Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Greenhouse ammonia toxicity?

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Shelly Elliott" <shelly AT idlethyme.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Greenhouse ammonia toxicity?
  • Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 11:37:44 -0700

Marlin,
I can assure you (I think) that it is not the chicken poo that is your problem. I have raised chicks, turkeys and seedlings side by side in the same green house for several years. One year I even moved a chicken tractor inside for awhile during a spell of bad weather and did not clean up as well as I should have. I have never had the problem that you are describing. Could it be your growing medium? Temperature fluctuations? I do not think it is the chicken poo.
Blessings,
Shelly Elliott
Idle Thyme Farm
Carpenter, WY
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 12:37 PM
Subject: [Market-farming] Greenhouse ammonia toxicity?

 

Last year’s luck with seed starting?  I didn’t think it could get any worse!  I was wrong!  This year I have totally lost 80 to 90 percent of all the material and work I have put into seed starting in January and February up to this point.  I currently have 8 flats of broccoli and cauliflower just coming up which is too soon to evaluate.  It’s the same old story!  Stuff either comes up and stalls for a week or two and then dies or it doesn’t come up at all!  Last year I blamed it on the Winstrip trays.  This year I planted in Winstrips, standard inserts, and open flats with no inserts.  Most of it was lettuce and onions and it all failed.  One evening over a week ago I had them setting in the still unheated greenhouse during the day and was delayed getting home soon enough to get them back inside before nightfall.  They were exposed to several hours of freezing temperatures but I don’t think this should have been enough to do them in.  They didn’t show significant freeze damage the next day but they all steadily deteriorated over the next week.  I tried sowing new lettuce seed over the dying plants and as far as I can tell most of it never germinated.

 

Now comes a possible explanation for the mystery.  I raised a flock of pullets inside the greenhouse during the winter and took them out around the first of February.  The following week I moved in the benches and to save time I decided not to remove the litter on the floor.  I noticed some ammonia odor several days later during the warm part of the day as I set my plants out to take advantage of the nice weather we were having.  If I thought anything it was that a little ammonia nitrogen in the air might stimulate plant growth.  At most the plants were exposed to the ammonia air for a few days and other wise spent their nights inside the house on the starting racks.  I never thought the ammonia inside the green house, though noticeable, was very intense.  Also many of the onions were not looking good even before they saw the greenhouse.  Anyway I spent much of yesterday taking all of the benches out of the greenhouse, thoroughly cleaning out all of the chicken poop, putting down a tarp on the floor, and setting it all back up.

 

Now begs the question.  Has anyone else had experience with ammonia doing bad things in a greenhouse environment?  Would I be safe to go ahead and reuse the plant starting medium or should I pitch it all?  I’m thinking of keeping some of it for potting up bigger plants later on if I am successful at getting anything started.  I’m still fearful that something pathological is involved.  I know for certain that I planted fresh seed and I started out with clean potting soil, and reasonably clean containers.  To say that I am thoroughly POed is an understatement.  The worst of it all is that this kind of s--- is still happening to someone who has 15 years of plant starting experience.

 

Marlin

Virginia


_______________________________________________
Market-farming mailing list
Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming

Get the list FAQ at: http://www.marketfarming.net/mflistfaq.htm



Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page