Plugging away on the farm
Another week on the farm has come and gone and I can say with confidence we are making progress here on the farm! As of last Wednesday we received our first shipment of plugs!! This is very exciting news to as a greenhouse owner. Getting in a shipment officially kicks off my spring season and means I get to put all of those hours of prep work to good use.
Some of you may have been following right along on Instagram through my stories but for those of you who weren’t, here’s some of the things that I photographed.
The delivery truck was just only part of the excitement. But just a tid bit about plant shipments. If you’re just breaking into ordering plugs for your farm here’s a few things I struggled with in the beginning. There’s more than one way that plants will be delivered to you. This is vital to know because if you're like me and are a one man band, being sure that you're there to get them takes some coordination. I am lucky enough that my some of my orders is large enough so the company sends a truck out with my plants in a temperature control trailer. They also call me to inform me of the delivery time which allows me to personally unload the little babies into the greenhouse. The other way is in a box, which can be a complete bear to deal with. This gets tricky because they send the package of plants through every type of delivery truck and you rarely get a delivery time so if you aren’t quick on your feet you’ll have plants frozen and upside down sitting in a snow bank or be hit with a “nobody was around to sign for the package” note. Now this is entirely disheartening and I’ve been lucky enough to get reimbursed for my crop loss but that doesn’t change the fact that now I don’t have the variety of plant I was depending on and even if I can get another shipment they will now inevitably be planted later than scheduled. I have had many successful plugs come out box shipments but being aware of the potential failure is something I personally feel should be wise spread knowledge.
My other topic I brushed on was plant health. When you receive in a shipment of plants nobody wants to experience lost time and money over transplanting unhealthy plugs. When I receive my plugs I first check them over for any bugs, signs of disease or fungus. Ruling these three devils out is HUGE. Leaving any of them untreated can be devastating to your crop. Also if receiving plants in packaging, remove ALL of the packaging don’t leave them to sit in the cardboard boxes they arrived in for an extended period of time. From the moment you get them you want to allow them to be their best. So letting them acclimate to proper sunlight and temperatures is an absolute must.
Planting!! Eeekkk , goodness I’m over the moon that this has started back up again! But wait, before you jump right in with both feet give your little plants a day to leave the stress of being transported behind them. When I got mine this year some of my lantana were flagging (wilting) after a day in the sunshine they perked right back up. Naturally I don’t have a picture of this to share with you but know I’m kicking myself for that. With that being said some may just be too badly damaged to pull out of it, if I can I try to pinch off the bad parts and I plant them off to the side so they get a little extra love. These are typically smaller than the rest of the crop because of the damage they suffered.
Snow snow snow!! This whole past weekend has been back to back storms. One of them being a flop here in Connecticut and the other being more than we bargained for but hey, that’s March weather for ya! I hope everyone stayed safe throughout the inclement weather.