Here is how our seeds are doing so far:

50% of seeds are sprouted on the 5th day
On the 13th day, true leaves appear.

If the reader goes back to this post about extending the season, it is now time to give a report.

• The spinach and green onions survive the harsh Canadian winter under the plastic cover without any heat provided.
• The PVC flex pipes collapse under heavy snow load.
• The 1/2″ plastic electrical conduit stands tall all winter. And for the extra $2, I would use it for winter greenhouse.
• I learn that the construction 6 mil poly is no good for greenhouse purposes because it breaks down easily by UV from he sun. I would need to buy greenhouse poly.

Here we just have our first fresh spinach of the season. Note that the spinach were sowed last fall and the leaves die back during winter but as soon as the weather warms up, they start to grow again.

The weather is warmer now during daytime, although sometimes it freezes at night. Since I have no work at the moment, I start to shovel the poultry manure bedding in the coop and spread them on several places: the blueberry patch, the would-be sunflower spot and around the apple trees. Since I use deep-bedding manure system, the manure has been composted right in the coop for 10 months now, so they should be safe to use.
On the other hand, I am starting to read the All New Square Foot Gardening book again to refresh my mind. I have bought plug sheets this year to start the seedlings and I will use Pro-Mix for starting soil. So far we have started green onions.

I am going to list the seeds I order this year so that the readers and I can keep track of the progress, if I ever get to plant them 🙂

From Mapple Farm:

• Tomato, Latah
• Tomato, Una Hartsock
• Tomato, Coyote
• Provider Green Bush Bean
• Rocdor Wax Bush Bean
• Purple Peacock Pole Bean
• French Scorzonera
• Turkish Rocket
• Nutmeg Melon
• Parade Cucumber
• Banana Winter Squash
• Shosaku Gobo
• Zucchini, Black
• Sweet Potato, Georgia Jet
• Sweet Potato, Tainung 65
• Sweet Potato, Frazier White
• Sweet Potato, Japanese Yam

My goal is to grow these plants with the Squre Foot Gardening and see if I can indeed grow more food with less land and labour.

We came back from Mission Conference in PA last week. It was 0°C most of the time and no snow. When we were back to Ontario, we got snow and -20°C at night most of the week. Anyway, it is time to order seeds again. I really want to have a seed starting rack indoor but with 7 ppl in the house, finding space is always a challenge. However, rather than buying packets of seeds, I am going to buy them in bulk, at least some of them. I try to buy heirloom and open-pollinated varities, but sometimes hybrid grow better with less disease. Of course, we stay away from GMO seeds. Buying seeds in bulk save money but you would have to store the remaining seeds properly.
1. Put the seeds in plastic zipper bag of the right size. Make sure the seeds are dry.
2. Put a label with the date and name of seed on the zipper bag.
3. Put several bags in an air-tight jar. A canning jar is good.
4. Put a bag of silica gel into the jar. This will absorb excess moisture.
5. Put the jar in the refridgerator. Make sure it is air-tight.
6. when it comes to next year’s planting time do a seed starting test for germination rate.

We are going to a mission conference in PA for a couple of days so we have decided to butcher our layers. I have arranged an arbattoir to process them 1 month ago. So I picked up the crates the night before and brought them to the plant last Thursday. I got a call Friday night saying they have forgotten that I was sending the hens and thus there were no inspector and no butchering. They asked me to take them back and rearranged another date. Well, my neighbour has to work that night and so I don’t have the trailer. I replied back saying I couldn’t make it and asked them to dispose the hens. So it was a waste, no free-range, farm fresh stew hens for us. I hope this year when we are going to raise 50 -100 broilers this won’t happen again.

I am planning to grow sweet potatoes next year. This is an easy-to-grow and nutruious plant. If anyone is interested, please email Greg Wingate for electronic copy of his catalogue at wingate@nbnet.nb.ca at Mapple Farm. Growing instruction is included in the free catalogue. I will still grow potatoes next year but only to about 20 plants.

After a couple of snow days, the mini greenhouse supported by the flex plastic pipe collapsed because of the snow load. On the other hand, another mini greenhouse supported by platic electrical conduit still stands. So my experiment has proved that the flex plastic pipe is good for summer use while the electrical conduit can be used in all 4 seaons. The electrical conduit costs a little bit more and is harder to bend.
The veggies we try to grow is lettuce, spinach and choy sum. It looks like under this cold weather without any heat source, the growth is very slow but the plants survive.