Bumping Up #5

Beth, David, Sarah, John and Noelia came out to help today (yes, …. again!). We spent they day undoing all the preparations for hot summer weather (when is summer anyway?!) and the effects of the cool weather. Beth, Sarah and Noelia trimmed the potted plants, while John did the tree/shrubs. Fungal gnats are a real problem as irrigation was set for hotter weather and we had put up shade-cloth siding , which cut the air flow. So we sprayed them with neem oil for gnats, larvae and fungus. We then took those plants that failed, and saved potting soil mix to re-use; and finally separated pots to provide better aeration.
I lowered the times on misting table and potting irrigation table by about half. The weather forecast looks to warm up this coming weekend, but not that much. What we need to be careful for is hot dry winds The weather today was 64F when we started and partially overcast… perfect gardening weather.
David continued putting out plants and maintaining our outside irrigation. It really looks nice. Extending this area will be our next project.
The vegetative propagation went very well this year. Some important lessons learned were: 1) collect plant material same day, 2) do flats by single species, 3) bump up when that flat is ready. So our next set will be in the Feb 2011 time frame. We’ll break plant days into 2 sections: collection and flat preparation. (Click any pic to enlarge)