It grows like a weed! Very quickly these plants go from little seedlings to branching out into big plants. The iconic 5 blade leaves are already on most of the plants and some are even starting to push 9.
It got a little too hot over the weekend so some started to curl their leaves. These plants will communicate with you though if you listen and fix things before they get too distressed.
Some strains starting to push out 9 leaves.
Not all water is created equal! Well maybe it’s created equal but that doesn’t mean that it stays that way.
Simple tap water has things added to it to help in water treatment and to help maintain the cities pipes etc.
So we bring in our own water from the farm. At the farm, we have a well that we test yearly for heavy metals etc.
Our well water has the right PH levels for the plants as well so we don’t have to add any modifiers.
The farm is about 20 minutes away though so we truck it in in big tanks.
The babies are now toddlers! After not much time they needed to be transplanted into their temporary housing.
When we have the space in the future they will germinate in these 3qt planters but for now, we have to start them in pete pellets because without the germination rate being 100% we just don’t have space.
At this rate, they are a little easier to take care of and can make it through the weekend without constant care.
They can start to get into their cycle of soil drying out and watering drying out and watering.
We get organic soil custom made from a local nursery. Custom made? Mixed I guess. We require a certain PH level and certain types of nutrients and compost. They mix it up for us and we run some tests before they deliver. They have always been awesome to work with!
The secret ingredient? Mushroom compost.
It helps with lots of things but here in West Virginia we have lots of clay that doesn’t drain very well so one benefit is that the mushroom compost helps create a loom soil that has great drainage.
You can learn more about why it’s so awesome here.
Germination week!
We got sprouts coming up like crazy! Our germination rate has been great this year too! We are really excited to get these babies turning into teens!
In their little planter pellets, they grow really fast but are incredibly sensitive to drying out so they take lots of care, even coming in on the weekends to water and check room temperatures and humidity levels.
Chris checking on the babies.