Let's Get Growing!

Can you guess what time it is?

We are excited to announce a new feature on the blog today! But first, just a quick reminder to our friends and followers in Zone 6 - you need to start your seeds for peppers, tomatoes, onions, and other heat-loving plants this week if you haven't done so already! (Find your growing zone here!) This week puts those of us in Zone 6 at the critical seed-starting time for plants that need a long warm season in order to fruit. You'll want to get seeds started for those types of plants now to ensure that they have approximately 8 weeks of grow-up time to be ready to plant as soon as the first frost date has passed. If you start the seeds too late, your plants won't have enough time to set fruit and produce before the cool season starts again in the fall. Also, pea planting will be just around the corner! My Pap-Pap Jack always planted his peas on St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) to ensure the best harvest as peas should be planted outdoors a few weeks before the last frost. 

Moving along, we'd like to give a warm shout-out to our good friend, Mary Jane Bigley who recently commented on our interest poll to let us know that she is very excited to have some land to garden but is looking for some beginner tips and hints. (Hi Mary Jane!!) Her comment gave us the idea to host a grow-along. So, here we go! We now declare an opening to the first annual Dusty Rose Micro-Farm Grow-Along! So, here's how it works. We'll be posting weekly updates on what plants we have started, what varieties we are growing, and share progress pictures of our plants as they grow and fruit. You share your planting/growing progress with us in the comments on our blog, via our Facebook page, or by email and we will feature your pictures and stories once a week in our weekly Grow-Along post! :) The Grow-Along post will be featured on our blog every Thursday. The exciting thing about this kind of community project is that even though some of us live in very different areas, we can all learn from each other and support one another along the way! So... Let's Get Growing!! :)

For our first contribution, I'll share our seed-starting setup and the varieties we've started this week. We've gotten our tomatoes and peppers started in our new and improved germination/grow-out station in the craft room. Our set-up is fairly simple. To house all the growing seedlings, we have the germination-station set up on a sturdy plastic storage shelf in our warm and cat-free craft room. We have a basic self-watering seed-starter greenhouse to hold all the seedlings until they need potting up. The greenhouse is placed about 2" under our new T5 fluorescent tube grow lamp. The whole setup cost under $100 and is very DIY-able, as you can see. We find that this setup saves space over bulky and often unnecessarily tall plant light stands that you can get from garden centers. Additionally, we have found that a warm room and ample light are usually enough to get seeds to sprout. Kits with heat-mats can be costly and from our experience, the heat mats may not make much difference in germination unless you are starting your seeds in a chilly location such as a garage, basement, or shed. If you are starting your seeds in a location inside your home, typical indoor temperatures are usually enough to ensure germination as long as you keep the seeds away from drafty or chilly areas.

It's the Germination Station!

This year, our tomato varieties are all seeds that we purchased from Botanical Interests and include Cherokee Purple, Ace, Principe Borghese, and Rainbow Cherry Tomatoes. The Cherokee Purple is a large heirloom beefsteak type tomato which has long been prized for its large size, excellent flavor and unique color. It was actually the first tomato to be classified under the category of "black tomatoes" due to its dusty red skin with a flush of green around the stem that combine to give it a purple hue. Ace are a smaller heirloom tomato with a lower acidity which make them a great choice for folks who get heartburn after eating other tomato varieties. They are also very well suited for fresh eating as well as canning and storing for later use. In addition, Ace are a bush type tomato, so the plants will be more compact and easier to manage than indeterminate vine type plants. Principe Borghese, an Italian heirloom, are also smaller tomatoes well suited for canning and sauce making. The Rainbow Cherry Tomatoes are a mixture of 7 different colored cherry tomatoes and should add some color and zest to our summer salads.

Even light distribution from our new fixture will make our seedlings strong and sturdy.

For our peppers this year, we chose Early Jalapeño, Greek Pepperoncini, Rainbow Bell Peppers, and California Wonder Bell Peppers. The Early Jalapeño are a variety that we tried last year from starts and had wonderful results with. The peppers fruited early and kept on producing right on up until our first frost in October. This year we hope to can and dry some for longer storage. Nate is experimenting with the Greek Pepperoncini this year as he loves pickled pepperoncinis that come in salads or with pizzas at some restaurants.  He plans to plant quite a few of these in order to pickle his own this year. The Rainbow Bell Peppers are a mixture of classic bell peppers in gold, red, yellow, green, and purple. (We are hoping for a good variety!) Finally, the California Wonder Bell Peppers are a very versatile heirloom variety that can be picked early while they are still green for a crisper flavor, or left to ripen to a lovely red at which point they become sweeter.

So, now it is your turn! Let us know in the comments below, on our Facebook page, or via email what you are growing so we can add you to our Grow-Along post next Thursday! :)

Happy Growing!