onions
The little starts greenhouse is up and running as well, heating up to 100 the last few days. Big greenhouse has been seeded with spinach, baby carrots, rainbow chard and some salad greens. The garlic is coming up from under the mulch, a full 3 weeks before the first garlic emergance of last year. Soon we will be starting trays of micro greens and culinary herbs, medicinals such as goldenseal . Goldenseal has to go through a stratification process, first standard germination heat to approximate last September and then a month in the fridge to replicate the winter chill.
Above is the high density onion planting. These trays are pretty much just Pro-Mix and a little compost. Heat mats for around five days to get a high % germination. If you are going to start you own onions, try buying a bulk pack, 1 ounce, for around 7 to 10 dollars from a real supplier - it is cheaper than store packets by a factor of around 40 to 1. For example, the Yellow of Parma seeds at Baker Creek is a good buy for some heirloom Italian seed while Everwilde seed has even better prices on other quality onion varieties. This will give you enough extra seed to get a nice dense set of onions and not waste your media.
Highlights include:
- Aunt Ruby German Green tomato. A variety that comes from the backyard garden of Ruby Arnold, a German immigrant who lived in Greenville, Tennessee. Her jumbo green tomato is our farm favorite.
- Blacktail Mountain watermelon. A variety developed by Glenn Drowns who runs the Sandhill Preservation Center. The perfect summer treat!
- Atomic Red carrot. Deep red color -- and completely safe to eat!
- Tigger melon. Perhaps the most colorful patterns you'll see on a melon.
- Dakota Tears onion. We're especially excited about this onion, a variety developed by David Podoll who is a master plant breeder from North Dakota. Their flavor is so robust, you will cry. Here are photographs of our Dakota Tears onions in soil blocks.
