Market Farming

["Susan Ventura" <sue AT dragonfly-farms.com>]

If you are doing them in individual cells then, not you don’t have to do anything other than pop them out of the cell and drop them down the tube.  I do onions in a 1020 open flat so all the roots have grown long and together so I have to pull them out , separate them, and trim the very long roots otherwise they will stick in the “seeder” tube.   You will need to use the “planter” rather than the “seeder” to fit a 72 size cell down the tube.  The “seeder” model will only fit up to about a 200 size cell plug.  I only use the “seeder” model with onion plants and sometimes large seeds that I am planting through plastic mulch.  All my other transplants go up to a 72 count tray and then I use the planter model by just popping the transplants out of the tray and sending them down the tube.

 

 

 

From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Road's End Farm
Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 12:17 PM
To: Market Farming
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Stand-n-plant

 

 

On Jan 25, 2011, at 12:12 PM, Susan Ventura wrote:

Onion plants work very well as long as the roots have been trimmed and are free of soil.  I grow my own from seed so we pull out the plants from the tray, knock off the soil and trim the roots first.  Tops should also be trimmed to about 4”.   I’ve planted many thousands in a day including trimming time.  I also bought some onion plants last year and those come already trimmed so those went pretty easy and fast. 

 

I start my own onions in 72's, grow and plant them several seed/plants to a cell (on wider spacing than I would single plants). Are you saying that onions won't go through the seeder in a 72-size cell unless you knock all the soil off first? and, if so, do you also have to do that for lettuce, brassicas, etc.?

 

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly

Fresh-market organic produce, small scale