Getting a jump on the season: Carrots

Well, I've been doing some complaining about not starting early enough, and here I find out I started my carrots too early - let me back up.

A friend of mine introduced me to a local gardening power team, Gene Bazan and Tania Slawecki. I've visited their impressive production system twice now, and brought home lots and lots of ideas, some more feasible than others given the attention I can afford to dedicate to the garden realm. You can read more about their system at neo-terra.org.

One of these ideas was to start carrots in flats rather than direct seeding them. Typically, this is ill-advised because the carrot root is so fragile and transplanting is so tedious. But Gene succeeds, and there are certain advantages. Carrot seeds take quite a long time to germinate (2-3 weeks) and the soil must be maintained evenly moist during this period. I accomplished this one year (or perhaps the weather cooperated) but other seasons, especially summer planting for fall harvests, I have not managed to get out there and water regularly enough to assure carrot germination.

This year, I thought I'd give Gene's method a try - and I was thrilled with the results. A high rate of germination in just 4 days! I moved the flat (a reused plastic organic spinach pack from the grocery store) out to the cold frame for better light.

But having sprouted 3 weeks ago, none of the seedlings have true leaves. All of the cotyledons are a beautiful healthy shade of green, they just don't seem to be growing.

So I started investigating light and temperature requirements (great article from Plant Pro here) and asked Gene for more guidance. Here's what I learned:

1. Carrots develop the root length in as little as 3 weeks.
2. Carrots develop the root length within the first 50 days.
3. "An increase in early storage root length after emergence is favoured considerably by constant temperatures of 20 or 24°C." (20c=68F)
4. "Preferred growing conditions for most carrot cultivars are warm day and cool night temperatures and this usually provides the best combination of root length and diameter."
5. Gene starts his seeds around March 30th to transplant May 4th (State College, PA dates)
6. When transplanting, Gene's seedlings are about 2" tall and have ~4 true leaves.
7. To transplant Gene inserts a narrow trowel, pulls the prepared, finely textured soil back, and drops the 2-3" long taproot straight down into the void behind the trowel before pulling it out and settling the soil.
8. Gene's preferred are Danvers and Danvers half-long for heavy clay soils.


But I'm still not quite to the bottom of why my carrots aren't sprouting true leaves. Clearly, I started them too early, about a month earlier than Gene. But the Plant Pro article seems to say they like warm days and cool nights, which is about what they are getting in the cold frame - although nights may be too cold? We have been having the steadiest string of gray gray days. Light definitely could be an issue.

Verdict? Since they haven't actually died, I'm going to allow the experiment to play out. I'll keep them in their flats, in the cold frame until they sprout leaves, or until the seeds I'll start this weekend (on Gene's schedule) beat them in the race. There's a definite chance they won't win this competition, but I've always had a hard time pulling a living plant - except dock, but that's another story.

Garden Calendar Revisions

Argh... Am I ever going to be on time?

This year I knew I wanted cold frames, but didn't know I would actually pull of deploying them. That came relatively late, and the seed order went in late, and now I have cold frames at a time of year when they could be housing harvestable crops, but my seedlings don't even have their first true leaves!

I've added dates to the garden calendar to remind myself next year that that seed order must go in by January 2, in order to start the seeds mid-January (yes, even though it feels too early), so that transplants are ready to go in the box by mid-february, so that we could be eating the stuff RIGHT NOW!

the calendar

I haven't exactly been keeping up with that calendar off to the right, but I did finally get some things started.

I started 12 of Fedco's Winter Mix on Monday (3/4) and with nearly 100% germination by Friday (3/8) I'm looking forward to the 6-7 week harvest estimate. I wish I'd started them earlier, because the cold frame is ready for them now.

I started a plastic organic spinach tub full of Scarlet Nantes carrot seeds on Monday (3/4) as well, and wonder of wonders - they are germinating already! I may never go back to direct seeding carrots.

Today I started the green onions, also in a spinach tub.

Tomorrow I plan to start collard, kale, chard, basil, and cilantro.

I sort of planned not to do too much starting indoors because it's a challenge to manage light and moisture for such a long period. But the chance to gain weeks on the harvest date is teasing me into trying it again. I may set up grow lights yet.

Cold frame #1

Two windows from the Restore ($10), salvaged redwood deck boards
(thanks Matt and Emma), Ace weather stripping ($7), digital
indoor/outdoor thermometer for the geek in me (had in a box in the
basement, probably $20).

Finished size is 48"x52".

The ground was frozen hard when I put it out this morning and the high
today was about 43 degrees. Can't wait for some sun.

Cold Frames

We are planning to deploy a cold frame this spring. Questions abound...

Use of Cold Frame:
Am I going to use the cold frame in the spring to start seeds in flats? (maybe)
Am I going to use the cold frame to get a jump on spring crops like lettuce? (yes)
Am I going to use the cold frame to protect a fall crop and extend the harvest into December? (yes)

Location of Cold Frame:
Site should get a lot of light when the sun angle is low, it should be in a place we don't mind seeing a box in the middle of the lawn, the soil needs to be prepared.

Design of Cold Frame:
Lid has to be strong glass, like a shower door, or polycarbonate or some other plastic so my son doesn't lose a limb if he climbs on top and falls through.
Box needs to be big enough to contain a decent greens garden in the fall. (Like maybe 4x8?)
Box needs to be tall enough to contain collards and chard at full height in the fall. (Ideally 2 ft)
Box needs to be accessible for maintenance.
Lid needs to be light enough to lift, but heavy enough not to blow off (or it needs to be secured.)
Lid must be able to be propped for venting.
Soil under cold frame might be bordered by foam board - like a foundation.
Lid options abound at the local Habitat for Humanity Restore. Wooden sash windows for $5, a bank of them would be nice. A full length glass door (~3ftx6ft) for $20. A nice wooden sash window 3.5' x 4.5' for $5. A couple 3 panel sashed windows with sliders...

Managing the Cold Frame:
Indoor/Outdoor thermometer with min/max thermometer to gauge the effectiveness of the cold frame to determine when things can be set out in the spring and when we have to harvest everything in the fall.
Heat sources can be christmas lights or 100 W bulb.
Box can be lined with foam board.
Blankets or other insulation can be laid out on especially cold nights.
Dark colored milk or soap bottles can be used to absorb heat in the daytime and radiate it at nighttime.

Crops for the Cold Frame:
Spring: lettuce. lettuce. chard. lettuce. carrots. spinach. green onions. arugula.
Fall: lettuce. chard. collard. leeks. arugula. escarole. green onions. cabbage.


References:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2007-12-01/Garden-with-Cold-Frames.aspx
http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/2504/cold-frame-gardening/page/all

Hoop house

Well, I had to give up on the hoop house. I don't know if it would have provided adequate protection against the cold if I had had a better bottom seal. I'm pretty optimistic about it though.

Without the bottom seal the temperature protection wasn't maximized, and wind kept getting under the plastic and lifting it up and off the arches. I couldn't keep up with recovering it.

So it was a good experiment and proved that, at least this year, we could have had decent greens and roots through December, at least. Stay tuned for the next experiment.

Still alive in a December garden

Walking around the yard today I'm impressed and surprised at what is still edible. Parsley, rosemary, thyme, and sage would still be useable, if I hadn't used it all already. Lettuce, chard, celery, carrots, and beets are all doing just fine inside a hoop house. Cabbage and brussels would be too if I had found the time and space for them in July or August. Thus is just a note to myself that it would be worth it next year. All this despite several 25 degree nights.