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Sunday, May 20, 2018 Little Ketchup Grittyville, WA

Entry 118 of 290  
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Greenhouse perimeter guy-wire up. It took all day. I guess I’m a slow worker but it’s mostly done and no injuries.

Some notes for myself in case I grow again next year:
Next year I need to focus on: Getting the soil balanced well ahead of the season. We often get one nice day in January. I should till on that day (lucky me I have perfect drainage so just two days after a heavy rain the soil is ready to go). Then collect soil samples. Then prior to any heavy rains... cover part of, if not the entire, patch area with clear plastic to prevent further leaching, soil damage, and to begin soil warming & get the soil biology going and to kill weeds too. Actually I should collect soil samples then amend when I have the results and then till. I don’t want to till twice for no reason.

I have played around enough and learned enough about every other aspect of growing... So I should now be able to concentrate all of my effort into getting my soil balanced just right, in order to get off to a good start. And if I get my soil balanced just right, I could start lots of plants in a garden soil mix and not need to buy seed starting mix. If I start lots of plants, I can hit the perfect weather window AND select for the best plants & ones that will do well in my patch soil because that will be the soil they are already in!

I would also like to try direct seeding some, to compare with with the transplants. In a 6x6 starter hut I could direct seed 16 plants or so and cull the worst and keep the best two then transplant out two good plants, and then see which of the four do the best. Possibly I could leave all four plants and have four separate areas for them to grow into, which would give the best comparison. Two seed stocks could be used... choosing the best respective direct seeded plants and transplants. So the 4 plants: Seed 1 direct seed (best of 8); seed 1 transplant (best of 8); seed 2 direct seed (best of 8) seed 2 transplant (best of 8).
 



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