Germination Chamber

SFA put on a germination chamber and succession planting workshop. It was on a farm 30 minutes from Mankato, and I was free, so I went! Only two others besides me attended, so we got a lot of one-on-one time and finished early. Even though most of the information is for gardening on a massive scale, I took a lot of notes and can apply most to our homestead.

This is a seeder for a 128 plug tray. Dan, the farmer giving the talk, made it himself. There are two plexiglass layers with holes that line up perfectly over the plug spaces (bottom is stationary, top is moveable). You move the top layer so the holes aren't lined up, dump your seed on top, shake the tray so a seed goes in the hole, and then move the top layer to line up the holes. The seed drops perfectly into the tray saving tons of time seeding. (He also made a block with tiny pieces of dowels glued on to press holes into the soil in the plugs. Once the seeds are in the holes, he dumps some soil on top and smooths it out with his hand.)

This is the outside of the germination chamber. We got a handout with instructions on how to build one, and it doesn't seem that hard. Get an old fridge or freezer that still works. Buy a temperature timer and a humidity timer. Install them on the outside of the unit. Drill a hole to feed the cords/probe through. 

Inside the chamber, put in two crockpots filled with water. The one with the lid on gets hooked up to the temperature gauge, the one without the lid gets hooked up to the humidity gauge. The gauges turn the crockpots on/off depending what the internal temp is. If it gets too hot, the gauge will turn the fridge on. He has his trays stacked on top of each other in order of which seeds germinate first. So he only needs to check the top tray. Once just one seed 'pops', he moves the tray out to be under grow lights in his shop or to a greenhouse. The rest won't be far behind. Then he watches the next tray.

Here is his growing setup, all materials from Home Depot or Menards.

This is the lettuce washing station. Lettuce goes in the orange buckets, it gets set inside the barrel, he turns on the spin cycle and away it goes!

This is where the lettuce goes to dry afterwards. The table surface is plastic mesh. Three box fans sit in a wooden box to blow air to dry it.

Outside, I saw a nifty way to trellis raspberries. 

Here's his main grow tunnel. The plants on the left have been growing a while and will be ready to harvest at the end of May. The rows on the right have been planted to be ready in June or July. The center is left open for plants to be mature later in the summer (succession planting).

This lettuce is all the same variety and will be ready to harvest this week!

G and I plan to make our deer fence like his. It's called a psychological deer fence because it messes with the deer's minds. The small outer fence is an electric wire 18" off the ground. Behind that about three feet is a taller fence with three electric wires, each 18" apart. The deer can't tell how far they have to jump to clear the second fence, and they don't want their legs to get tangled up, so they leave it alone. Dan said he hasn't had any deer problems with this fence. I hope the same will be true for us!

Back on our homestead, I remembered the pieces of seed potatoes I had 'curing' in the garage. I had read that you cut a seed potato so that two eyes are on each piece. Let them dry for a day or two so they don't rot, then plant. These had sat for a few days and started shriveling up. So, even though it was getting dark, I wanted to plant them. We got most of them in their trench before it got too dark. Then, the moon and the lights on our house were bright enough for us to see what we were doing as we covered them up. Here's G making mounds for them. 

Hopefully they grow!