Plant Propagation Basics

LIFE FINDS A WAY
It's really easy to forget that plants are some of the oldest forms of life on the earth. They have survived (and thrived) for so long because just like us they can make more of themselves. Most often you see this in action as something you plant that spreads all over, often quickly. Even in harsh climates plants can adapt through changes in evolution enabled by propagation. No matter what, they will find a way to survive.

No matter what plant we're talking about there are only two types of plant propagation: sexual and asexual. Within those two there are various methods to propagate but in the end, those two are it.


SEXUAL PROPAGATION
Basically, the seeds you buy in the spring are the result of this method. There's a great reference here at OSU's extension and at Wikipedia but here are the basics. Plants that reproduce sexually contain male parts called the stamen and female parts called the pistil. Each one is comprised of several pieces, but essentially the male parts contain the pollen which is carried to the female part where it eventually becomes a seed.

THE WORLD ISN'T PERFECT?
In some plant species flowers can be male or female, these plants/flowers are referred to as "imperfect". Some examples of these are cucumbers, pumpkins and melons. When you plant these types you must plant both males and females near each other. Unfortunately, there is no way to determine the sex of the seed so make sure you plant several. Once the flowers mature you will be able to determine which ones are which and remove extra plants.

Since "imperfect" plants are unable to move around on their own to distribute their pollen the rely on "pollinators" to do the job for them. Sometimes the wind is enough but since it's more unreliable they count on things like bees and butterflies to help out. If you plan on growing species that are imperfect, make sure to plant things that will attract butterflies and bees. You can do it manually with a q-tip, but that's for a future article.

So, the opposite of imperfect are "perfect flowers", these are ones that have both male and female parts on the same flower. Examples of these are tomatoes, peppers, lilies and roses. These don't necessarily require pollinators as a light wind is usually enough. However, I have found that when you have pollinators around vegetables of this type you will end up with a better harvest.

From the plant's perspective, the whole goal of this exercise isn't to produce tomatoes for your award winning sauce, it's simply a matter of the need to survive through seed production. Now, having all this pollen from different plants being moved around opens up the opportunity for genetic material to spread. The result of this can be unusual or completely new plants! Taking pollen from one type of plant and pollinating a different plant is called "hybridizing" or "crossing". This in itself is a massive subject which I'll deal with in a different post.

ASEXUAL PROPAGATION
As I mentioned before there are two basic propagation methods, the second one is asexual. At this point you have probably guessed this is propagation through something *other* than seed. Depending on the type of plant there can be several method of asexual reproduction, the most common are tuberous, bulbous and self-rooting.

Tuberous propagation is where the root system of a plant starts lateral growth from each side of the plant. As these "tubers" move through the soil they send new plant stalks up through the ground. On the surface these tend to look like completely separate plants, however under the ground they're connected. At some point, these connections become severed, either by old age or more commonly by an underground animal. Once severed, each plant is on it's own to start shooting out more tubers to create new plants. These tubers can be dug up prior to the plant going dormant, split into pieces then planted individually the next season.

I'm guessing you have noticed "bulbous propagation" contains the word bulb in it. If you garden even just a little chances are pretty good you have planted bulbs. Things like tulips and hyacinth fall into this class. Bulbous propagation is similar to tubers in that it occurs under the ground. Here however a large bulb is planted and over a succession of seasons small "bulbettes" form in a cluster around the base of the parent bulb. Season after season these baby bulbs grow larger and larger and eventually disconnect from their parent. Once that has occurred, these new parents are free to start forming their own bulbettes and the cycle continues. When the bulbettes are about two thirds mature you can manually split them from the parent in the spring or fall and replant them. This is precisely what professional bulb companies do. They dig the bulbs up, remove and replant the babies then dry and sell the parents to us.

The last asexual method I call "self-rooting" and is my absolute favorite. If you have some ivy around take a close look around where the leaves are attached to the stem of the plant. Chances are good you will see little creamy white "nodules" around that area. Many people mistake these as disease but in fact they are new root systems under development. Get these little roots anywhere near soil and they will almost immediately shoot into the ground. From that point they push out new foliage and stems and the process starts all over again. Commercial growers take cuttings of plants and exploit this propagation method to produce tons of plant material all over the world. It is by far the fastest and most reliable method to propagate many types of plants. I have used this method for years on MANY types of plants, just a few examples are coleus, basil, sweet potato vine, petunias, impatiens, alternanthera and all of the mums I grow come in as rooted cuttings. Details on how to do this will come in a future article, however if you Google for "plant cuttings" you will find tons of results.

GENETIC DIVERSITY
Even this basic introduction on plant propagation requires some introduction to plant genetics. Don't let this scare you off, they are quite similar to us. Every male and female plant flower contains the genetic material to reproduce that plant. During the fertilization process this genetic material is passed to the children of those plants. And, just like humans, there is a ton of genetic diversity which can cause a plant to evolve over time. It is because of this that sexual propagation can, and often does, lead to different plants. If you are a parent of several children you know this for a fact, even though they have the same parents each child is different. Yes, I know there can be twins and such, but this is not the norm. This is a huge subject, enough for books, but the basic thing to take away is this: sexual reproduction (seed) won't always produce the same plant as the parents.

Asexual propagation is the opposite, it's like cloning the parent. In fact, rooted cuttings will be a copy of the parent plant. Well, there can be exceptions referred to as "sports" but that's for another conversation as well. Bulbous and tuberous propagation produce almost carbon copies but the chance for "genetic drift" is slightly higher.

CAN THEY DO BOTH?
As a matter of fact, many plants can be propagated both sexually and asexually. A really good example of this is the coleus. Coleus has perfect flowers (male and female parts) and will produce seed that can be grown into new plants. At the same time, you can take cuttings from it and root them for a copy of it. Why would you choose one over the other? Back to genetic diversity, the chances are pretty good that the seed from that plant won't look like the parent. The cutting will.

Now, in a variety where the genetics have been stabilized it could be just a matter of convenience. Many tomatoes, especially heirlooms, have been around for so many years that the seed are almost always "true". Grow them, save some seed and the next year you have a really good chance they will be the same. However, if you want to push the growing cycle, root a cutting from the parent and you magically get a 6-8 week head start. I do this all the time with many types of plants. We maintain what is called "stock" material for precisely this purpose. I always have the option of starting that plant from seed but many times I can dramatically reduce the growing time, sometimes by half.

MORE TO COME
Hopefully you have a better understanding of the basic of plant propagation. In the future I will address things like genetic drift in more detail and how to avoid it. As always, comments are welcomed!

Greenhouse tray sizes

HELP!?
How many times have you been looking around the garden center looking at labels and wonder what numbers like 1208, 1803 and 606 are? Even worse, if you start your own seeds and order from any of the supply companies it gets even more difficult to understand. I myself suffered from terminology shock when I first started gardening and found scarce help on terminology. So, I'm going to pass along what I have learned.

SIZE DOES MATTER
The foundation of understanding anything I am about to explain starts with one basic term: the standard size of a greenhouse tray. The image you see at the start of this article is the front and back of what is called a standard 1020 tray. These numbers indicate nothing other the width and length, in inches, of the tray: 10" by 20". In reality they're like 10.5" x 20.5" but you get the idea. Any time you hear someone refer to a "standard tray" or a "1020 tray", that's what they mean. These come in several flavors: with holes, without holes or a web tray (pictured to the right). These are ALL 1020 trays, just different types.

TO DO THEIR DUTY
To confuse you even more manufactures produce different weight trays as well. All this means is that the heavier the weight, the heavier duty the tray is. For example, Dillen offers three different weights of trays: light, middle and heavy. Overall I prefer the mid-weight as they offer a good balance of price and durability.

YOU SAID 1020 WAS STANDARD
Unfortunately, the 1020 standard defines the OUTSIDE dimensions of the tray, NOT the inside. The result is that trays from different manufactures won't always fit inside each other. Yes, I did say it was standard but but it's a loose one. Basically, you're stuck buying trays from the same manufacture if you ever want to stack them. As an example, most of the time I use web trays for effective drainage but because they are flimsy I put them inside a solid tray for transport. If I purchased the web trays from Landmark and solid trays from Dillen I wouldn't be able to do this. I've tried, it doesn't work.

INSERT NEW TERM HERE
The next term describes those little plastic things that go inside the tray, these are referred to as inserts. They come in all sorts of sizes depending on the application, crop and time of year in which they are used. The numbering system for these isn't really a standard per se but commonly used. Open up a hard goods catalog or go to the website of one of the manufactures and you'll see numbers like 3201, 1204, 1201, 606 and so on. These numbers describe the number of individual inserts that go in the tray and the number of "cells" per insert. For example a sheet of 1204's would have 12 individual inserts with 4 cells per insert. This is the most common size for spring bedding plants and vegetables, you have probably bought many of these. A 1201 (pictured above) would be 12 individual inserts with a single cell, these are commonly referred to as a "sheet of pots". Of course, like the trays, inserts from one manufacture most likely will not fit in a tray from another one.

SQUARE PEG, ROUND HOLE
Within the inserts themselves growers have different ideas on what the best way to grow small plants is. Some argue that a round cell in the insert is best for root development while others argue for a square. In some cases, manufactures have solved that by making the cell square with rounded edges. And even outside the square or round you have the 1803 which has 3 triangular cells per insert. Personally, I have taken to a round shape as that makes transplant into larger pots easier as my dibble creates a round hole.

HOW DEEP DO YOU GO?
Hopefully you've been keeping up with how exceptionally well these standards are maintained (hah). Similar to how the trays come in various flavors the inserts have options as well. Many of them can be purchased in different depths to handle crops that need additional root area. Most manufactures give them names such as "deep", "extra deep" or "jumbo". I have even seen manufactures use the cell depth in the product number instead of giving them names. Your mileage may vary between manufactures.

SLIM IT DOWN
At some point, I'm not exactly sure when, growers realized that 10"x20" consumed space in the greenhouse that many crops didn't need. Manufactures responded to this with trays that were still 20" long but slimmed down to a width of 8" to 9". Unfortunately, they didn't develop a standard term for this so each manufacture has their own names. Some call them "slim jim" others call them "skinnie minnie" and yet others call them "slimline" They're all the same idea, reduce the width of the tray so the growers can fit more trays per square foot in the greenhouse. A word of caution on these: standard 1020 inserts DO NOT fit in these trays. Not only that, many of them are considered seasonal or special order so you'll need to order PALLETS of them at a time.

IDENTIFY ME
Some manufactures will advertise something called a "tag locator" on their trays. Often times the part number is a "T" or "TL" in it. This is simply a small slot somewhere in the tray, usually on one of the sides, to insert a tag. Most often these are used to tag the tray with an order number, fertilizer rate or greenhouse location information. These are quite useful if you have an entire tray of a single variety but they're getting harder and harder to find since most trays grown for retail have a tag in each insert. These are more common with growers that supply to landscapers since they don't often tag the plants they plant. At anywhere from .03 to .25 per tag this can save a ton of cost in the long run.

PAY THE PIPER
Greenhouse trays are plastic and therefore require petroleum to produce. Over the past several years I have seen the cost of trays, inserts and pots at least double. There are a few manufactures out there developing alternative products, such as trays made out of rice hulls, straw or even manure. They haven't become all that popular and are still cost prohibitive. Until growers purchase them in large amounts the price will continue to be out of reach for most of us.

RECOMMENDATIONS
I hope on your next trip to the garden center you'll be able to understand the products you are looking at a little better.

A few things I have learned over the years when buying trays.

• Purchase all of your material from the same manufacture. I can't stress this enough, this alone will save you a TON of aggravation.
  
• Buy the heavier duty trays, they'll hold up for several years. That is unless you're growing and selling whole trays for a profit, for those buy as cheap as possible.
• If you opt for the lower cost trays avoid moving them around. I try to limit moves in the greenhouse to 1 or 2 otherwise they crack and fall apart.
  
• Use trays with holes or web flats for proper drainage. I've had better luck with the web flats holding up over time and because of the lower amount of plastic they cost about the same as cheap solid trays.
  
• Find a good distributor and purchase all material from them to get maximum discounts.

USEFUL INSERT APPLICATIONS

• 606 - Good general purpose insert for flowers and vegetables. Use these when you want the plants to get a little fuller and taller than those grown in 1204's.
  
• 606 Deep - Good for pansies, petunias and violas. I use the plants from 1 of these inserts to plant up 10" hanging baskets. 6 deep rooted starts are perfect for a 10" basket.
  
• 1204 - Almost the defacto for spring bedding plants and early vegetable transplants. In order to get around the normally huge minimum orders go to East Jordan Plastics, they have a 1 case minimum.
• 1201 - Great for seed starting. Start 12 varieties in the space of a single flat. They don't tear easily so they can be reused 2-3 times.
  
• 3201 - Our standard size herb and vegetable pot. A sheet of these has (32) 2.5" pots, 8 per row in 4 rows. They're extremely economical and allow for fairly large size plants early in the season. W
  

Ornamental Peppers

A HEALTHY OBSESSION
A few years ago we were shopping at a warehouse store and found this pot full of these strange pointy little peppers. We bought it, took it home and that was the start of our obsession with ornamental peppers. Today we grow and sell nearly 50 (or more) varieties of these things and get all sorts of questions about them.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Most garden centers start selling ornamental peppers in the fall, although once in a while (and from us) you can find them in the spring season. Every year we make the rounds to all the garden centers we know of around Chicago to see which ones they are selling and maybe spot some new varieties. Inevitably, we find one we have never seen, or haven't seen in a while and we ask the staff there "what's the name of this ornamental pepper"? 90% of the time we get the response "it's a capsicum annuum". Then we ask "well, which one?" and get the answer "they're all the same".

Now, I understand that training in garden centers can sometimes be a little slack, but that's just flat out wrong information. Yes, they are all in the Genus Capsicum and I believe all are in the species annuum, but that's like saying all Solanum lycopersicum (the tomato) are all the same. Or take it the next step and say all Solanum are all the same. I have said it before, and I will say it again, that's just wrong.

I know for a fact ornamental peppers have named varieties, when I order tags for my plants I order them PER VARIETY with NAMES ON EACH. Yes, the label companies sell "generic" ornamental pepper tags but most growers use those for the Walmart's of the world that want to maintain as few SKU numbers as they can.

ARE THEY EDIBLE?
When someone sees ornamental peppers for the first time, this is almost always their first question. The answer is yes, but having tasted almost every one we sell, some just don't taste all that good. The only time you really need to be concerned is if the grower has used a fertilizer that's rated for ornamental crops and not for edible ones. These fertilizers often contain trace elements that establish themselves in the plants and could cause harm if ingested. Ask the garden center where you're purchasing them what type of fertilizer was used, if they can't answer you order from us, we use Daniel's fertilizer on ours which is safe.

WHAT DO I DO WITH THEM?
Another common problem is that people don't know what to use them for. The most common application is in baskets, planters or urns as "filler". Ornamental peppers bring a ton of color to planters, especially in the fall alongside mums, ornamental cabbage and Swiss chard. During the summer months they can be used in mass for borders, again, they add a ton of color.

HOW DO I CARE FOR THEM?
Care is similar to other ornamental plants, water when they start to dry out and don't over water them. During active growth they require feeding, again similar to other ornamental plants. A weekly dose of MiracleGro will suffice or use a controlled release fertilizer such as Osmocote.

ARE THEY PERENNIAL?
No, they are annuals like other peppers.

DIFFICULT FROM SEED?
No more than other peppers, germination can take anywhere from 3 to 10 days and they're ready for transplant in 4-6 weeks depending on the variety. Medusa is EXTREMELY fast to germinate, 2-3 days, which amazes me every time I grow them. About the only warning I can give is some of the varieties can take up to 24 weeks to mature (like Black Pearl). So, if you're not a patient person, don't grow those varieties or even better, buy them from us!

CAN I SAVE SEED?
You will have better luck saving seed from the varieties that are not F1 hybrids, they tend to "drift" genetically quite quickly back to their parents. We successfully save seed from open pollinated varieties but different types will need separation to prevent cross pollination. Even then they only seem to hold "true to variety" for 2-3 seasons.

SHOULD I TRY THEM?
If you're bored with the same old, same old by all means YES! Ornamental peppers are quite easy to grow, even from seed, and produce long lasting color well into the fall.

Daniels plant food

I recently posted about Osmocote controlled release fertilizer (CRF) and mentioned that I also use a liquid feed fertilizer along with it. Well, the one I'm using today is called Daniels Plant Food and it's working great for us. They have formulations for home gardeners, professional growers as well as for garden centers. All of their products are produced from a seed extract so they're extremely organic which is why I chose them. Keeping away toxic chemicals is not only safe for you, it's safer for the plants. I mean really, avoid fertilizer burn by simply avoiding the chemicals that run the risk of burning plants!

The home gardener version is the same basic formulation as their standard professional version, 10-4-3, only it comes in a much smaller container. It's available online from many sources and local retailers are offering it more and more. For those of you that are professional growers, call your local distributor to see if it's available, I use BFG Supply here in Chicago.

Application rates for the home version are listed on the bottle and are quite easy to follow. For professional mix rates it can get a little difficult, but with 10% N it's not too hard to figure out the math. I use Dosatron injectors and they have a nifty little calculator on their site to calculate the amount of concentrate and the injector settings. If you're using Dosamatic, I bet they have something similar.

When I purchased my first injector for the spring season this year I went looking for something to replace the fish emulsion I had been using. While I absolutely swear by fish emulsion, especially in the home garden, it simply can't be mixed and used with an injector. I was after something organic in nature to reduce the risk of burn, reduce runoff issues and be able to use on vegetable AND ornamental crops. The only one I found was Daniels.

One thing to keep in mind about this fertilizer is where the Nitrogen comes from. The type (yes, there are a couple type of N) is of a source that doesn't "green" up plants at low rates like a chemical fertilizer. It'll provide all the nutrients, major and minor, that your plants need but if you want lush green foliage you'll need to increase the strength. I'm finding that 50ppm N is good for normal use, but an increase to 100-200ppm every week greens up the plants rather nicely.

What you don't know how to calculate ppm of your fertilizer? Well, use this calculator to figure it out. Plug in the NPK of Daniels there (10-4-3) then fiddle with the teaspoons per gallon until you hit the desired rate. Don't worry, I'll be explaining the types of Nitrogen and application rates for different crops in a future article.

All in all, if you're a sworn MiracleGro person today, try dumping that chemical backwash for a season and give the organic option a try. Not only will you see a difference, you'll feel better about it.

Osmocote

A few years ago I started using a controlled release fertilizer (CRF) called Osmocote. I was a bit skeptical at first but since then have become a true convert. If you want to save time and labor feeding your plants, start using this stuff.

The best way to describe a controlled release fertilizer is that it's like an M&M and slowly over time, based on temperature, the outer coating starts to melt away. As this happens small amounts of fertilizer are released into the soil around it. The best part is that the rate of "melting" changes with the temperature. When it's cooler, it slows down, when it warms up, it speeds up. This provides almost the perfect amount of feeding when the plant needs it.

I specifically use Osmocote although there are other brands on the market. From what I've read it was one of the original products of this type. Osmocote is from Scott's, although I'm not sure if they are the original creators or if they purchased it from someone.

They currently offer 2 "grades" of the product, a consumer and a professional version. For years I used the consumer version, and specifically the fruit & vegetable one, however this year I switched to Osmocote Plus professional. These come in 50 lb. bags and are more cost effective in larger volumes. But, for anyone at home, the retail will work just fine. The professional version is also available in several different strengths as well as versions with minor elements (other than NPK).

Applications rates are printed on the retail product, and for the professional version they have data sheets on their website. I've been using 2 TSP for a 4" pot, 1 TBSP for 1 gallon or 8" pots and 2 TBSP for 2 gallon mums. For the plants and baskets we plant up in May I plan on that lasting well through the summer, usually into August.

We apply it in what's called a "top dress" which simply means we sprinkle it on the top of the soil around a potted plant. The other option is to mix the product into your potting mix, however, if you do this only mix what you need for a short time. After the addition into your soil, the outside humidity and temperature coupled with the moisture in the soil will start the time ticking. It's because of this (and that mixing is labor intensive) that we use the top dress method.

All in all, it's a wonderful product. The only real downside is that's its not organic, in any way. But, if you want to prove what it can do, take two of the same plant and put Osmocote on one of them. In 2-4 weeks the one with the CRF will be noticeably different.

Which lantro?

Recently my wife mentioned she had a comment from a potential customer that asked why we didn't refer to Cilantro as Culantro in our store. Well, because they're not the same and apparently this person was quite insistent they were. So, Ithink it's time to set the record straight.

Yes, botanically these two plants are in the same family, Apiaceae, but the comparison stops there. Culantro's botanical name is Eryngium foetidum whereas Cilantro's is Coriandrum sativum. Just because potatoes, peppers, eggplant and tomatoes (and petunias for that matter) are all in the Solanaceae family doesn't mean they're all the same. Do you order a bacon, lettuce and potato sandwich? How about some nice pepper-plant parmesan? Or eggplant sauce on your pasta? Heck, for that matter anything in the family Hominidae are the same as well.

Now, let's add to this the fact that there are actually several named varieties of Cilantro such as Santo and Delfino whereas Culantro has only one that I know of. Personally, I have never grown Culantro but have grown a ton of Cilantro. From what I've read, Culantro has many similarities to it's sister herb such as bolting in warmer/long days. But being the tropical that it is, I would imagine it is unable to take the lower temps that Cilantro thrives in.

Now, from a taste perspective they are in fact similar. Cilantro tends to be a zero or one thing, you love it or hate it. My wife says she doesn't like the "soapy" flavor of Cilantro but I couldn't have a salsa without it.

If anyone has proof that these are in fact the same thing, I invite you to share it.

Mums

Mums are in full swing now so I thought I would post some tips on when and how to pinch them. When I first started growing mums I found several sources of growing tips and thought I would share what I found.

I start mum planning in mid January and order rooted cuttings with tags from Raker (through Germania) in mid February for a June 1 delivery. By planning and ordering early Germania extends an early order discount (EOD) of 5%. In the past I have ordered the pinched version of the cuttings but have found it more cost effective for us to give the first pinch at transplant time. This also prevents the cuttings from filling in over the 4 weeks it takes to get all of them potted up.

During the planning phase I estimate how many sizes we're going to produce then calculate soil and pot cost for budgeting. We grow 3 "standard" sizes: 4", 8"x5" mum pans and 2 gallon. For calculating soil, here's my reference for fill rates:

4" Thinwall- 120
8"x5" mum pan - 28
Trade 2 gallon - 15

The 4" and 8" pots are from Dillen, the 2 gallon is a C600 from Nursery Supply Inc. Soil is Fafard 3B in 2.8 cu. ft. bags and fill rates have been calculate by me by filling and counting pots. I've used manufacure estimates before but have found those rates to differ from reality. We fill all pots to the very top, scrape off to level then lightly tamp in the soil a couple times.

When the rooted cuttings arrive the first thing we do after removing them from the shipping box is to water them and place them into a shady spot for a day. After being in a shipping box for several days I have found this step necessary to prevent unnecessary stress (and death) on the small plants. After that day I place them in the greenhouse and start a normal watering and feeding schedule.

Start planting your largest pots first as they'll take the longest time to grow. For me, I target having all the 2 gallon pots "all stuck up" by June 15, the 8" by the third week in June and the 4" no later than July 4th. I also stagger the 2 gallon planting by 1-2 weeks so there's a constant supply of finished product in September and October.

The basic sticking process is the same regardless of pot size, dampen the soil, dibble a hole in the middle of the pot then stick the rooted cutting in. At this point we pinch off the top 1/3rd of the cutting to stimulate side growth which helps yield a larger finished plant. Because it takes up to 4 weeks to get all of the cuttings planted the last round usually required half, if not 2/3, of the cutting to be pinched at sticking time.

For feeding we use a combination slow release & liquid program on the mums. At sticking all of them receive a top dress of Osmocote Plus 15-9-12 at the following rates:

2 gallon - 3 TBSP
8" mum pan - 2 TBSP
4" thinwall - 1 TBSP

Once planted up they are watered/fed in with 50ppm Nitrogen. We use a Dosatron injector system with Daniels plant food set and mixed to the 50ppm N level. Once planted up they are moved to an open production area where they are lined up pot to pot. They will eventually need to be spaced out to allow growth, but at the start I pack them together to help prevent them from falling over, especially in the rainy and windy part of June.

Now, the creator of the mums we purchase (Yoder - now owned by Syngenta) claims most of their mums are "no pinch" varieties. I have found this to NOT be the case. While modern varieties certainly require fewer pinches they are by no means "0 pinch".

When I first started growing mums the point at which to start pinching and how much to pinch was a cause of much confusion. Some papers stated to pinch every 2 weeks, others said to pinch when they outgrew the pot. The method I have settled in on is to watch when the roots touch the inside of the pot and starts to come out the drainage hole. Once you see the roots come out, give them the first pinch. Depending on the mum variety this can range from an extremely soft pinch to one almost axe like in nature. The end goal of this pinch is to remove most of the elongated stems to allow them to start "bushing out". If the variety is natually shrub-like in habit you won't need to remove much, just the new soft growth. However, if the variety is natually taller/longer you will need to pinch "to the pot". If the stems have grown beyond the pot they are in, pinch back "to the pot". Be sure to pinch the same amount from the top of the plant that you removed from the side. In the end, you should have a mostly round globe/ball shape.

Label the pots with the first pinch! I mark the back of the pot tag with the text "P1-mm/dd" to indicate the first pinch check occurred on that date. If a pinch was necessary, I place a check mark next to the text. The next time you want to check for a pinch is 2 weeks from that date. The second pinch, if necessary, should be quite soft and should remove the outermost new growth. At this point I again mark the tag with a P2 and the date. If they required a second pinch I put a check mark next to the P2. So, the back of our tags ends up looking like this:

P1-7/1 (check mark if it needed a pinch)
P2-7/15 (check mark if it needed a pinch)

While this might seem like a pain, it really helps out as your scouting to make sure the crop is on schedule and needs anything done to improve quality.

Many modern varieties do not require the second pinch so you will need to experiment a bit. Rarely, if ever, do they need a third pinch these days. Modern breeders, especially Yoder, has put a lot of effort into selections that require less pinching. In the long run this is a good thing as it dramatically lowers per touch labor cost.

Final spacing on the plants differs based on the pot size, however we use a basic method to get them close. As we lay out the plants for their final spacing, we use an empty pot of the same size between them to judge the distance. If they start to outgrow that space come August and September we then space them out so they're just barely touching each other. I like to space them out earlier in the growth cycle since you inevitably have to do this anyways. At the time of the first pinch we take them from the packed in area, pinch them then move them to a spaced growing section.

During active growth they receive the same feeding cycle that we use to water them in, a constant 50ppm N rate from the Dosatron. This, in combination with the Osmocote, yields nice large full plants that sell for a premium come fall. Images of our 2009 crop after the first pinch and final spacing are here. Happy growing!

Dosatron Injector

I recently purchased a Dosatron D14MZ2 fertilizer injector from BFG Supply (in Joliet, IL) and thought I would give some idea of how it works.

My reasoning for the purchase was to allow us to provide a constant feed to our plants in and around the greenhouses at a low rate (50ppm N). Prior to the injector I was either hand mixing Neptun's Harvest fish emulsion (FE) in a watering can or using a Miracle Grow LiquaFeed Ready-To-Use hand sprayer. The advantage of the fish emulsion is the fact that it's all organic and is almost impossible to burn the plants with. The Miracle Grow provided a higher rate of feeding over the FE but can run the risk of phytotoxicity. The single largest downside to either option at a larger scale is cost. In order to feed the amount of plants we have I was using 2 Miracle Grow fertilizer cartridges a week and up to 2 FE bottles a month. Here in Chicago that came to $25 per week in April I was spendnig on fertilizer. Add to that the labor to hand mix the FE in 2 gallon amounts and we were spending almost $150 a month!

Now, I did a ton of research into injectors prior to the purchase and one thing I found was that some fertilizers "tank mix" better than others so I first had to find that. I researched and tested concentrates from Scotts, Peters and Daniel's. In the end, the Daniel's 10-4-3 proved to be the safest and most cost effective option. Like the fish emulsion it's organic so fertilizer burn is lowered if not removed completely. Additionally, the Nitrogen in the mix is of a form that plants can uptake more efficiently. From my supplier here, BFG, a 4.7 gallon jug of Daniel's is around $34.

I decided on the Dosatron injector over the others because they use fewer parts in the unit. Not only are there fewer parts, less of them move. Fewer moving parts means fewer breakdowns long term. In addition to that, when I had questions prior to purchasing the unit their customer service was grade A. Despite the fact that I'm a small grower and only needed a single injector they took the time to answer every question I had and provided all sorts of tips on how to size the unit. In the end I decided on their newer 14GPM unit since I was powering a single hose, wanted an easy bypass and wanted to make the unit portable.

I purchased the unit from BFG for $285 along with a $26 filter. Additionally, I purchased the bypass kit directly from Dosatron as BFG didn't carry it. I also purchased a back flow valve from a local Menard's as well as some hose menders, plumbing tape, 600lb moving cart/truck, some 1/2" plywood, a 5 gallon bucket and 4 "U" bolts. Total cost for the entire unit was $422.

For the bypass there are 2 options: build a PVC one or purchase one directly from Dosatron. I opted for the Dosatron bypass since the unit is going to be portable. If it was wall mounted directly I would have built a bypass out of 3/4" PVC with unions so it could be removed for maintenance. The inline bypass took about 15 minutes to install. The only downside is you have to remove the air bleed valve to install it. The service rep at Dosatron told me that they unit could have been ordered with the bypass installed through BFG to save me the work. I should note that BFG never told me that. However, even if they did I didn't want to wait 2 weeks to get the system in, they had the standard one in stock.

It took perhaps an hour to build and assemble the entire unit, the injector itself was extremely simple to setup, perhaps 10 minutes. I can't stress enough how easy the injector is to install and operate, Dosatron has done a great job on that part. Once assembled all I needed to do was determine how to mix the fertilizer. Here's where Dosatron's service and support excels. I called them to see if they had any recommendations, not only did they help, it turns out they have a calculator on their website to give you the rates and settings you need for a particular feeding rate.

In the end I calculated that I need 4 cups of Daniel's concentrate to 5 gallons of water and the injector set to 1% to achieve a final rate of 50ppm N. This provides us with a low, slow constant feed for all the plants.

Also, since we have kids around I wanted to be sure they don't drink from the fertilized water even if the bypass is on. So, I installed a "Y" valve on the spigot, one side goes to the injector, the other has a regular hose on it. Additionally, I used black hoses on the injector so the kids know not to use it. Black = bad, green = good.

I'm using a 5 gallon bucket a week of the concentrate which equates to 1 gallon of Daniel's per month. At that rate the 4.7 gallon will last me almost 5 months! This comes to around $6.80 per month in fertilizer now which means I'm saving around $143 per month. Seriously, you can't ask for better than a 3 month ROI.

Images of the injector and setup are here.

Growing Holy Basil (Tulsi)

We started growing and selling Holy Basil (Tulsi) about 3 years ago and immediately noticed how difficult and slow they can be. They don't really taste that good, at least to me, which is why I'm guessing they have more medicinal and religious significance in India. So, after a whole lot of practice (and dead plants), here's what I've learned to date. These findings generally apply to all of the varieties, but red (Krishna) can be exceptionally painful.

GROWTH TIME
Start to flowering can take up to 6 months depending on the weather.

HARDINESS
From what I've heard, in their native habitat they're treated as self-seeding semi-hardy annuals.

GERMINATING
For germinating, I use 1201 inserts in standard flats filled 3/4 up with Fafard superfine germinating mix. I can't stress enough the need to use professional sterilized seed starting mix, really, don't make your own. I then spread 30-40 of the seeds in the cell, cover them lightly with a little more soil mix then water them in thoroughly.

All of these, but especially red, can be slow to germinate. Don't be surprised if it takes up to 30 days for them to pop up. The only viable method to help speed that up is to provide bottom heat to bring the soil temp up. It's also quite important for the soil to not dry out or become excessively soggy. For watering during this stage I place the cell in water as opposed to spraying the top of them. If you're in a low humidity environment, like a gas heated house in the winter, a fine mist with a water bottle can help. However, in general I've found that bottom watering ANY plant prevents fungal diseases on the leaves.

GROWING ON
Once the SECOND set of leaves appears they should be transplanted to their final container. To do this, remove the seedlings from the container they were started in and carefully take out 1 plant. Dibble a small hole in the destination container and plant the seedling making sure not to plant it deeper than it originally was and disturbing the roots as little as possible. Once transplanted they can take up to 90 days to be salable, however they could be planted in the ground after 30-45 days.

For wholesale we transplant to Landmark Plastics "sheet of pots". These are 2 1/2" square 3201 type pots that fit in a standard 1020 flat. For local retail and Internet sales we then move these up to 4" round pots.

FEEDING
I have found that Holy Basil is similar to other basil varieties in it's feeding requirements. I use a fertilizer injector with Daniel's 10-4-3 plant food set to 50ppm N at a constant feed. For those of you at home, I would use fish emulsion mixed at 1/2 the instructed rate and start feeding the seedlings weekly when the first true leaves appear. Once transplanted I would increase the strength of the fertilizer (to the labeled rate) and feed 2-3 times a week.

CONCLUSION
Despite the difficult nature, if you follow these general steps you can grow Holy Basil as good as any greenhouse. The largest single requirement for success is patience.

Seed Germination Testing

Whether you operate a professional seed business or collect and save seed for yourself, it's necessary to make sure the seed you are selling or saving are actually viable. There are several ways you can test seeds for germination rates, we use the "paper towel and zip lock" method (maybe I should trademark and patent that)…

In our case, we produce and purchase wholesale seed to package and sell so we track and publish germination rates for every lot of seed we produce (regardless of source). For tracking I've created a database that, in very simple terms, looks something like this:

TABLE: PLANT_MASTER
FIELD: PLANT_ID
FIELD: PLANT_COMMON_NAME

TABLE: SEED_SOURCES
FIELD: SOURE_ID
FIELD: SOURCE_NAME

TABLE: SEED_LOTS
FIELD: LOT_ID
FIELD: PLANT_ID -> Link to PLANT_MASTER::PLANT_MASTER
FIELD: SOURCE_ID -> Link to SEED_SOURCES::SOURCE_ID

TABLE: SEED_GERMINATION_TESTS
FIELD: TEST_ID
FIELD: LOT_ID -> Link to SEED_LOTS::LOT_ID
FIELD: TEST_DATE
FIELD: NUM_SEEDS_TESTED
FIELD: GERM_TESTER

TABLE: SEED_GERMINATION_TEST_RESULTS
FIELD: RESULT_ID
FIELD: TEST_ID -> Link to SEED_GERMINATION_TESTS::TEST_ID
FIELD: NUM_GERMINATED
FIELD: NUM_NOT_GERMINATED
FIELD: NUM_BAD
FIELD: GERMINATION_PCT

So, for the actual test process, you'll need the following:

• Small zip lock baggie.
  
• Paper towel. I use the ones that come in smaller, half size sheets.
  
• Label to put on the baggie, I like the Avery address labels.
  
• Sharpie permanent marker.
  
• Seeds to test
  

Here's a picture of what I start with and the steps to do.

1. Fold the paper towel over in half.
   
2. Fold that half over again.
   
3. And fold it over yet again.
   
4. Moisten the paper towel and spread the seeds to test over it.
   
5. Fold the paper towel over again covering the seeds.
   
6. Place the paper towel inside the zip lock, label the baggie and fold it over.
   

Check the bag every couple days making sure you seal it back up. The paper towel should stay slightly moist but not soggy otherwise the seeds will rot. Depending on the plant it can take anywhere from 2 to 30 days for the seeds to germinate. Once you're confident all the seeds than can germinate have, record the results somewhere (we do in our database) and pack away.

Useless Ladybug House

A couple weeks ago I purchased some ladybugs from www.gardeningzone.com to help keep down the growing aphid population around our plants. If you don't keep something around for them to feed on once the "bad bugs" are gone, they'll leave the area. So, I decided to purchase a Springstar Ladybug house with lures to try to keep them around. At the same time I purchased these "aphid chasers (alarm)" hoping they would help as well.

I sent a question through their website asking if the ladybugs would survive shipment in cold February conditions. Well, it took them a week to get back to me but their answer was basically "they'll be fine". So, I bought 350 of their ladybugs along with the house and the chasers. I ordered on a Thursday, paid 2 day shipping and waited until they shipped the next week on Tuesday (nice guys). After arrival, about 100 of them were already dead, so much for "they'll be fine". I released them and within 24 hours another 100 or so were dead. This is now almost 2 weeks later and I think there are maybe 25 or 30 left alive.

Now, I received this house along with a couple of what they call "lures". I then opened the "aphid chasers" and noticed something strange. The "ladybug lure" on the left of that image came with the ladybug house; the one on the right is what they call the "aphid chaser". Notice anything (like they're the same)!

I'll set aside the apparent scam on the "lure" vs. the "chaser/alarm" but the ladybug "food" that came with the house was spilled all over the place, there were no directions with it and even after I put it up it didn't work. Doesn't really matter if the house works when they're all dead anyways right?

Moral of the story, don't bother with either of them. Get the ladybugs (from somewhere else); let some of them die off so you reach a natural equilibrium of bad bugs vs. predator and move on.

Seed Packing

When I first started gardening, one of the first things I asked was "where do these seeds come from"? Now, I know this seems silly to those that grow plants, but surprisingly there are many people out there that don't know where seeds come from. That's what led me down the path of seed saving for my own use. It started with Peppers, then moved to Tomatoes and then to anything else I could harvest seed from. Then, one day in 2006 I said "hey, can we sell these"? We started packing them up on a small basis and selling them on eBay. The thing was, they sold!

From there we started finding reliable wholesale sources of seed, learned about germination testing and found ways to pack and label so they're in compliance with the federal seed act. The easiest way to start was to use small poly bags to pack the seeds in and use Avery address labels with the information. The biggest reason we use those is because there is very little information on the Internet on where to obtain "real" seed packets. Sure, do a search and you'll find a dozen suppliers of wildflower packets custom designed with your logo. The problem is these are designed for marketing campaigns and based on the pricing I've received there's NO viable way to make any money using them.

So, I contacted Botanical Interests (since I love their packet) and asked where they have them made. And, as most gardeners are, they were more than willing to share the information. Turns out they use a company out of NY named Hamer Packaging. If you call them, ask for Brian, he handles the seed packets (I was quoted 34.95 per 1000, minimum of 5000). While on the phone with him I asked about packing equipment, specifically to automate the filling and sealing of the printed packets. He said there aren't many machines out there for this purpose and those that are sell for $100K. He told me about a "co-packer" in NY named Crosman seed that you send the cleaned raw seed to along with the printed packets and off you go.

Another search for "contract seed packing" yielded Ed Hume Seed Company. I called and spoke with Joe about this service. They can supply the seed, packets or you can and they'll pack them up in minimums of 500 at .07 each. Not a bad option… He also mentioned that they get packets from Cambridge Pacific who I'm going to give a call to tomorrow. Joe said their minimums are lower than Hamer so it's worth asking.

All in all, I have to really thank Michelle at Botanical Interests, she was a tremendous help finding this information. Now that I've done I'm trying to find more information on packing equipment.

Building a seed and plant starting shelf

if you're a gardener, seed starting time is here and if you're like me you never have enough room to start everything. I don't have a ton of space indoors so a couple of years ago I decided to build something for just that purpose. I use heavy duty wire/chrome shelves available from a local DIY store along with fluorescent lights and seed heating mats where necessary. The shelves that come with the unit are 18"x48" which is almost the exact length of a standard 1020 seed flat (within 2 inches). They're wide enough to hold 4 flats on each shelf, so with the above parts you'll have enough to hold 12 total flats. With standard 72 cell starters trays, that's 864 seedlings!

Here's the parts list and retail pricing in the Chicago area:

QTY	ITEM	$ EA.	TOT. $
1	Wiretech 48x18x72 shelf	$59.98	$59.98
8	American Standard PES120ST12-1 Fixtures	$17.99	$143.92
8	Sylvania 6500K Daylight T12 fluorescent lights	$5.98	$47.84
8	Sylvania Gro lux T12 fluorescent lights	$5.98	$47.84
1	Analog Timer	$6.99	$6.99
2	6 Outlet power strips	$2.99	$5.98
		TOTAL:	$312.55

I attached the lighting fixture directly to the shelves using the chain that came with them; however I did cut them down in length to around 4 inches so they're closer to the shelf. It is possible using that method to hang them exactly at the height you want them above the seedlings.

Improvements on the original unit:

• A 5^th shelf that would add capacity for 4 additional flats.
  
• Seedling heating mats to the top most shelf.
  
• Tied off all the wiring nice and clean to the shelf frame using wire ties.
  
• Took the leftover lighting chain to hang yellow sticky traps on each level between the fixtures.
  

Planned improvements on the units:

• Cover the inside of the fluorescent fixtures with Mylar film to improve reflection.
  
• Test alternative bulbs to increase CRI and Kelvin.
  

I chose the fluorescent tubes about for a few reasons, first and foremost is cost. Given the number of bulbs I purchase yearly I needed to maximize growth against the raw cost. Also, I wanted to be able to easily find them at local DIY/hardware stores to avoid shipping cost and damage. I've been using fluorescent tubes for several years to start seedlings and I have found that if I alternate the 6500's and the Gro Lux tubes the plants receive a decent amount of light, the CRI is ok and the cost isn't that bad on a yearly basis.