Bumping Up #3

Beth, David, Drew, John, Noelia and Bob all came out and helped today. We finished bumping up of all of the herbaceous plant cuttings into 4” pots. There are still two flats of woodier cuttings, that will take longer. Today our total is around 700. Outside we have another 400. And over 100 tree/shrubs in 5 gallon containers.
Beth organized the folks to bump up the remaining monkey flower and bush sunflower. Then they bumped up lemonade berry to 5 gallon pots. And lastly they bumped up a few walnut and a sycamore tree to 5 gallon also.
Noelia worked on the temporary storage area irrigation by adding more sprinklers. David put together the framework irrigation to the outside plantings. Drew put up the shade cloth panel on the back side to cut the summer heat.
All in all it was a pretty day. (Click any pic to enlarge)

Bumping Up #2

Beth, Sarah, Drew, Bob and David all helped today. Beth coordinated the bumping up of the cuttings with Bob and Sarah. Many of our flats we had a 100% success rate, and others much less.
David, still not over this bug, worked more on the outside plants, which look great. We’ve noodle out a plan, and OKed today by Ranger Barbara, to clear are around Nursery, have a Juvy crew put out mulch, then lay irrigation out, and plant. We’ll have a path through area to make working there easier.
Drew and I worked again on getting the mix right for a bag of TOLN potting soil (which is actually about 21 liquid gallons): 6 gallons water, 1/3 bag of 1oz mycorrhizae mix, and 1.5 cups Osmocote fertilizer. The new mixing wheel-barrel works really well.
Drew and I also expanded the pathway from 32” to a little over 40” to accommodate the new wheel-barrel. This is a more appropriate size for many Nursery carts.
It was a pleasantly overcast day. (Click any pic to enlarge)

Bumping Up #1

Beth, Sarah, Drew, Bob and for a while David all helped out today. Beth organized and worked with Sarah and Drew to bump up our first batch of cuttings we started in 4 months ago. Our original flats from training, with mixed species, were nothing to compare with our later flats in overall quality of cutting… we’re learning. Key was to get the various training flats with mixed species back into same-plant flats.
Bob helped me use the new wheeled cart which allows us to mix a full 30 gallon bag of TOLN potting soil and then wheel it over to the potting work area… cutting down people traffic. Also the cart allows us to mix 3 times the amount as before. Key is to get the right mix of water and potting soil… about 8 gallons.
Bob also helped me repair the temporary plant fenced area, which Beth reported full of rabbits last week. Find out a critter had chewed a hole on the back side of the plastic fence. The fence is now metal. A good thing we only tested with 1 flat (18 plants). Last week Noelia put together and installed a drip line irrigation for this area… very nice.
David was sick, but still was able to come by and tend to the plants on the outside of the Nursery. We’ll be putting irrigation lines on these plants. All the materials arrived in the past few days. (Click any pic to enlarge)