More Chicken Coop Anatomy

Yesterday we posted this photo about our field trip to the in-progress chicken coop.

Clearly, Bruce has been busy.

Here's today's view, with the three nesting boxes built out on that same wall. In final form, a hinged door will allow the hungry omelet maker to lift and remove eggs.

Here's an inside look showing the perchlike board edge chickens will land on. From there it's a quick hop into one of the nesting boxes lined with fluffy bedding for a comfortable egg landing.

Indoors under the shop lights, our half dozen basil varieties are up. Click to enlarge and view the Purple Dark Opal basil from Seed Saver's Exchange, already revealing its genetic destiny.

Transplanting Seed Starts: 10 Reasons It's A Powerful Experience

1--Working with friends on the 2011 food supply.
Jessi, Bruce, and I transplanted seedlings last weekend. See the plants in their tiny cells, ready to move up to larger pots? We used a fork to gently lift them (from under their roots) and tuck them into their new homes, in threes. Just two weeks ago Bruce started the seeds under lights.
 


2--Viewing the energy in a seed.
Look at those vigorous roots: the extraordinary power of seeds on display. Nice job, Bruce, helping the seed fulfill its destiny in 13 days.

3--Because these fetal kale will look like this just weeks from now, ready to be hardened off, face the spring chill they love, and get planted in SIPs on our roof.

4--Plant diversity. 

We're growing some exciting new-to-us varieties this year, including Jester and Joker lettuces from Wild Garden Seed, Garland Serrated Chrysanthemum Greens (aka Shungiku) from Hudson Valley Seed, and vitamin greens from Bountiful Gardens. You'd never find these plant starts at a store in Chicago--I'm not sure anyone even sells starts for cool-weather greens.

5--Even if you have no tillable soil, transplants thrive in SIPs.
It's a beautiful thing if you have an in-ground garden that gets enough light to grow food. Most of the cool-weather seeds we're starting would come up on their own eventually in such a garden. But if you've got no well-lighted soil to dig, dig this: SIPs + cool-weather greens=massive amounts of vitamins in early spring, when lettuces, collards, and kale grow best.

6--Anticipation keeps hands moving. 
As usual, Bruce planted a couple seeds for every one we requested, resulting in lots of extras, meaning Jessi will have more varieties to try in her patch of the Hermitage Triangle Community Garden just across the street. Everything in the photo below was grown in a SIP.

 7--Checking on the chicks. 
Talk about a growth spurt. Click to enlarge, and note Bruce added a tree-branch perch at the back of their brooder.

8--People bring food to share.
Nice thing about people who grow food: they always seem to have something to share. Jessi's banana bread, my spring pea soup, and unshown, Bruce's pot of dal.

9--Loving the locals.
Good dog Carl! (Is he getting big or what?)

10--Comparing methods.
We promised to update you on the progress of the seeds planted using the winter seed-sowing method, discussed in this post. 13 days ago, on Feb 13, Bruce planted the seeds we just transplanted. I winter-sowed some hardy cool-weather varieties in my punctured spinach boxes on the same date and was excited to see the first sprouted seeds--arugula--on Feb 25. 

So, not far behind but for our purposes--planting out in SIPs--we need the accelerated indoor growth  to Get Those Greens onto our plates sooner. But I'll be harvesting these babies too. 

 What are you growing?

Bad News on the Tomato Seedlings

H2 came over and took some photos of the seedlings I started.






Not sure what's wrong with (some of) the tomatoes, but it doesn't look good.





About half of them are affected by some kind of lesion. Mold? Blight? Wilt? Mystery Funk? Take a look at Cornell's Tomato Leaf Symptoms Diagnostic Chart and let us know what you think. I'm leaning toward Bacterial Canker. If you want a second opinion, head over to the Texas A&M tomato problem solver.

About half of the tomatoes have been hit with this. After seeing how these diseases can wipe out full grown plants, we took plenty of precautions , e.g. bleaching old containers prior to using them, to prevent any kind of contamination from affecting our tomato seedlings. Somehow that wasn't enough. Right now only half of them show signs of being damaged, I'm hoping that the other half will stay healthy, but who knows.

A special note to those of you I was starting tomatoes for: While you might want to come look at our seedlings before writing them off, having a Plan B is a good idea. Here are a few other places that sell interesting varieties of tomato seedlings:

Green City Market Farmer's Market (every Wed and Saturday)

Kilbourn Park Organic Greenhouse Sale (May 15,16, and 19)

Grand Street Gardens

Lincoln Park High School Farmer's Market (every Sat.)


Some good news. The eggplants are going strong.


Peppers - anemic, but some new growth. They should make it.

Using Coir to Start Seedlings: A Cautionary Tale

In previous years, I've successfully started large numbers of seedlings in peat based potting mix. This year, in an attempt to move away from peat, I switched to a coir/perlite mix.

For reasons that aren't entirely clear, things aren't working as I'd hoped. One of the reasons for this post is to let readers who were counting on me to start their peppers and tomatoes know that the plants aren't in the best shape. For all I know, the plants will recover when transplanted into a peat based potting mix. That's my hope. If you don't want to take that chance, you might want buy your tomato and pepper seedlings elsewhere.

First, the good news. The eggplants look incredible. Even better than what in previous years I'd started in peat based potting mix.

About half of the tomatoes and all of the peppers look unhealthy. It would be easy enough to say that the coir is to blame, as it's the major difference between this and previous years; but with all the glowing reports on the benefits of growing in coir, it could just be that I bought a bad batch. Or that someone put peanut butter in my chocolate. (Huh?)

I've sent out a sample of the coir to a testing lab, but the results won't be back for a while. The peppers look anemic, though with a recent addition of gypsum (to make up for the nutritional deficiencies of coir), there is some promising new growth. The tomatoes have some funny looking lesions and aren't as "bushy" as they've been in previous years.

If you're looking for another place to pick up a few seedlings, a couple places that sell interesting varieties come to mind.

Green City Market Farmer's Market (every Wed and Saturday)

Kilbourn Park Organic Greenhouse Sale (May 15,16, and 19)

I've been hardening off my seedlings, and for those of you who haven't been discouraged by my post, they'll be ready for pick up starting this Saturday, May 15th.


I'll add some pictures tomorrow when I get my hands on a camera.

Get Yer Greens: Orders Ready for Pick-up + We Heart Hudson Valley Seed Library

Here's a two-fer:

First, your greens are ready for pick-up at Bruce's. And they are gorgeous (this is H2 testifying it's true.). In Chicago it's perfect weather for these babies to be planted outside. They love a good chill.



I'm just delighted with the Asian greens and other veggies coming up from my Hudson Valley Seed Library seeds. For your $20 membership, you get to choose ten seed packs. And their art packs make exquisite gifts.

Here are their Braising Greens.
I hope you ordered some because they are seriously good.

[click to embiggen]

Bits of Green

It's only been 9 days since I started these cold weather greens. In another week they'll be ready to transplant into grower pots. Three weeks after that, they'll move outside into either a greenhouse or a cold frame.

The First Seedlings Are Up

Most have germinated in the past few days, some only 4 days after I planted them. It's a nice reminder that the slush and snow of the past few days will be ending before too long.

Lettuce, spinach and chard.

Asian greens

My utility closet is warm, perfect to start seeds.

It would be a stretch to say that we had lunch to celebrate the tiny greens. We just like to cook for one another.

Art and H2 brought over a walnut/beet/rooftop greens salad to go with the Cauliflower Kofta with tomato/cashew gravy and spiced pilaf I made.

For dessert, a bitter orange cake. Good stuff.

Seed Starting List for 2010 - Warm Weather Plants

I'll start the warm weather plants, those that aren't direct seeded and are frost intolerant like tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and most herbs, the first week of March. By that time all the cold weather starts will have germinated and been transplanted to larger containers, freeing up the seed-starting trays for the second round of seed starts.

Last year's seedlings, hardening off.

I'd encourage everyone to start their own seeds. It's not that hard. Check out this post on Seed Starting for more info.

If you'd like me to start any (from the list below) for you, email me or leave a comment on this post by March 20th. I have space under my lights to start an extra 100 warm-weather plants. For $3 you'll get a 3-4" tall plant in a 4" grower pot. No delivery, you'll need to pick them up at my house, near Division and Wood Streets in Chicago. I did it last year and found it was a nice way to meet some of our readers.

I'm keeping track of all the starts on this Google Docs spreadsheet.

H2 made an inventory of all our old seeds. I added the few new varieties we've picked to grow this year and came up with this list.

In addition to some of our own saved seeds, we have seeds from:

Franchi (Seeds From Italy)
Hudson Valley Seed Co
Johnny's Seeds
Renee's Garden
Seed Saver Co
Victory Seed Co


Eggplant
• Pingtung Long
• Udumalapet
• Listada de Gandia
• Diamond
• Black Beauty

Herbs
• Basil 'Cinnamon'
• Basil 'Genovese'
• Basil 'Mrs. Burns Lemon'
• Basil 'Purple Dark Opal'
• Basil 'Lettuce Leaf'
• Bee Balm
• Black Cumin
• Borage 'White'
• Chickweed
• Chives
• Curled Chervil
• Dill
• English Lavender
• English Sorrel
• Greek Oregano
• Lovage
• Parsley
• Rosemary
• Saltwort
• Stevia
• Summer Savory
• Thyme

Peppers
• Carmen
• Napolean Sweet
• Pimento
• Purple Beauty
• Rooster Spur - hot
• Santa Fe Grande - hot
• Sweet Chocolate

Tomatoes
• Black Cherry
• Black Prince
• Brandywine Yellow
• Carbon
• Cherokee Purple
• Kellogg's Breakfast
• Matina
• Rose
• San Marzano
• Stupice
• Valencia

Direct Seed and/or Miscellaneous Seeds.

While these aren't for sale, I wanted to keep track of the other seeds we (might) use. It's amazing how many varieties we've grown in the previous three years.

Amaranth, Burgundy
Beans, Climbing French
Beans, Empress
Beans, Fin de Bagnol
Beans, Hidatsa
Beans, Red Swan
Beets, Bull's Blood
Brussel Sprouts, Catskill
Cabbage, Red Acre
Carrot, Scarlet Nance
Cucumber, Lemon
Cucumber, Sweet Armenian
Green Onion, White Lisbon
Kolhrabi, Delicatesse Blue
Melon, Banana
Melon, Delicious 51 PMR
Melon, Ha Ogen
Melon, Moon and Stars
Melon, Thai Golden Round
Morning Glory flower
Okra, Clemson Spineless
Purslane
Radish, French Breakfast
Scorzonera
Squash, Delicata Honey Boat
Squash, Erik K's Mystery
Squash, Summer Mix
Sunflower, California Grey Stripe
Sunflower, Giant Grey Stripe
Sunflower, Lemon Queen
Sunflower, Vanilla Ice

Seed Starting List for 2010 - Cold Weather Greens

It's time. Hard to believe with all the snow still on the ground.



We're starting our cool-weather (organic, heirloom) seedlings in the next two weeks. They'll be ready to move outside, under a cold frame or into an unheated greenhouse, in 4-5 weeks.

I'd encourage everyone to start their own seeds. It's not that hard. Check out this post on Seed Starting for more info.

If you'd like me to start any (from the list below) for you, email me or leave a comment on this post by the end of February. I have space under my lights to start an extra 100 cool-weather plants. For $3 you'll get a 3-4" tall plant in a 4" grower pot. No delivery, you'll need to pick them up at my house, near Division and Wood Streets in Chicago. I did it last year and found it was a nice way to meet some of our readers.

I'm keeping track of all the starts on this Google Doc spreadsheet.

We'll be starting the warm-weather plants, like tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers, around March 15th. I'll put a list up in a couple of weeks of those varieties. [Updated, link here.]

In addition to some of our own saved seeds, we have seeds from:

Franchi (Seeds From Italy)
Hudson Valley Seed Co
Johnny's Seeds
Renee's Garden
Seed Saver Co
Victory Seed Co


Many of our early-season starts could just as easily be direct seeded after it warms up. However, we've found that starting them inside extends our growing season/yield.

Here's a list of the cool-weather plants we're starting:

Arugula
• Arugula
• Wild Arugula

Asian Greens
• Baby Bok Choy
• Braising Mix
• Savoyed-Leaf Tatsoi
• Smooth-Leaf Tatsoi

Broccoli Raab
• 'Piracicaba'

Greens
• Chicory 'selvatica de campo'
• Collards 'Champion'
• Cress 'Upland'
• Cress 'Wrinkled, Crinkled, Crumpled'
• Endive 'Full Heart Batavian'
• Mustard 'Indian Mix'
• Mustard 'Red Giant'
• Swiss Chard 'Rainbow'

Kale
• Dinosaur
• Lacinato
• Lacinato Rainbow
• Red Russian
• Red Winter
• White Russian

Lettuce
• Black Seeded Simpson
• Carmona
• Green Salad Bowl
• Mesclun Mix
• Marveille des Quatre Saisons
• Paris Island Romaine
• Red Salad Bowl
• Red Velvet

Spinach
• New Zealand Spinach
• Spinach 'Bloomsdale'

Heirloom Seedling Update

We started our planning in February, I was putting seeds into potting mix not long after. I've been growing--335 seedlings to be exact--for 3 months and my body's telling me it's the middle of July.

H2 came over and took some great pics.








I barely have room in my seedling light rack to fit all the plants shown in the pictures above; an additional 160 seedlings have either been planted on one of our roofs or transferred to H2's rooftop greenhouse.

Coming up with a seed starting schedule that works off of our average last frost date and makes the most of our limited light rack space has been a challenge. It was a great learning experience; if you have the chance to do this with a few people you know, I'd encourage you to give it a shot.

March 22 Seed Starts

The first wave of seedlings are the cold-weather varieties, listed here by proper name and, while you're checking, for sale to anyone in the Chicago area who wants to come by.

Bruce has done a superb job of nurturing these babies to robust young adulthood. Check 'em out: Russian white kale, mixed mustard, and (yeah, it's my favorite because of its name and kick-ass bite) wrinkled/crinkled/crumpled cress.
We even have rosemary starts (upper right) and understand this plant is difficult to grow from seed. It sits on the tray with lovage, sorrel, and colorful fetal chard.
These cold-weather lovers include broccoli, Brussel sprouts, and collards.

Look at the roots on these kale--long and healthy and more than ready to go into a two-bucket sub irrigated planter (SIP).
This year I'm lucky to be getting a very early start on planting. Mr H2 gifted me with a cool little greenhouse for my birthday, and I've been up there happily planting up the SIPs and letting them acclimate inside. A good thing too. Check out our March 29 on-site Chicago weather:
Won't be long before we can move the planted SIPs outside the greenhouse to flourish in the 35-55 degree temps.