I hope you will enjoy my blog and perhaps I will learn a bit about myself and perhaps you will too!
High Tunnel, Plant Light Stand, Started Planting Onions
One week from Ground Hog’s Day…Saturday is noteworthy since it is that day January 28, when the normal high temperature starts to go up–and it does this daily for 6 months..Friday the avg max is 30F and Saturday it is 31F– by the end of Feb it is just over 37F.
I’ve been asked, by a real nice person, about how we grow tomatoes in our unheated high tunnel. Here is basically the way we do it. We start our tomato plants inside in our Plant Light Stand. We transplant them to large peat pots and then in March sometime we put them in our attached greenhouse. If the nights are real cold we bring them in. Then in mid to late April we plant them in rows in the high tunnel. We use raised beds, drip tape and black or red plastic mulch. We also sometimes put a low tunnel over the plants–especially if we plant really early. We then use fertigation through the drip tape–Miracle Gro is good here. We also trellis them although we have used tomato cages. In late fall, winter or very early spring, we remove everything and make sure we do a good cleanup–no tomato plants and very few roots. If this isn’t done you will have disease problems.
Apparently, the cold for the last part of January I talked about has basically come and gone. Except for this weekend, it looks like the next two weeks are going to be warmer than normal and probably drier than normal too. In fact, it looks like most of the country will be warm–especially the plains. As I’ve mentioned before, warm northern plains in January and February usually means an early spring for us which sends the chill down my and my wife’s spines. You see, the spring of 2010 came early and we remember how that did in the apple crop. However, some years, apple crops are good in years with early springs. Also, while the spring looks like it will be above normal, it might just be a tiny bit above normal which doesn’t mean much. The good news is that early springs almost always mean early harvests of sweet corn, tomatoes and some other crops.
Yesterday, we planted 2500 Newaygo Newaygo sweet onion seeds. I will let you know when they start coming up.
Ice Fishing starting on Kimbal, My plant light stand article on Make Magazine
Guys are starting to ice fish on Kimbal Lake. However, I really don’t think it is safe yet and they are taking a big risk. One way to determine if its OK to ice fish on Kimbal is to wait until Walt Bankcroft starts ice fishing. He has learnt through many years to only go out when its safe. The days are really lengthening now, especially in the evening. It’s now still light at 6PM! One thing I noticed through the years is that in late winter some of the cold arctic highs skip around to the north of the Great Lakes causing an easterly component to the wind. This usually means clear skies and the resulting colder nights. It is also a sign that winter is waning. This seems to be starting this coming week although there doesn’t look much like clear skies since there will likely be low pressure areas around which sometimes means general snowstorms. We will see.
I mentioned in my last post about a link to my Plant Light Stand article in Make Magazine. Here it is: Plant Light Stand.
Make Magazine is my absolutely favorite magazine. If you are at all interested in making stuff, or in science and/or technology, you should subscribe. The magazine comes out in a book type binding which means it not only fits on a standard bookshelf its binding means it should last a long time even if you read it frequently and don’t treat it delicately. The editors really work to make sure there are as few errors in the articles as possible–they do a really, really great job. It’s one great magazine and has so much interesting and fascinating stuff in it! Even the ads are interesting and in formative!
About Tom’s Page, changing to Tom’s Blog, January thaw coming, Ordered seeds
Did you notice the link to Tom’s Page on our Magicland Farms website has been made more obvious? Please let me know if you find that annoying. I’m thinking of making it a bit less obvious. Also, soon I will be changing Tom’s Page to Tom’s Blog and writing with WordPress. I can then organize my writing a bit better although it will be, at least when I start, more difficult for me.
We received about 3 inches of snow yesterday and seem to have around 5 inches on the ground. As I mentioned in my last post, it looks like starting on Sunday we will be starting the traditional January thaw. I mentioned this to Annemarie a few days ago and she asked basically “Thaw what? There is nothing to thaw!” Well now there is and the thaw looks for certain. However, the length and depth of the thaw is still in question. The CPC (Climate Prediction Center) is quite confident that temps will be quite a bit above normal for at least two weeks (starting Sunday) This is the coldest time of the year with a normal daily high of 29 or 30F. The average high starts climbing around January 26 when it is around 30 to 31F. Average February temps rise slowly through the month but the real nice thing about February here is the sun normally returns in frequency, strength and length of day. It’s sometimes amazing to see the paved roads shed their ice and snow in February when the sun comes out. An interesting fact that has just recently been verified is that during the winter, on a partly cloudy day, the solar constant can exceed one. This means it seems to produce more light and heat than it would theoretically without any clouds or even atmosphere. What apparently happens is that the sun shining between the clouds reflects off the snow and hits the clouds, which is reflected back to the ground and it again bounces off the snow and does this until it finally peters out by being absorbed by the air. The result is that any black surface caught in this reflection mania heats up much more than thought earlier and melts the snow and ice quicker than you would think. This happens rarely in December since the sun is lower in the sky and it is the cloudiest month of the year. Another nice thing about February is that the ice on the lake is normally the safest of the season. Clear night skies (which are great for making ice) and bright sun (which seems to change the slushy snow on the ice to water) often combine to make great, safe ice. Of course this doesn’t happen every year but it is “normal”.
By the way we have already ordered 95% of our seeds and have received some already. Next week there is a good chance we will start planting our Newaygo Newaygo sweet onions inside. With the next post I will provide a link to an article I wrote for Make Magazine showing how to make an indoor light stand that will hold 16 flats and take up little floor space. We used this last year so we were able to start more plants in our basement. After it warms up a little in February we then move the onions to our attached unheated greenhouse–when they are small onions can stand night temps a few degrees below freezing.
Comments about my winter forecast including the one I made in November
I am a bit amazed that my winter forecast this year has worked out so well, especially since it conflicted with just about every other winter forecast out there! In addition to implying the first half of winter would be a bit warmer than normal, I said I felt that the last two weeks of January would be quite cold. While the next week will indeed be quite cold, it now looks like we will have a January thaw during the last week of winter. In other words the mild winter will continue–even warmer than I wrote about back in November! Most people liked the snow we received late last week. It sure did make things real, real purty! The smiles I saw were a bit unusual since most winters people usually seemed to get tired of the snow and cold around mid January. The only bummer here is for those who like to ice fish and run their snowmobiles on the lakes. While it’s going to get cold, the coming thaw won’t let the lake ice get safe enough until at least mid-February at the earliest. When you realize that the strong March sun starts to erode the ice from bottom up, it looks like a very short ice fishing season this year even if March temperatures are colder than normal–no forecast here since I have seen years similar to this when the ice has gone out in mid-March!. However, while I am forecasting a short ice fishing season–it just might be quite an active season while it lasts!
This year we are going to try and grow late winter lettuce for our family. We already have a 11″x22″ plastic flat with 5 different varieties of lettuce coming up and when they get big enough we plan on transplanting them to a small area in one of our unheated greenhouses. We will then put on a low tunnel covered with plastic–inside the larger greenhouse. Low power electric heating cables will then be hooked up to a freeze control which turns on at 35F. We will see what happens. Wish us luck. The primary reason I’m doing this is for my wife Annemarie since she really loves our home-grown lettuce. I will be taking photos of it all so if things work out I can write an article on it. I will keep you’all informed here.
Peaches and winter
The forecast is for winter to return late this week. However, it doesn’t look extremely cold–just a shade below normal for the next two weeks. Fruit wise, the worry during the winter are the peach’s flower buds. Typically, a temperature below about -13F, will damage peach buds. However, this temperature must occur in the peach orchard and not in a low place where the cold can settle–such as near a frozen inland lake. Normally, growers plant peach orchards on high ground where there is good air drainage so most peach orchards come through freezes where thermometers in low spots report temperatures -15F and even below. As you’d expect we have planted our peach orchard on our high ground. It is pretty simple to figure a good peach location–all you need do is look around and if you have a real nice view you have found at least a fair peach site. By the way, Pickerel Lake is at an elevation of 760 feet above sea level while our farm is from 880 to 910 feet above sea level. It is interesting to note that under exactly the same weather conditions, that 140 feet greater elevation will cause the air temperature to be about 1F colder. Despite this, the high points at the farm are far better for peaches than next to the lake since in the winter, when the lake is frozen the cold air sinks and builds up and causes lighter winds which again makes it colder since there is no warmer air mixing in from above. (Because of the lighter winds it feels warmer to us but not to the peach trees because they don’t generate their own warmth like we do.) Of course, as I mentioned earlier, in the fall the lake keeps the surrounding area warmer and frosts are rare until mid to late October. At the farm, about a mile from the Chain-O-Lakes, the average frost date is around October 1. By the way, about 30 years ago I wrote an article on growing peaches in Michigan. It was published in Organic Gardening. I think it’s about time I write an updated article on peaches since I have learned a whole bunch about peaches. One of the things I might mention in the article is the apparent climate seems to have shifted to make growing peaches more profitable in Michigan — the last hard peach bud killing winter was nearly 20 years ago. If the trend continues, it might be profitable to plant peach orchards in certain areas of the UP might!
The winter so far and La Nina
Talking about the weather–especially the 2011-2012 winter forecast–this was the first year in memory where just everybody agreed. The winter in the midwest especially the Great Lakes States was going to be something to remember. It was supposed to start early and be exceptionally severe. Most attributed this weather to the LaNina, which occurs when the equatorial Pacific ocean is colder than normal. Well in my last Boss’s corner (see the archives) which I put out around Thanksgiving, I mentioned that since the LaNina was weak the best a forecaster could say was “No one knows for sure”. If the LaNina was really strong I perhaps would have agreed. While I didn’t call for such a severe winter I didn’t really and truly say it was going to be warmer than normal which it sure has been. However, apparently many readers took it this way. What I did say was that despite the universal forecast of a severe winter, one model–the European one–seemed to break with the fold. This model says that January was going to be really mild. I said I didn’t believe this and I had a feeling the end of January was going to be quite cold. I also felt that once ground hog day arrives, winter will be over. Looking at the maps and snow cover, this seems to be what is going to happen–the northern plains have little snow (the last few years they had plenty)–which means it’s going to warm up there in a hurry and the warmth will make its way east through shifts in the upper winds.caused by the persistent warmth. Right now it looks like the temperatures are going to drop sometime in mid to late January and stay that way for 10 days to 3 weeks. By the way, this is the first time ever that we were able to leave our market open until after Christmas. I do remember a year when we could leave it open until just before Christmas but this year it was after Christmas–you must remember we are an open weather stand to see how strange this is.
