Peppers and Tomatoes

We just finished up setting our remaining flats of tomatoes and peppers to germinate. We set the seeds at 2 -3 times their seed size for seed depth and tried to put 2 seeds in each 2x2 cell. We learned a few tricks this time to speed the process. The longest processes is getting the potting soil to absorb enough water. This time Sara used a spray bottle and blasted water into each cell that was filled with potting mix. That was a big time saver and the process flew.
If things keep to plan like the last run we should have the tomatoes up in a week and peppers following. While we were setting our seeds we watched as a late March snow fell outside.

Drip Irrigation

We are going to try drip irrigation with our produce this year to help control moisture during the dry spells. I have submitted a design to a drip irrigation company and am awaiting the results/damage. The drip irrigation that we will be trying is called drip tape. It can be placed between 1 - 12" under ground or can be run on top of the ground. Water is emitted through emitter holes at specific spacings that allow the water to seep into the soil. This lets us water with very little evaporation. Yet another experiment for the 2009 planting season. I can't tell if that feeling in my stomach is excitement or nervousness. Maybe both...

Corn Stalk Bales

Spent some time yesterday baling corn stalks over at my brothers farm. He had left corn standing as food and cover for wildlife next to his CRP (not CPR) and WRP which are wild life habitat areas that he has on his farm. Anyway, he cut the standing corn down and we baled it for the Angus cattle. This will make good roughage and has some corn cobs in it with some corn on it as well. Cows are kind of picky when you put one of these round bales out for them. They like the leaves and cobs with any corn kernals on them, but they will pick through the rest and tend to leave it lay on the ground. Cows can't live on corn stalks because the nutrional value in the stalk is too low once it has dryed down to the brown that we see during harvest time, but our cows eat lots of alfalfa hay throughout the winter, which provides more nutrion than they need. So by giving them corn stalks every once in a while it keeps them from getting over weight.

Peppers

I moved the first batch of peppers from germination to the grow stand. It's 20 degrees cooler from where they were being germinated and when I moved them they all wilted from cold shock within about an hour. I checked them this AM and they were back up pushing for the light. Thought I had killed my first batch of peppers! We have a variety called Bell Boy that is a bell type and a banana type (cant remember the variety) pepper. The Bell Boy's took about 1 week to start germinating and the banana took a couple of days longer. I've had about a 98% germination on both our tomatoes and our peppers. Not bad.

Checking Fences

We checked the high-tensile fence perimeter yesterday. Only one spot had been hit by something - probably a deer - that pushed the strands together close enough to short the electric but no real damage. I just had to slide the strand holder down the fiberglass post and that was it. We saw quite a few pheasants down in the back field and a rabbit in the pasture. Even after a hard winter and lots of snow, our commitment to conservation through our land stewardship pays dividends in the spring! The farm wetlands didn't have any ducks on them, but they are full and flowing and we have seen the ducks and geese using them from when we've been out and around since they thawed.

Spring Fence Work

The ground has thawed enough to start working on some fence issues. Last fall we put in some new posts and replaced some others in our winter paddock areas. Thanks to our friends who were out pheasant hunting on the farm we were able to really expand our winter paddock area up into our front grove. Today we're digging up some electric fence wires that connect between gate openings for our high-tensile electric fence. Our high-tensile electric fence is based on an all fiberglass post system. This is how we're able to do rotational grazing for our pure bred black Angus cows. It has worked very well since it was put in several years ago and I would highly recommend that anyone putting in a new fence should consider it. We've had deer run into the fence at high speed and both the deer and the fence were shaken but not broken.

Produce

We started germinating our first run of produce about a week and a half ago. The tomatoes germinated in 3 - 4 days but the peppers took about 7. The peppers still haven't completed their germination so that haven't been moved to the sprout growing location. A few Roma tomatoes were left in a warmer location while we waited for some peppers that were in the same set to germinate and wow did they get leggy. The other tomatoes are short, healthy and look great next to the few long spindly ones. We'll start germinating our next set of produce in about another week. That will give us a couple of sets to hopefully extend our harvest, although here in NW Iowa the season is short enough that we expect plants like tomatoes to still be producing when frost takes them.

Cold Weather Work

The equipment maintenance has been pretty much completed. Tractor, balers disks etc have been worked. Anything that needed fixing or needed attention was worked on. It took weeks but now that its finished and spring is finally here, at least on the calendar, we can move on to spring things.