misadventures of Little Minnie (Tamara)

[steev]

Flower sleeves for head lettuce? Vas ist das, bitte? Decorative bags? Conical bags for looseleaf lettuce? I have such crappy luck lettuce-wise that I've never had any occasion to worry about marketing it.

[littleminnie]

Lettuce is crappy indeed! A real PITA! This is what I came up with today. I only sold two and they didn't hold up that well. Now I have a bunch of lettuce not quite good enough for CSAs tomorrow.

I swished cut heads and tried to keep them together and undamaged instantly after picking (picked right into a tub with water). I think it would be easier to handle a premature baby than tender lettuce! Then I set them out to drain and put them into bundles. I took regular produce bags and put them 3/4 of the way up and then put a large rubber band on. Then I cut the bottom out and squeezed them upright into a cooler with cold water in the bottom. At market I just took off the top of the cooler but they didn't sell that well. I always think lettuce will sell and it never does. Then in July people ask for it and it gets so annoying! So this year my goal was to really extend greens and now I am thinking it was a waste of effort. Lettuce pisses me off.
Plus right now I am eating salad I made Monday. It still tastes great but it was so bruised when I opened the salad spinner tonight. And I know when I picked it and how fresh it is. I hope my CSAs aren't thinking their tender lettuce is old. The smaller leaves that get spun are so much easier to deal with and bolt slower than the leaf lettuce I was all excited about this year.

[littleminnie]

The farmer next to me at market got me thinking again about the high tunnel grant. He says I might as well get a smaller one. I am going to talk to my landlords. After all, it can be moved if necessary. My 2014 garden sketches are on hold.

[littleminnie]

Here is my new washing station not quite used yet.

A very old counter. Better than the little kid bed spring and plastic chicken wire from before.

[littleminnie]

Here are the cucumber seedlings I put in by the sunchokes instead of in the next bed where the bok choy had been as planned. That way I could seed more kale, which I ran out of seed now. errr

Another photo.
You can see the other half of the bed is sunchoke free and the very end has swiss chard. So in the middle there I seeded beets, dill and cilantro. I just throw dill and cilantro in all over when seeding to try and keep it going.

[littleminnie]

Here is another pic of how I use the cheap weed blocker as shade fabric.


Seriously cheap! $6.99 for 150 feet plus a few black paper binder clips.



Here is how tall the first Ambrosia corn is now. Expected to harvest the last weekend of July. Unfortunately I seem to time my corn terribly and it is always ready right before we go out of town and have to skip a market.
Last night I started 6 trays (2 beds worth) of more Ambrosia corn. I ran out of seed and had an old jar of it. We'll see how the germination is for those 2 trays. This corn should be ready right before we go to Vancouver in Sept.
Also started Napa cabbage, lettuce and scallions.

[steev]

That's some flat-as-piss-on-a-plate land; do you have wind issues?

[littleminnie]

Wind? You have no idea. Not so much that it is flat but that the old farmer cut down all the trees. The road to it from my house has no trees, all fields, and becomes ice in winter from wind. The area in general is not that flat or windy.

[steev]

Looks about as flat as my farm, though I have hills and mountains around, still I get serious wind, at times.

[littleminnie]

I finally built my two low tunnels with shade fabric. The first one was terrible so the second one I did differently and now I have to redo the first one. The successful one is like this: rebar every 4 feet- 12 foot tube of 3/4 inch poly tubing with 9 gauge wire inside (from my little hoops- 2 per big hoop). Then shade fabric on top with clamps and ties on the grommets. It is substantial enough for now with the wire inside the tubing. Wouldn't work without it and I had plenty right now after removing row cover from a bunch of crops. I don't think I really needed to buy clamps because you can just saw off 6 inch pieces of tubing and cut down one side and that works just as well and is free from scraps! It was too dark to take a pic when I was done so I will later.

[steev]

Do you mean PVC tubing, or the black polycarbonate?

[littleminnie]

Just tubing as for irrigation. The problem I am having is that even with the wire inside the width of the tubes is too long and it is sagging in the middle. I have been trying for months to figure out a way to span two beds. The quick hoops benders only make a 6 foot wide low tunnel and I wanted 9 feet wide to cover two beds and a path down the middle. But it isn't working.
The bummer is I bought greenhouse film at 14 feet wide and bought and had sewn row cover for 14 feet! The tubes are 12.5 feet long and it makes the bed about 9 feet wide. Now that they performed so bad I am wondering what to do with the film and row cover. What a dunce! and what a waste of money! I haven't opened the greenhouse film at all due to the strange late spring so maybe with a restocking fee I can return it.

[steev]

Is that tubing white, black, or brown? I've no idea why tubing would be pre-cut at 12.5', so I'm trying to figure out what you're dealing with.

[rowan]

I am covering all my beds for the summer to avoid everything getting fried like last summer. My hoops are made from 3/4 inch blue line poly (the thicker, harder stuff for high pressure). The covers are working very well even now to keep the frost off.

I am attaching the shadecloth with curtain rings so I can pull the shadecloth over or sit it at the side as I want. By the time I am finished I will have these covers over most of the beds in my couple of acres.

[littleminnie]

How are you getting the tubing to not sag?

I cut the tubing. It was from a roll. I cut it 12.5 feet and bought 14 foot greenhouse film (for extra at bottom to weigh down). This makes the hoops 9 feet across the bottom.