Garden, and REAL food Quest 2019

No fusarium. The basil looks like it has some bacterial spot, and the mater transplants are just showing necrosis on older leaves from several nutrient deficiencies. Both will be just fine once they are planted.

 

That's God's country!

 

I hope you fill a couple barrels with cash this year!

 

I transplanted 216 mater seedlings to bigger cells yesterday afternoon so they could finish growing out. There's at least a million ways to grow seedlings, but this is the way I have been doing it for the last 15 years or so.
I sow the seeds in 200 cell trays and let them get a few inches tall.

I then transfer them to 72 cell trays sorting them according to size as I do. I just push the smaller root plug into the bigger celled tray.


Once I have a tray completed, I sprinkle soilless mix right over the top and give the tray a tap or two to settle the mix around the seedlings. Then shake off the excess.

Then water them in.

 

Absolutely works fine! Nothing wrong with a bare root plant. I started out sowing seeds in ground beds. I always sowed the seed on, or within a day or two of April 10th. The plants were ready in May.

When I started growing in a high tunnel, and on mulch I had to have earlier plants, so I started growing them inside using nursery flats with plastic 6 pack liners. That finally evolved into the easier to manage and higher density per square foot Speedling trays.

 

I'm planting seeds from varieties I have saved through the years for the most part. I have a pretty extensive collection of heirloom bean and mater varieties in long term storage. I also keep a few different varieties of other vegetable seeds like cucumber, peppers, eggplant, and squash. A lot of other things like cabbage, lettuce, beets, carrots, turnips, and mustard were bought in bulk in ounce or pound quantity and will last me for years. If I find something new I want to try, hybrid or otherwise, I buy it to try. One hybrid mater I have been growing for several years is the Roma type paste called Pony Express that I use to can whole maters. I may save the first generation of seed this summer to start de-hybridizing it so I don't have to buy it anymore. Hybrid seeds have gotten expensive!