Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Planting Blitz

This past weekend was perfect.  Warm without being too hot.  I'm trying something new this year.  Planting with the moon.  It's something I've heard about for years.  A good friend swears by this method.  I looked up some information on The Farmer's Almanac page.  It said that Friday and Saturday were good days to plant root crops.  There was quite a bit to plant, so off I went.

Friday was all about weeding beds and planting the seed tapes.  That afternoon the potatoes arrived from Fedco's Moose Tubers.  I had ordered conservatively.  Two years ago I over ordered potatoes and was giving them away to gardening friends everywhere.  Not wanting to repeat that folly, I under ordered.  With 2.5 pounds each of organic Yukon Golds and Rio Grande Russet, I thought I may be slightly under. 


I cut them into seed pieces to chit and then realized that if I was to plant with the moon, they needed to go in the next day.  By the next morning, they had healed over for the most part.  Most had eyes that were at least starting to sprout.  This is an experiment, so off I went to plant.  It turned out that I needed another 2.5 pounds to finish out the 25 foot bed that was being planted with potatoes.  Those were easily obtained at my local Farm Supply.  Red Norlands were planted and the bed was finished off. 

While I was out getting potatoes, the onions arrived.  Thankfully the bed was already prepared.  They were going into the other half of the strawberry bed that I had weeded out and fertilized last week.

They look like a bunch of soldiers all lined up.  The varieties are a yellow called Big Daddy which is a hybrid and Redwing, which is a red open pollinated variety.  Onions and I don't get along very well, but I'm hoping the seedlings from Dixondale farms and my new experimental moon planting will change the outcome.  We eat a lot of onions, so success would be a wonderful thing.  

I'm curious to see if I'll notice any difference in how well anything does.  Since I'm not doing any controls, it's not a very thorough experiment, but just one of curiosity.  Do you plant by the moon, or whenever you have the time?
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7 comments:

  1. Daphne GouldApril 17, 2012 at 8:44 AM

    I grew redwing last year. I love it. It kept better than my copra onions did. And it is so pretty.

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  2. The MomApril 17, 2012 at 9:05 AM

    Daphne, that's good to know. If these do well, maybe I'll try seeds again next year.

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  3. RobinApril 17, 2012 at 10:22 AM

    I'm planting Redwing this year too. I still have a few Copras hanging in the basement!

    I am planning to plant my potatoes and onions tomorrow! Finally!

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  4. The MomApril 17, 2012 at 12:20 PM

    Robin, have fun planting tomorrow. Are they going at the plots, or at home.

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  5. RobinApril 17, 2012 at 1:47 PM

    The potatoes and 97% of the onions will go in at the plots.

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  6. farmwifetwoApril 17, 2012 at 2:17 PM

    I usually plant 10 lbs of seed potatoes and that will last from the end of July until Jan or so. This year I only bought 5lbs. Last year I left the little bit that was in the garden in Nov and never did take any to the bsmt. But I'm still using last summers onions to cook with. I bought WAY too many last year.

    I always plant onion bulbs (sets). I have both red and white to go in.

    Just dug out my herb bed. What a mess. I have an invasive ground cover that was hard to get out. Still haven't dug up the garden. But mine's wet and cold so there's no rush.

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  7. The MomApril 17, 2012 at 7:06 PM

    Robin, it's great to have all that extra space.

    Farmwife, it sounds like you're getting lots done. I'd love some of that wet you've got. It's so dry here.

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