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Saturday, February 6, 2010

Starting Seeds!


Feb. 4th was a good root day according to the BD calendar, moon in virgo. It would have been better had the moon been waxing, but nothing's perfect! I planted two kinds of leeks, King Richard which is a big one that holds well in cold weather, and Tadorna, a summer leek with a nice long stem that matures early. We sell lots of these at the market. For onions, we love the Sierra Blanca white sweet onion. (It used to be called Superstar). It's wonderfully mild and sweet, large and beautiful and it keeps quite well too. It also matures early, and we sell oodles of them all summer. We grow Copra yellow onions, a very good keeper, and as for red, we switch around according to what's available. We're tried Mars, Mercury, and this year we're trying Red Bull. The red onion sprouts tend to damp off easily, so water with care and give plenty of air circulation. We also have problems some years with root maggots. The tiny fly lays eggs in the flats, and the larva, very small white grubs, eat the bulb and stem almost as soon as it germinates. The last few years I've been sprinkling generous amounts of diatomaceous earth on the soil in the flats before I plant, then put the seeds right on top of it, cover with a sprinkling of more soil and water it all in. I believe it helps. Giving onion seeds a loose, sandy mix also helps with damping off.