carrots.
I’m supposed to plant some stuff today, eggplants and lettuce on the schedule, but I think I’ll wait until tomorrow, or at least till the sun comes out.
There’s a few germination issues this year, with onions and rosemary. But these problems seem to come our way every year. Onions seem to have a hit-miss germination rate, with some varieties faring better than others. We plant them in trays of 192 cells, and when the germination rate is say 60%, it looks pretty empty. There’s a lot of spaces and at 50+ trays it looks pretty disappointing. The other issue is that we always, always get a chlorosis issue with onion seedlings, regardless of soil mix we use. So what causes that, I have no idea. But after about 6-7 years of trial and error on this I’m about done. The fix for onions is simple: order 2x as much seed as I require, and plant in flats instead, with a small amount of base fertilization. Rosemary though seems to be as famously finnicky as ever. We have enough for what we need but I wish I wasn’t biting my nails hoping they come up.
Launching YouTube
Help the new channel out by subscribing and sharing with anyone you know would like to see more of what happens at the farm!
This first video is a sort of mission statement, but readers will already be on the up and up as I recently wrote about the new camera a couple weeks ago. I’ve been testing the camera out and enjoying it quite a lot, and so the the shots in this first video is all my new-camera-test-footage, which I think turned out pretty great.
At this time I’m thinking I’ll post a new video every two weeks, as I don’t want to get overwhelmed with shooting footage and pushing videos, especially as the season progresses and I have less and less time. I’m enjoying taking photos and videos for now and for the start of this YouTube project, I’ll just focus on enjoying that aspect of it, and finding a narrative in which I can show that footage. It will be a more visual way to see the life and beauty of the farm and follow along.
This blog won’t be going anywhere, as there is plenty to write about and problems and successes I come across during the season as I work through them.
Gotta wait for the snow to melt, the carrots won’t plant themselves!
Graham
thanks for reading complimentary blueberry juice
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