Starting Seeds

M0nday, March 12, 2012

Just in from a morning walk trying to get out into the field before the temperatures rose enough to melt the crust and no longer hold my "winter overweight" without snowshoes. My goal was to find a few birds nests left from last year to photograph for a later blog but despite always seeing birds, locating nests is not as easy as it might seem. There are a couple popular places further down Peacham Pond Road and I'll go there a little later when the snows melt more. For this morning I had to be satisfied with the beauty of the day and the freshness of the air.

Spring is not officially here for a while longer but today was a signal I tend to go by. I looked out at the hanging feeders and eight grackles had arrived and were fighting over the suet bags. The grackles always keep their big eyes in watchfulness for intruders and their hearing is better than mine ever was. Clicking on the camera was enough to frighten them away so I didn't get a picture today. I convince myself they are good scavengers but truly they are messy feeders just like blue jays. But they remind me of spring and after any winter, even one as mild as this one, thoughts of spring are nice thoughts.

As I grew up, we lived next door to a centruy old farm and the farm ladies were responsible for starting vegetable seeds for eventual transplants. The official day for planting tomatoes and peppers was Town Meeting Day, the first Tuesday in March. In later years the day made no sense to me as by the time of last frost the first week of June, the seedlings were very leggy and needed extra care to plant.

Now days greenhouses start plants according to computer profiles and they manage the last couple weeks before sale according to daylight and temperature. Those controls are far better than one of the farm ladies putting another log in the kitchen stove or moving small flats from window to window for more or less light. Just the same I have had the opportunity to follow all methods of production and as long as the end result is baskets full of tomatoes, who cares.

Tomatoes are a popular fruit and they always will be. In recent years there has been an insurgence of early and late blight and crops have been devastated. Part of this is getting the right tomato and the other part is good plant care.

The high tunnel greenhouse up top is an example of how growers have taken climate change out of the equation. There are giant greenhouses around the world that grow millions of tons of tomatoes internationally and the products are most often blemish free. The tomatoes that used to be described as "tasting like cardboard" now have very good taste as well as being capable of holding up to transport to distant markets. Hybridization has come a long way and will continue to improve world wide.

The middle picture is a row of Romas grown by a friend down the road from here. The year of this planting he lined out a row alongside his house in an attempt to better deal with temperature and water fluctuations. The theory provided a good crop of toomatoes which he always dehyrdated and then froze for year round use.

The picture of tomato seeds is of a tomato named Amsterdam. They were hybridized by a company interested in growing a grape type tomato that had good flavor and high sugar content. They are plum shaped and grow quite tall when trained vertically. They have a very high brix level which is the food industry's sugar measurement. In adition to their positives for sweetness and high output, then seem to be able to fight off current fungal challenges.

On a day like today you might be tempted to plant some tomatoes or peppers and you can. But I'd suggest waiting a little longer. If you persist and end up with leggy plants, you can always dig a trench of sorts and lay the majoritiy of the "height" into the trench and then upright the last 6 inches of plant. It will produce a major root system and catch on real fast. Do what seems right and report back to me sometime after July. Can you smell and taste the tomatoes yet?

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where morning sun is pushing the thermometer to almost 60° already. Get out and get a little sunshine.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also as George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm
Remember please: We'll always help you grow your green thumb!

Kingdom Farm and Field Days

Monday, August 22, 2011

60°, windless, dripping wet, quiet, darker than a pocket. The ground squishes from last night's heavy rains. Black clouds have little openings of light pushing through but it's 5:30 now and morning will come slowly. Karl the Wonder Dog was not interested in much of a walk and has already returned to sleep which he instantaneously accentuates with loud snoring. I do not understand him.

Yesterday I made a quick escape from the flowers and the clean up chores at Vermont Flower Farm and I headed to Wolcott for the Kingdom Farm and Food Days presentation at High Mowing Organic Seeds. I went last year and had a great time and I have tried to promote High Mowing and the other agricultural businesses that try so hard to help Vermont through very difficult times. Yesterday was just part of an excellent promotional program that started the day before with tours of many businesses. If you have never heard about this opportunity, plug a "do-not-miss" reminder into your calendar page right now so you don't miss another year.

I almost never grow vegetables because we are just plain too busy with five acres of flowers. Gail and I do most of our work ourselves and we have never found a day stretcher yet that worked for us. Just the same we buy local vegetables and every year Gail makes some attempt to grow some things for us. This year the string beans, summer and winter squashes, lettuces, bok choy, carrots, cukes and 4-5 types of tomatoes have done well despite neglect and difficult weather. But it's because of limited involvement with vegetables that I love to go see what Tom Stearns and his staff have to offer at High Mowing. You should go too!

I don't know what impressed me the most this year. There's always so much to look at and a number of excellent talks make the afternoon speed by. The bazillion varieties of lettuces, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants make me ask if there is an end to what is being hybridized. Winter squashes were in abundance this year and the tomatoes in the greenhouse demonstrations were special.

I used to eat a lot of peppers and loved hot peppers until I ran into a little conflict with a blood pressure medicine I take. Touring High Mowing is not easy for me as the peppers are glorious and many I have never seen or heard of before. A blocky, bright red one named Ferrari looked challenging but I know better than to get into hot peppers again. There is something special about a plant heavily burdened by fruits that weigh the branches and this was clearly a great year for peppers.


Visitors loved the lectures and the one on seed saving that had started as I arrived was very well attended. I have had the luxury of attending the winter workshops High Mowing offers and have seen all their seed processing equipment used as they process seed for sale. Obviously this is far different than a home gardener saving a few tomato or squash seeds but it's important to understand the whole process.

A field of white nicotiana planted next to soy beans, potatoes and string beans provided a sweet scent and a great color contrast that encouraged camera shutters to click away. One lady was obviously allergic to the fragrance but despite sneezes she moved along to view the zinnias and sweet pea flowers.
Lettuce and other salad greens are obviously in great demand and the demonstration plantings support this. As I walked the rows I was dreaming of a bowl of fresh greens, basil, cukes and tomatoes topped with my secret recipe of Dog Team Tavern Dressing. It was only a dream but a colorful one just the same.
Brassicas in an organic garden come with small clouds of cabbage butterflies but for the size of the field, there weren't really that many fluttering by. I love cabbage and somehow missed the presentation on making sauerkraut which I thought would be fun.

As I began to head back to the truck and back to my real job, I watched the lecture group circle the gardens and make their way back to the original entry point. I could hear Tom Stearn's voice from the distance and I knew that once again he had made a lot of people happy.
Try not to miss this great event next year. In a couple days I'll have a bunch of pictures up on my Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens Facebook page. Take a look--maybe Tuesday. Right now I have to get the truck loaded and get down to work. Stop by the flower farm if you have a minute today. Plenty of deals on bare root daylilies and other plants we're moving along. Still some very nice hydrangeas, ginkos, witch hazels and lilacs.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also as George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm
Let us help you grow your green thumb!

A Neighbor

Friday, August 27, 2010

A beautiful morning here on the mountain. I didn't get going as early as I wanted but Karl the Wonder Dog and I made a trip down the road and briefly up into the woods before returning home. He went back to bed and I checked Gail's car for her trip today. She and three friends are heading south to Olallies, a third generation daylily grower in Newfane Vermont. Olallie's has a reputation for growing some late bloomers and that's the intent of today's trip. I stopped there back in 2005-6-7--can't quite remember--and bought 20 daylilies that were budded or had just started blooming. Today they are massive plants, obsessively trimmed half way to the ground by two deer moms and their friends, but still great plants ready for dividing. Gail's absence for the day means I have to get going here and get to the nursery as "I am it".

I stopped at friend Mike's last night on the way home to leave off a birthday present for Michelle. I was greeted by Buck, the bantam rooster pictured up top. Buck may be small but his voice is growing every day! He was out and about with the other chickens cleaning up insects for dinner.

I took a minute and looked at Mike's tomatoes and peppers, still blight free. This year Mike planted them along the house where it is warmer and he put down dripper hose before covering the area with landscape fabric. Just recently he had to put up some fence to keep the chickens away from the ripening tomatoes.

The roma tomatoes are so heavy on the vine that Mike pounded in 6 foot rebar and tied the vines up. The tomatoes are coming along nicely now and there will be plenty to dehydrate and store for winter. A couple months back, I gave Mike a plant of Black Krim that was sent to me by a grower to test. Mine at the nursery succumbed to blight but this one of Mike's is doing very well. Still no darkening of color as the name implies but it's coming! Note the hierloom shape.

The romas are Mike's favorite for putting away for winter soups and stews. He can pick some every day now as they ripen. We have a week of hot weather coming from today on so the tomatoes should do well.

Karl is barking at something outside so guess it's time to resolve that issue and get to work. Great day to get out and about. If you have some time, stop and see me at the nursery. Plenty of fall plants to consider. If you happen to be traveling Route 302 through Groton today between 2-8 PM, stop at Artesano and try some Munson's Maple ice cream, tour the gift shop or purchase a freshly bottled, locally handcrafted mead. Nice folks, nice products!

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the sun is getting stronger like the voice of a lone raven sitting outside my office window.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm

The Snows of Spring

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Already afternoon here on the mountain. Gail and I gave up on working outside today and she just left for Montpelier with a list of errands and a load of recycling. Hard to believe that yesterday I was working at the nursery in a T-shirt and shorts and during the past hour the temperature here dropped 5 degrees with a promise of snowfall by 3 this afternoon. Reports have already arrived of snow falling in a band from south of Williston through Bolton Flats and on up past Morrisville. Accumulation could amount to 6"-12" depending on how much water gets pulled out of the Atlantic. Last night's weather report said that if that happens, high elevations may receive more snow and Jay Peak on the Vermont-Canadian border may reopen for weekend skiing. Saturday is now estimated at 65-70 degrees...another weather roller coaster!

The seed industry is a marvel now days although I always need to issue the cautionary note about how understanding genetics has led to genetic engineering and modified seed which almost talks to the gardener. On one hand it's scary and on the other it's interesting and rewarding.

Tomatoes are a crop known the world 'round and loved by many. Last year I wrote about a trial I ran with Tomaccio's, the Sweet Raisin Tomato, hybridized in Israel using a wild cherry type with a mature height of over 7 feet there. I wrote on my former blog, Vermont Gardens how amazed I was with the packaging used to mail me a starter pack of plants. Last year was the worst year in history to try to grow tomatoes in Vermont but these cherry tomatoes grew well and produced nicely. They never made it to 9 feet tall but clumps (also called brix) of tomatoes kept me in business as I worked late at the nursery and needed a quick snack. My comments on this tomato are still available at the old VG site. Take a look.

This year there's a new tomato on the block (packet pictured above). It's Sweet Treats and it's the work of the Japanese seed company Sakata. Sweet Treats is a pink cherry tomato favored in the Far East because of its sweet flavor and balanced acidity. Sakata's marketing info says "good aroma, good texture and great taste."

The company brochure shows the stages of ripening and explains when to pick the fruit for long distance shipment, local shipments or farmers markets, or home gardeners use fresh from the garden. Here's their chart.

So whether you use Tomaccios, Sweet Treats, or one of the many tested cherry varieties on the market, I'm sure that you will find a fruit for your needs. I'll be growing some Sweet Treats at the nursery this year along side some more Tomaccios. It should be an interesting competition!


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the only noise is from Alex slamming the back door as he heads out for his dog sitting duties. Bark, bow-wow, bark! Snowfall just began here.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm; Thanks for the two gift certificate orders that arrived today!!
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