Hort 2334 Food Crops, 2-14-2013

Leeks

cauliflower and lettuces 

For our valentine's day class, after a quick stop in the lecture room and head house, we went out to the garden.  Our task was to relay the boundaries of the garden. We roped-off the perimeter and used the rope to find the half and quarter points on each side.  After much rope wrangling we found that the plots really need sharpened up, but that is why we went though with all that work anyway.  With the garden divided into four plots each team picked a plot, we received plot two.  It has existing kale, asparagus  roses, and garlic.  I'm rather excited about the asparagus!  As the sun set we went over what we would be doing next class, if the weather cooperated, which would be to start edging and laying paths.

Once back in the green house it was time to transplant some of our plants.  We transplanted our cauliflower and lettuce into 6 pack trays.  We also planted our peppers. I out-ed myself as dyslexic during this class because I kept putting the tags on the wrong side of the tray.  Its not a big deal.  Since our team didn't have a ton to transplant we helped one of the other groups with their massive amount of Chamomile.  Truly overwhelming amounts of Chamomile.  I hope people like tea!  Also we went over the proper use of the watering system in the green house.  Remember to turn off the sprayer at the sprayer then the wall so that the next person to use it doesn't get sprayed when they turn it on at the wall.

Once the head house was cleaned up we went back to the lecture room for the two presentations of the day.

The first was about Potatoes.  I learned they are native of the Andes region and that they are members of the nightshade family.  Also that they need a pH of 6 for best health.  The warming cup of potato soup was very welcome after being outside! The second presentation was about tea.  I learned that it was discovered 5000 years ago, that it needs 50 inches of rain a year and that it could be propagated form cuttings or seed.