Portage River Farm
Notes on our struggles and successes on our family farm in rural Michigan.
(Pinckney, Michigan)
11 May Mon 2009
Are You Guys Alright?
One of the first things I noticed upon returning from my recent trip to Mexico was that the vegetable seedlings that we have growing in our basement didn't look so good. They had been doing so well prior to my departure but now they were yellowed and appeared to be dying. Of course, my initial reaction was to assume that Janet had let them get too dry between waterings. That assumption turned out to be incorrect.
Right away, I began my attempts to nurse them back to health. As I watered them and fussed over them they continued to wither and look terrible. I asked about the problem in my organic gardening class and the consensus was that they were lacking nutrients. It seemed odd to me that the organic seed starter mix could be so devoid of nutrients that I would have this problem but I dutifully purchased organic fertilizer and applied it in hopes that it would work. Alas, the yellowing and dying only continued.
I noticed that the tiny pumpkin and spinach seedlings were forming flowers in a desperate attempt to reproduce before their impending demise. I wondered if they could be too cold in our basement. The temperature usually hovers somewhere in the upper-60s. After considering that for a while I started thinking that the flowering could be bolting behavior. Cold weather crops will "bolt" and begin to flower when the heat of mid-summer becomes too much for them. Could they be too hot?
It was just about then that a memory of something that I barely heard in my gardening class filtered to the fore in my puzzled brain. It had been one of those moments when my attention had wandered and I only caught the end of what the instructor was saying in response to a question. She said, "...four to six inches from the top of the seedlings".
"That must be it!", I thought. Perhaps it hadn't been lack of water or nutrients at all! While I was away in Mexico they must have grown too close to the overhanging lights and baked themselves! I raised all of the lights to about six inches from the poor little plants and began an anxious watch over them to see if it would help.
Sure enough, a few days later they began to green up again and put out new leaves. They seem much happier now and I feel that I have yet again learned an important lesson. The pumpkins and spinach may not pull out of it since they shifted over to flower production way too early. Everything else is looking better every day and are probably going to pull through. I guess this was a case of too much of a good thing!
Right away, I began my attempts to nurse them back to health. As I watered them and fussed over them they continued to wither and look terrible. I asked about the problem in my organic gardening class and the consensus was that they were lacking nutrients. It seemed odd to me that the organic seed starter mix could be so devoid of nutrients that I would have this problem but I dutifully purchased organic fertilizer and applied it in hopes that it would work. Alas, the yellowing and dying only continued.
I noticed that the tiny pumpkin and spinach seedlings were forming flowers in a desperate attempt to reproduce before their impending demise. I wondered if they could be too cold in our basement. The temperature usually hovers somewhere in the upper-60s. After considering that for a while I started thinking that the flowering could be bolting behavior. Cold weather crops will "bolt" and begin to flower when the heat of mid-summer becomes too much for them. Could they be too hot?
It was just about then that a memory of something that I barely heard in my gardening class filtered to the fore in my puzzled brain. It had been one of those moments when my attention had wandered and I only caught the end of what the instructor was saying in response to a question. She said, "...four to six inches from the top of the seedlings".
"That must be it!", I thought. Perhaps it hadn't been lack of water or nutrients at all! While I was away in Mexico they must have grown too close to the overhanging lights and baked themselves! I raised all of the lights to about six inches from the poor little plants and began an anxious watch over them to see if it would help.
Sure enough, a few days later they began to green up again and put out new leaves. They seem much happier now and I feel that I have yet again learned an important lesson. The pumpkins and spinach may not pull out of it since they shifted over to flower production way too early. Everything else is looking better every day and are probably going to pull through. I guess this was a case of too much of a good thing!
John_3
12:00 AM EDT