Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 25 Entries. Wednesday, March 21 View Page Well its time to start a new diary and kick the season off, as spring has officially begun. Everything looks normal for this time of year ,with the temps climbing into the mid 30's during the day and we have about 12 1/2 hours of daylight and gaining almost 6 mins everyday   Wednesday, March 21 View Page I left the roof poly up all winter , we had about 6 ft total so far this year and it held up fine. I need to do that in order to get a head start on our short season, it really helps with the soil warming process   Wednesday, March 21 View Page the 1st step for me is to lay plastic down to help hold the moisture down and pick up a little solar gain , before the real ground thawing takes place ..Germination day is about a week away now ..so it will stay like this for another 10 days or so then things will need to happen fast   Wednesday, March 21 View Page The new hoop house is starting to come together, I feel a little more motivated now with the longer daylight   Wednesday, March 21 View Page another look at the new gh ,it got a little out of hand as the crazy thing is almost 18 ft at the peek and 16 ft step ladders are a pain to move around ..lol..I just got my greenhouse poly off the barge from Tacoma today, so I'm hoping to be all closed in by the weeks end..   Wednesday, April 4 View Page I am going with a west coast seed line up this year , as my main plants are going to be the 2363 Holland and the 2002 Tobeck ( thanks Cindy ) and 3- 1469 Marshall are the back ups..   Wednesday, April 4 View Page I got the gable ends done on the new project ..not going as fast as I would like ...but I am a one man band ...   Wednesday, April 4 View Page Germination went pretty well as all 5 seeds were up and out of the soil in 4 days ..with 2002 on the left 2363 in the middle and the 1469 on the right , they all look pretty strong and I didn't have of the cot cases to deal with as they came off in the soil ,this almost day 2 above ground   Wednesday, April 4 View Page Not much melting happening as of now as temps are still pretty cool mid 30 's during the day and mid 20's at night, closing in on 14 hrs of daylight ..so that's a plus   Wednesday, April 4 View Page I will probably go another week before laying the concrete blankets out and firing up the radiant heat for the soil inside the greenhouses ..hopefully it was winterized good enough.. so I don't run into any circulation problems..   Saturday, April 28 View Page the 2002 tobeck ready to go into the ground, as the soil has warmed up, I have carried this plant inside for over 3 weeks now so its time   Saturday, April 28 View Page It will now live in this mini house for the next 10 to 14 days , unless the weather magically improves , or it out grows it   Saturday, April 28 View Page the 2363 Holland went into the ground a few days before, and will get the same mini gh set up   Monday, May 7 View Page The 2363 main is down and starting run, this has been a pretty aggressive plant from the start considering our subpar weather... cloudy and cool still dipping into the mid 30's at night   Monday, May 7 View Page another angle of the 2363 Holland   Monday, May 7 View Page this is 2002 tobeck ... a real nice plant so far main is slowly being let down   Monday, May 7 View Page another look at the 2002   Monday, May 7 View Page got the ground warming blankets and stuff out , amendments added and all tilled in, walking boards mostly down, just got to get the new drip tape in ect.. that's the 2363 in front and 1469 back-up in rear by the time they meet in the middle , I will know if any abnormalities show up   Monday, May 7 View Page My giant cabbage starts still sting in pots waiting there turn.. Ill pick the top 5 plants out of the 12... mostly northern giants cross (a big thanks to john Butler) and a few o-s cross giants.. the rest I'll give away   Thursday, May 17 View Page the 2363 Holland.. is moving along nicely , in spite of our continuous cloudy weather   Thursday, May 17 View Page 2363 ..from a different angle , it has now out grown the 8x6 mini-house, so the party is about over as it will have to start adjusting to a lot cooler temps ,it has a female showing around 7 ft mark and a 2 on some of the side vines..   Thursday, May 17 View Page 2002 Tobeck... this plant is also moving along nicely , it will be out of the mini-house real soon, I'm thinking about expanding it to 12x8, to give the plant some more time..hoping for the weather to improve and get out of the low 40's at nite   Thursday, May 17 View Page different look at the deathstar..   Thursday, May 17 View Page 1 st female on the 2002 showing a little to early to be considered, around 7 ft mark DAG 44 or so   Thursday, May 17 View Page 1469 Marshall insurance plant..this guy has had no supplemental heat, so you can see the size difference between it and the others,also not much side vine growth, so with a late august weigh-off , its really important for me to keep these plants warm and growing especially if your trying to get size out of them..