Laughing Owl Farm » seed

Local Food Economy

Dean Mullis — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 07:23:27 +0000

The beauty of our local food economy is that it is spread across various micro-climates surrounding Charlotte but we need more local growers.There is a misconception that us farmers, because we are farmers, are able to grow anything in the seed catalogs. That is certainly not true in our case, although I think we have tried to grow just about every crop available in seed catalogs.

We grow some great crops, some good crops, some fair and some poorly. What we don’t grow well, other farmers do. We have smartened up a bit over the last 20 years and have dropped the fair and poor producing crops from our cropping mix for the most part. Most farms eventually find the the niche of crops their farm is suited for.

That being said, I am still growing broccoli, carrots, and peas. Crops I have never been able to grow with reliable success. I continue to grow them because they taunt me. And cabbage…, I am a cabbage farmer at heart. I want to grow beautiful heads of cabbage but mine always turn out puny.

Last year, Levi brought a single cabbage plant in a dixie cup home from the third grade. I helped him transplant it in the front of the greenhouse. It was growing well. We were working in the greenhouse last spring and had the door propped open. Some renegade chickens sneaked in and stripped all the leaves off Levi’s cabbage. He was bummed. We took a couple of handful’s of worm castings, mixed them up in a couple of gallons of water, and poured it over the cabbage plant.

The cabbage recovered and went on to be the biggest cabbage by far grown our farm. 12+ lbs. We took pictures, it was twice as big as Levi’s head. While I was happy for Levi, I was seething about my impotent cabbage growing skills.

Maybe it is genetic and the cabbage growing gene skips a generation…

Starting Seeds

Dean Mullis — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 07:17:03 +0000

We started sowing seeds for transplants this week for lettuce, cabbage, and broccoli. A couple of weeks later than normal.We looked at the weather pattern we have been having since November and decided 2010 would not be a year to try and get stuff transplanted early.

Decided, such a strong word…like we scientifically analyzed the situation and came to a conclusion. More like rolling dice, flipping a coin, or casting chicken bones under the light of a new moon. Just a feeling.

A good transplant is 4-6 weeks old. After that, they start to become stressed. They are running out of nutrients in the starting mix and are becoming root-bound, meaning the roots are searching for additional nutrients and start circling the container they are in.

We succession plant, which means we are continually sowing seeds for transplants and transplanting. We have transplanted 4-6 week old transplants and 6-8 week old transplants of the same variety, which we had to hold in the greenhouse due to the weather, side by side and the younger transplants take off and always do better than the older ones.

So, we are hoping that in 4-5 weeks, the sun will be shining, bluebirds chirping, and we will be able to get in the field.

Planting by the Signs

Dean Mullis — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:07:59 +0000

Something that interests me but I am not sold on it. My grandma did stuff by the phases of the moon and always had an excellent garden. But she was an excellent gardener to begin with.
I suspect that doing stuff by the signs, if nothing else, helps those that use the practice structure the long list of chores necessary on a farm. Plant on fruitful days, weed, cultivate, till, and prune on barren days.

I have a defacto experiment going on. I was sowing Monday evening in the most fruitful sign, Cancer, until dark. At 7 pm, the signs changed to Leo, the most barren sign. So I should see a major difference in the collards and turnips I sowed after 7 pm, as opposed to the stuff I sowed before 7 pm right?

How to get 100% germination regardless of the signs

It was getting close to dark Monday and I planted 4 rows of Lacinato kale before cleaning out my push seeder to start sowing collards. I plant two rows to a bed and the beds are 285′ long. I planted one row and I am 1/2 way back up the other row and glance over at the 4 rows left to plant… there are 6 rows. Uh-oh…

I had just planted the last of my Georgia Southern collard seed on top of my 2nd bed of lacinato kale.

If the other 9 beds of carrots, beets, kale and collards fail, I am fairly certain that every collard and kale seed in the the double-planted bed will germinate with vigor and it will be a mess to harvest.

Seed Catalogs

Dean Mullis — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:51:10 +0000

First off, they are pure evil… Showcasing the best of the best and luring you in with visions of bountiful harvests in the dead of winter.
I get a lot of seed catalogs and throw at least half of them in the trash as soon as I receive them to remove temptation. Over the years, I have developed a small group of seed companies geared towards market gardeners I buy from.

Last Friday night, I finally took the plunge and begin the odyssey of delving through seed catalogs starting with the Tomato Growers Supply catalog. Jenifer was apparently reading my mind again and informed me that we would not be growing 30 varieties of tomatoes this year…

Well, I might… We are developing a test garden area to trial new varieties before we put them in larger-scale production.

Ordering Seed

Johnny’s Seed has been my main source of seed for 20 years and more recently, High Mowing Seeds.

My first seed order this year was from a company I have heard about for years but never ordered from. Fedco.

Johnny’s and High Mowing offer multi-color catalogs. Fedco does not. In fact, ordering from Fedco is a pain. Online orders, fax, and mail. No phone orders. Their catalog is black and white newsprint.