Pucker Up
I’ve finally figured out how to achieve citrus success. Last fall I read To Eat: A Country Life while traveling. In the book Joe and Wayne talked about growing citrus trees in Vermont. They said that citrus has issues with scale if kept in a place warmer than they like, i.e. – pretty much any home in the winter.
My citrus trees always resided in a cold location, but I guess it wasn’t cold enough. This winter I decided to put them in the basement in front of the double doors we have that lead outside. The doors are drafty and hare large south facing windows in them. Turns out, it’s the perfect location for citrus. Right now they get light from the windows and light from the big new grow light, so they’re glowing green thanks to that light!
I have one lemon that’s ready to harvest and a good crop of small lemons that will be ready next year. It’s quite exciting to finally see these trees producing fruit. If you remember, I purchased them in 2010 during my visit to Monticello.
I love citrus and am happy to be able to grow a little bit of my own. Now that I’ve figured out the key to successful citrus growing, I’m going to be getting a few more trees. Now to decide what to use our single lemon for…
…how would you use such a prize fruit?
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Staying Warm
Our big wood pile in the basement has been dwindling. With the cold snap we’ve been having (-5 this morning). We still have the two holz hausens we built last year that we haven’t started using yet.
Yesterday we went out and grabbed some wood from one of them and brought it into the basement. Now we should have enough to get us through for a few more weeks.
Any day now it will start warming up a bit. It’s amazing how much less fire wood you use when it’s in the twenties outside verses the single digits. Our plans to get a year ahead on firewood are still on track and hopefully after this spring we’ll be most of the way there.
What’s the thermometer say outside your window this morning?
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Did Somebody Say Bacon?
I’m finally at the point where I’ve been able to eat the bacon we made way back in November. I’m super sensitive to smells and until now, the smell of the smoke wasn’t allowing me to eat the bacon. I’ve finally reached that point where I can, so we’ve finally be eating up the bacon we made.
So far we’ve tried our German Bacon and the house bacon, both have been great. I can’t wait to try to River Cottage bacon next.
Now that we’ve tried the bacon I can start to give away some bacon. We were reluctant to give any away until we had tried it ourselves.
Now that it’s bacon time, we have a lot of bacon to consume in the next year! No doubt next year will be better for me as far as smells go, now that I’ve gotten through it once, it won’t bother me the next time around.
Are they any food smells that you have a hard time with?
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Keys Everywhere
When we purchased this house we inherited a bunch of keys. There are some hanging in the kitchen, there are others upstairs sitting on the stair railing. We have no idea what they go to, but we keep them around just in case we discover a lock somewhere that they might open.
I’m planning on putting them all in jar in a cabinet somewhere, but them I’m afraid I’ll forget where the jar in. You know how it goes, as soon as we put them away and forget where they are we’ll discover one of the locks they open!
Did you inherit anything you were afraid to throw away with a home?
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New Fancy Light
After years of dealing with insufficient lighting for my seedlings I finally purchased a BIG metal halide light. I grow my own seedlings to have the healthiest plants and I finally decided it was time to take the plunge. I wanted to future proof my investment, so I got a 1000W one. The nice this is that the ballast I got allows me to dim the light to 400W and 600W for when I have fewer seedlings underneath.
Fluorescents were never my favorite when it came to seedlings, I felt that unless the bulbs were replaced every couple years the seedlings suffered. The constant moving of the lights was also a huge pain since I didn’t have a real light shelf. It’s not as big of an issue if you only have one or two lights, but I need around 10 or 15 lights for the number of seed flats I have. There was also the need for more grow lights this year because of my bigger garden and my old grow lights were in need of new bulbs. I was tired of never having enough space and having to swap out seed flats for 12 hour shifts under the lights. I could keep limping along and spending more money on a system I didn’t like, or I could invest in something that would give me better results at a cheaper price. I decided it was time and invested my money in a new fixture.
You may wonder why I chose this particular light. For one, it’s made in the USA (check out SunlightSupply for more info). Another benefit is that it’s actually more efficient for me to use this light than to use fluorescent lights for 20-30 seed flats. How can this be? Because metal halide grow lights produce more lumens per watt than fluorescent lights do. This intense light will also produce shorter, sturdier growth in my seedlings. Another benefit is that this light creates much less waste and environmental impact that fluorescent lights would. The bulb in this fixture needs replaced only every 6000 hours. That means that I can use one bulb for four or five years and when it needs changed it’s only one bulb instead of 30 or 40 bulbs that I would have to replace in fluorescent fixtures. It’s also much more economical for me since each bulb costs around $70. The fixture itself is also much cheaper for the number of seedlings I can grow under it. I can fit 32 flats of seedlings under this light and other plants that need less light around the edges (my citrus trees will be happy in this spot).
This past weekend Mr Chiots and I set up the light in the basement. Eventually it will reside in the potting room up in the garage and hopefully a greenhouse someday, but the ducks live there now, so the basement it is for seedlings this year. I already have a pot of greens germinating under the lights along with planters of cilantro and other herbs.
Do you use grow lights for your seedlings? What kind do you use?
