Finishing the Lupins

The lupins soaked overnight in water to soften the outer seed coat. In fact some of the seeds came completely out of their skins. We ended up with a flat of 36 each yellow, violet blue and Russel mixed. There were enough left over to fill another flat of misc.

This year we are using the 2 inch jiffy pots filled with regular ProMix. These are the same pots we are using for the zinnias and the fancy lettuce. We bought a huge box of more than 5000 so we are trying to find good uses for them. By using these pots we hope to avoid problems with shock in transplanting. When the seedlings are ready to pot up we can just set them in the new containers, or directly into the ground.

We also started about 12 flats of safari marigolds. These are smaller and make a nice little compact plant. This year we are planting them directly into the 6 packs. In the past we have started the seeds in starting flats and then transplanted them into the 6 packs. The trouble is we end up spending too much time re-planting them. It is much easier to use good seed and if one cell is empty we will just pull one from another to fill them up.
If we have any partial packs we can just pot them up in 3 inch pots and hand them out to budding gardeners.

All of the first level benches are full and we have one raised bench full on the sun side. Phyllis dug the planks out of the snow and we will probably put a raised bench together tomorrow to accommodate the zinnias I plan on starting. For the life of me I can not figure out what possessed me to put the planks where they would be buried in snow. Not only that but the cinder blocks we use to set them on are also buried.

Phyllis went around this morning with the pyola oil and sprayed for bugs. I was only able to fine one critter but there may be more hiding. Now that we are on a regular 7 day spray schedule they are few and far between. One of the problems of keeping the greenhouse warm in the winter is the bugs, and especially because we bring plants in from the herb garden.

The pyola oil is nothing more than emulsified canola oil with a small bit of pyrithium. I was reading that we could probably make our own by adding just a little bit of dish soap to canola oil. The soap will allow the oil to mix with water. Then we could add the pyrithium when we make it at about 5% per batch.

The pyola works great but it costs about $25.00 per quart and a quart only lasts 5 or 6 weeks. However it’s can be a small price to pay to avoid having the state inspector find mealy bugs.
Since we began the regular spraying there has been no sign of aphids or any flies except for a few fungus gnats.

Anyway things are looking up and we look forward to getting back out there tomorrow.