Friday, April 4, 2014

Dayton "Dirt" - April 4, 2014

The spring warm up has finally begun in earnest although I’m sure there will be some backtracking of the weather in the temperature and/or snow department. Even now it is a rush to get everything done since many of the scheduled projects could not go on because of the continued cold. Normally we pick up our bare-root trees and shrubs to be potted the last week of March. However, calls from the various growers to delay pickups resulted because of frozen soil last week. The warmer temperatures and rains have finally broken the deep frost so that we were able to pick up plants just yesterday so that they may be prepared and then potted this weekend. The annual greenhouse attached to the store has now opened for the growing of hanging baskets and other plants that must be spaced for growing on. Even with the much warmer temperatures, the plants in the greenhouse must grow with temperatures about 65º F or they will not develop in time when the greenhouse must be open for sales in early May. Fortunately, almost all the older greenhouse heaters of only 67% efficiency have been converted to those of 80% and even 93% efficiency with those that are the first stage to heat the greenhouse. A time lapse film would be interesting of the growth of plants in the greenhouse as the cold, cloudy and short days of winter seem to hold the plants in limbo with longer days and more sun start a sudden acceleration. No doubt, spring will not be as glorious as it normally would be with severe winter damage on various trees and shrubs but as we all know, it’s happened before. Tom

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