January 11 2010 - passion vine is still growing

the greenhouse overview from start to finish

Picture descriptions from top to bottom:

Spinach still growing strong in the only semi-protected area (December 18th)

zone 10 passion vine still going strong (January 4th)

no top left on the greenhouse and snow inside (December 22nd)

freeze damage on summer tomato plants at 12 weeks (5 weeks after top blew apart)

plants at 11 weeks (December when the water was shut off)

plants at 8 weeks (3 weeks after top blew apart)

plants at 4 weeks (October)

the very first day in September

Approximately 300 plants were salvaged and taken to other locations. They are doing fine and have produced salads for two public dinners (12 or more people) and three private dinners (3-6 people).

The blog is in chronological order from the start at the bottom to this end note at the top.

Thank you for reading and have a happy new year!

after a week below 30 degrees and no water

The temperature has not risen above 30 degrees F in more than 7 days. The water has been turned off.

Surprisingly, some things have progressed nicely: beans, chives, lettuce, baby leaf spinach, cilantro, italian parsley and peppers.

Some things are struggling: tomatoes, corn and squash.

Almost all the basil bit the dust.

22 degrees in the greenhouse today

Its cold outside and just as cold, (if not slightly colder due to wind shear), inside since someone went by and opened the vents on the side of the greenhouse - thus allowing the frigid cold air to flow easily from the giant tears at the top through the open ends.

The majority of the basil suffered the most. Corn, tomatoes, beans, chives, parsley, lettuce, cilantro, squash, peppers, and spinach are all doing pretty well and after a quick taste test are outstanding!!!

The pictures with my finger in them, illustrating size were taken on December 9th - before the norther blew in. The pictures with no finger were taken today. I did not know these summer crops would survive in this type of weather.

The ONLY Greenhouse on Long Island Growing Without Heat!

The main hole in the center of the greenhouse is big enough to fit a SubZero refrigerator through. It has been in the low 30’s at night and we have had some severe winds during the day.
All the squash plants in the greenhouse were started at the same time with the same seeds.
A squash with Jenifer’s Landscape Vitamins in finished compost on the left versus a squash in Fafard mix with chemicals, (shown right), that now gets a healthy double dose of Vitamins to see if we can get it to start growing healthy too…

These results are similar to all the plant groupings: tomato, beans, pepper, basil, spinach, corn, lettuce, cilantro

We started eating the salad greens on Thanksgiving and it was a ton of fun to eat nutritous food that had been seeds just 7 short weeks ago.

In fact, all the plant groups are showing similar results.

November 21 2009

I think I am the only greenhouse on Long Island that is growing without heat.

I have not confirmed that, but it is what my shocked neighbor told me while we were having coffee the other day. I'm happy with the results given the situation. The baby leaf spinach is yummy, so is the cilantro, lettuce, parsley and basil. I am happy to see a 6" squash appear at the 7 week mark from seed. The beans and peppers are about 15-16" tall. The various tomato varieties are very healthy. After the roof blew apart, I thought I had lost a row of new seedlings, but today they are doing quite well with new growth. The only plants that have been lost are the ones eaten by the "critters" who frequent the property at night. The plants are now fed once per week with the various Jennifer's Landscape Vitamins blends.

fungus gone

The fungus that appeared after I applied vitamins to the high N potting soil is now gone. the plants are just as strong and healthy as the ones that were not planted in peat based potting soil and high N fertilizer.

November 14 2009

The plastic blew off the greenhouse during the Friday the Thirteenth night's storm. The plants are doing pretty well although they still do not receive heat or water - other than the rain that has poured in over the weekend. The seeds were planted about 7 weeks ago. I am not sure how they will fare as the greenhouse owner is not certain he will recover he structure, even though I rented the space through December. Personal tours of the greenhouse by appointment only.

Week 6

Picture #1

Tomato plants growing in topsoil with wood chips and Jennifer's Landscape Vitamins. Start of the 6th week from seed.

Picture #2 & #3

I felt sorry for the littler plants that were grown in chemicals and decided to feed them before leaving for a week to see what would happen. This is the fungal mass that grew on the top of the soil. It did not appear to hurt the growth of the plants - but was a complete suprise. This only occurred on soils that had an abundance of high N value and a peat based potting mix. The compost and topsoil soils without high N values did not develop this. (Picture #1)

Picture #4

Its been awfully cold on Long Island and the greenhouse has not been heated. The plants have not been watered in a week. Still, the only loss is from the "varmits" that dig up plants and eat their roots.

Some comparison shots

I got a few requests from people to see comparison shots of the plants grown with conventional fertilizers in the most common peat moss based mixes against the topsoil and vitamins versus the compost and vitamins. Here are a few pictures that tell the whole story.

Pink Sky Farm, LI NY 2009 outdoor trials with Jennifer's Landscape Vitamins

The tomato plants were about 12" tall when they were planted the last week of May. By July the branches were at more than 6'. These tomato plants never suffered any blight and are still producing as of the last week of October on Long Island, NY.

I know these plants are outdoor, however, we hope to replicate the results in the greenhouse this winter.

These plants received three feedings of Jennifers Landscape Vitamins. (Once in May, once in June and once in July.)

The Brix readings from these tomato plants in September were between 9.5 and 15.

North Fork Wholesale Nursery Jamesport Long Island New York

About the end of April 2009 I walked into the owner's office and showed him two plants. The one on te left was one I had fed and the one on the right looked just like all the other plants in his greenhouse. He said he was impressed, but wasn't interested in changing his methodology.

I only fed the plants 4 times between March 15th and the end of April. Each plant got less than a teaspoon of Jennifer's Landscape Vitamins. The United States Granular Vitamins, Canadian Granular Vitamins and a mix of the two were triple replicated on a total of 9 plants. In each section there was one healthy plant, one mediocre plant and one almost dead plant - just to see if we could bring it back to life.

Other than the one dead plant, the eight other plants in the test outgrew every other plant in his greenhouse.

This was not a paid test - it was just for fun.