April Seeding

[greenstorm]

This went in the ground in the last week:

Cor Viriditas:

100 cells of the good-tasting promiscuous tomatoes harvested mid-Aug
140 sweet pepper seeds including sweet paprika and doe hill
100 hot pepper seeds including matchbox and black hungarian
25ish hot pepper mix from Metchosin seeds
A tray of holy basil from Metchosin seeds
Tomatillos from Metchosin seeds & E's saved seeds

up to 50 cells per type: KARMA miracle/zesty small green tomato
amaryllia tomatillo
exserted orange tomato
orange/red promiscuous bicolor late seed tomato
tomato mikado black
tomato lucinda

10 cells each of:
Silvery Fir
Tomato Minsk Early
Tomato Brad
Tomato Sweet Cherriette
KARMA purple/purple MF tomato (no number)

5 cells each:
Tomato Grocery Store Green Cherry
Tomato Galina
Tomato Maya and Sion
Tomato Golden Currant from Julia
Tomato Rozovaya Bella
Adaptive Seeds Tomato Uralskiy Ranniy
Early Annie
Metchosin Red Plum

Threshold:
48 cells northern mix -- everything that set seed last year up here
36 cells of the good-tasting promiscuous tomatoes harvested mid-Aug
12 cells of orange/red promiscuous bicolour
12 cells of Julia's solanum peruvianum

I cut back the dahlia coccinea and am rooting the trimmings

Plus I've been potting up the peppers.

I should start a tray of mixed greens, lettuces and kales and chards, to go out shortly. As it is we've had that snow, now it's heavy wind and some -10C on the horizon.

Comments

[yarrowkat]

are you (collective or individual you) planting at Cor Viriditas already, or for it?

[greenstorm]

Ellen is planting for it; I sent her the seed and we'll pop them in the Triangle when there is a Triangle.

[yarrowkat]

this is getting exicting!

[greenstorm]

Did I not mention the 38 apples, 15 chestnuts, half a dozen pawpaws, kolmikta and arguta kiwis, and muscat grapes I also ordered?

So exciting!

As is packaging up the seed for direct-seeding there, all the corns! and next, the squash!

[yarrowkat]

yes! i wasn't entirely following which plants were going where. it's extremely exciting! and, oooh, all those apples you'll have! you'll need to get a cider press.

will your short-cold-season corns do well in the less-cold wet grey, do you think?

[greenstorm]

So apparently Vancouver island has a mobile cider-press-and-sterile-boxing operation that A&E have been using for several years; they pick all their own apples, round up everyone willing to bring apples, and host so the van will come out, press, and then box everyone's apple juice. It will probably cost a little more to get them to come a few more hours but still. That service exists. And then the juice is shelf-stable for six months or so!

The coast has a deeply Mediterranean climate: wet for months (8-9) and dry for the summer (though still relative cool there). A corn that ripens in late September or October will be trying to dry down in daily rain; a corn that's short-season enough to ripen in August will probably not see a drop of rain all month. So I'm hoping they still grow, and then fit well into that seasonal pattern.

[yarrowkat]

nice! we have an informal tool-share with a bunch of other local farms, and there's a cider press (and a singletree & bolt gun, and disbudding tools, and maybe someday a large chipper) that gets passed around, so we do all the smashing and cranking ourselves. i love it; it feels like an ancestral process.