Incredibly Cheap DIY Seed Starting Setup!

As we sit and hope that our incoming storms are big enough to fill our lakes, and not our floodplains, I've been running around thinking about nothing but gardens, gardens, gardens! Seed catalogs, garden layouts, germination temperatures, start dates for perpetual harvests; the list is endless! I can't wait for spring!

In order to get an early jump on the season and avoid the issues from last year when we lost nearly ALL of our starts to a mistake and a freeze; I opted to set up a cheap seed starting room over in the small engine shop.

I started with two shelves in a dark corner of the shop; piled high with forgotten boxes and random piles of books. I wish I had taken a picture before clearing it out, as half of the lower shelf was out of sight. But this picture, taken after cleaning and running electricity to the area will have to do.

You can see a combination hygrometer / thermometer in the right side of the photo. I wanted to test to see how wet and cold this corner got normally without lights or seedling mats, so I set this up the day before putting the area together. Overnight as the first of our storms hit, the corner varied from 49-52 degrees and 85-89% relative humidity. As damping off occurs around 90% humidity, I expect that I will have to do something about that before sprouting. I will wait to see what the addition of lights and soil heaters do to the humidity and will work from there.

In order to give a hint of insulation and reflectivity to the walls, I went for super cheap. I cut up a few used pallet bags from our pellet stove fuel. By carefully pulling apart the top seams and cutting the rest with a utility knife I was able to get two 3x15 foot white plastic sheets. I used a steel straightedge with the knife to cut away the freyed plastic and cut the pieces down to size. While the thin plastic will not do alot to keep heat in, I hope that since it is airtight, it will allow cold nighttime air to move down the wall to the ground without hitting the plants. I will know more by checking our temps tomorrow.

I reused some old rubber flooring for matting to cover the shelves and prevent water from the top shelf from dripping down onto the light below. I avoided cardboard and metal, since we would be dealing with electricity and water and figured to keep a second conductor out of the mix. I know they will be well separated, but hey; better safe than sorry.

For the lights, I used two types. One is a $10 4' fluorescent shop light fit with two full spectrum bulbs. The two lights above are 8" reflectors (like brooder lights) fitted with 150w Gro-Spot floodlights. (Which we hope to have in stock sometime this week.)

The idea is that I will use the low intensity fluorescent for seed starting, and then move more developed plants under the gro-spots. The grow spots are clamped onto an old six foot piece of 1"x1/4" flat steel, fittid into place with deck screws so I can adjust lap height as I go. I also have the ability to add three more lights if needed.

49-52 degrees is a bit cold for some of the plants I want to get a head start with, so I added two seedling mats. The seedling sprouter single and two tray mats. (19.99 and 39.99 respectively) they will raise the soil temperature 10-20 degrees above ambient, so we should be getting 62-72 degrees at peak. I'm hoping the lights will keep the area a bit warmer as well. (Again, we will see as we go)

I opted out of a timer for this set up, since seedlings are going to need about a 14 hour cycle. Since I'm here from 730-4, I should be able to go the first week by simply turning ont he lights when I leave and off when I get here. There is nearly no ambient light in the corner, so I am not worried about darkness during the day.

To set up a simple 72 seed starter kit of your own, drop by and pick up the following:
8" Reflector - 8.99
150w Gro-Spot bulb - 10.99 (back-ordered as I write this, expected in by Feb 1st)
Super Sprouter Seedling Heat Mat - 19.99 single tray, 39.99 double
Seed Starter Green House Kit - 6.99

Alright, lets grow!

MCFS Garden Planner!

Now that the first of the year has come and gone, I have my eyes firmly set on spring. Planning the upcoming garden, getting seeds selections set, preparing for chicken arrivals, and a ton of other things. Even on a cold rainy day like today, the work begun now in preparation for growing season keeps sunshine in my mind.

I sometimes have a hard time keeping things organized, and my seed start plans are generally an incomprehensible mess of chicken scratch in one of my pocket notebooks. This year, with multiple gardens under my care, I have dedicated myself to at least making organization easier. To begin with, I created a very simple spreadsheet to track both indoor and outdoor start dates based on the last frost.



This easy to use spreadsheet will automatically fill in calendar dates to start your seeds. Just look for the blue and yellow boxes and put in your first and last frost dates and the calendar will update to give you an idea on when to get those seeds going.

To find historic first and last frost dates for most major cities in California (even Ukiah is in there) you can visit the California master gardener webpage. Other states can be found through your county extension web pages.

MCFS-Garden_Planner [Excel Formatted]
MCFS-Garden_Planner[Open Document Format]

If you lack a spread sheet program, you can download one for free from www.openoffice.org that will open the Open Document format.

Happy planting! And please feel free to contact us with suggestions and corrections!

Winter Garden Ammending

This time of year, as our bodies adjust to the onset of another chilly Mendocino winter, it is easy to want to hide inside by the woodstove and let the garden do its own thing through the winter. However, with a little bit of work now, you will be rewarded in spring with stronger, more fertile soil with much less overall work. The key is to let the winter freeze and thaw cycle do you work for you.

The first thing to do is to check your soil nutrient levels. A simple $20 test kit will set you on the right path. Once you have a rough idea of your soils needs, it is fairly easy to lightly work soil amendments into the ground, and let frost heave and winter rains finish the job. While it is not recommended to add nitrogen until spring, you can boost your phosphorous and potash levels now with great results, especially if using more slow release organic nutrients like greensand, bone meal or wood ashes.

Now is also a good time to dump a bit of compost into your beds to get the earthworms working again to disperse your amendments. Once you add your nutrients and compost, plant a simple cover crop to be tilled down in spring. Not only do cover crops fix nitrogen in the soil, when tilled down in spring, they boost the organic matter in the soil giving a strong boost to the microscopic culture in a spring time bed.

All About Onions and Garlic

We get alot of questions about planting onions and garlic. here are two articles from the newsletter which should help out!

A Bit about Onions and Garlic
October means the arrival of another years worth of garlic and onion seeds! Planted in the fall, with enough time to set root before the first frost will assure a decent. If you lack the space to have a dedicated bed for garlic and onions, try planting them in along the perimeter of raised beds. They can repel certain insects and even deer.

To plant garlic, break bulbs into individual cloves before planting. Plant at 8” intervals, with the pointy side facing up. Set aside smaller cloves for eating, as the small cloves will produce small bulbs. While garlic will grow in nearly any soil, it loves loamy well-drained earth packed with organic matter. A winter mulch stops frost heave which can sheer off the young roots as the plants winter over.
Onions

Planting onion sets is as simple as sticking them in the ground and covering with a quarter inch of soil. They can be closely planted in fall and thinned or transplanted in spring. For ideal growth, start at 3” apart and thin to 8” after the last frost. For better growth, trying mixing either super-phosphate fertilizer or bonemeal into a few inches of the soil before you plant. For particularly pungent onions, try adding a small amount of sulfur; being careful not to upset the PH of your soil.

A Bit More about planting Onions and Garlic

Onions have been grown since prehistory, and was one of the first plants cultivated by our early agrarian ancestors. Ancient texts rave about the legendary mildness of ancient Egyptian onions, and one finds mention of the savory crop in the pages of Aristotle and Plato.

Onions like rich, fertile, well drained soil. The top soil should be deep and humus rich for best growth. Heavy soils can be corrected with the addition of peat moss, well composted horse manure or other organic matter.
In order to plan your crop, remember that one pound of onion sets is roughly enough for a fifty foot row. Choose sets roughly dime sized or larger, as smalled sets will produce weak, tiny onions. Plant onions in their natural position, with the fine root hairs facing downward two to three inches apart in the row and cover with a quarter inch of soil or sifted compost. When spring arrives, smaller less robust plants can be thinned for use as spring onions or green onions.

Most onion varieties mature in about 100 days, marking their maturity as their tops gradually fall to the ground. When most tops are down, it is common to knock down the remaining tops with the back of a rake. (We used our dogs for this last year, but not on purpose) two or three days later, onions should be pulled and left to sit on the ground for another couple of days of curing in the open air.

To plant garlic, break up a bulb into individual cloves and plant with the hard neck facing downward, and the pointed tip facing skyward. Garlic loves the same soil types as onions, and should be planted with four to six inches between plants and a foot between rows.

Should your plants grown higher than six inches before the first frost, a heavy mulch of straw or other insulator is advised to lessen the effects of frost heave, the shifting of frozen soils that can shear off the young roots of onions and garlic sets.