Dayton "Dirt" - March 14, 2014

While winter weather is no stranger to March and even into April, the long duration of bitter cold has made this week’s past cold snap more aggravating. With the warm up earlier in the week, some watering of the perennials in cold storage revealed only minimal damage and of course some death on the plants near the outer edge of the plastic house. It seems the ground froze hard outside the storage huts and then move laterally to the inside even though the plants were covered with a double layer of overwintering blankets. Another surprise was mouse damage underneath the sealed blankets has been minimal which is probably due to our catching at least 50 mice in mouse traps set in the house’s since covering them in early November with white plastic. The transplanting of rooted cuttings has begun with greenhouse product for transplanting continually coming in. Some shipments have been late, some frozen, some in very good shape. The new self-watering benches that “move” in the greenhouse have increased our planting space by at least 20% that enables us to try out a few new items but as all greenhouse growers know, a greenhouse has to be filled with saleable product in order to be profitable because of high heating costs and other expenses. The insect growth regulator I now favor with the trade name called Enstar seems to be doing a great job of killing the young insects call nymphs while other products mixed in the same spray tank kill the adults. The products used in this combination play havoc with the critters that would run rampant in the perfect environmental conditions of the greenhouse. Spring is only a week away if only it will “act” like spring. Tom