Tal Tune

Hi all,

I'm reading Eliot Coleman's The Winter Garden, as I'm wanting to extend my seasonal offerings for my micro market farm. I'm in western Washington State, zone 8b. I'm just wondering if any other market gardeners here have grown winter carrots in a similar climate in a cold house and if you have any tips you'd be willing to share to give me a better chance of being successful in my first winter growing season.

I've cleaned out half of my high tunnel from summer veggies, so I'm starting my carrots just now. In the next week the tomatoes will be out as well, so I'll be adding some lettuces, hakurei turnips and kohlrabi.

Again, if anyone has any winter cold house growing tips for the uninitiated, I'd welcome the wisdom.

Idk if it’s already been mentioned here, but aside from the practical uses for the actual tool, AI itself is currently having incredibly real, negative environmental effects. The training and running of AI models produced massive carbon emissions, and even the data centers that support AI apps produce a huge portion of global electricity. Not to mention the mining of rare earth minerals to make AI components. Just a quick google search shows that training OpenAI's GPT-3 model is estimated to have produced 502 metric tons of CO2. Then there’s the e-waste. The data centers also use massive amounts of water to keep the servers cool. All in all it’s starting to look like AI is completely unsustainable, if not downright harmful. If this is something anyone is interested in, you can add -AI to the beginning of your google/safari/etc searches to eliminate the automatic AI summary.

My seedlings were doing amazing and they were all healthy. It wasn’t the full grown pill bugs that were eating them. It was the babies. There were loads of them around many of the stem bases and they would eat them from the bottom up. I’ve never seen this before so it was quite a surprise to do some research and find that it’s fairly common. I’ve never had any problems with these little guys before.

Unfortunately that would run the risk of killing my starts as well since the bugs are in the dirt at the base of the stem. I never use vinegar near live plants since it both kills established growth and also makes the soil too acidic.

Thanks! I’m an avid orange eater so that I’ll do that today. The diatomaceous seems to be working as well, but I want to definitely have an arsenal of tricks. The toilet paper rings are a great idea. Although I don’t think I have enough available for my dozens of cucumber starts. Appreciate the advice!

Glad I’m not alone but sorry you’re dealing with it as well! I just checked this morning and found zero pill babies since putting diatomaceous down. I mean, I really went for it. Used almost an enter 4lb bag and got it under all the starts, then flicked it off the tops so they still get light (also flicked some of my own cucumber starts right off, oops). I think the main thing so far has been gathering them all up before treatment and getting rid of them.

I’ve never had any issues with pill bugs and we have loads of them here in western Wa, but just in the last week I’ve been getting clusters of babies around the base of the stems of my cucumber and zucchini starts. They eat the entire start down to the base. I meticulously collected as many as I could find and then covered all the rows with diatomaceous earth. Hoping this takes care of it. The interwebs assured me this was the best course of action. But I’m here to see if any of you intelligent beings may know something we don’t! Thanks in advance!

Thank you! I wasn’t sure how close was too close so I’ll move the lamp lower and will definitely try the brushing technique. I was also thinking of adding some reflective material to the makeshift panel (it’s a cardboard box) I have around it. And I keep my house always between 65-70° so they don’t struggle with being too cold.

I start my cherry tomatoes indoors with a grow lamp but always find they get very leggy before they’re even big enough to begin hardening off. I’m in Zone 8a/b in western Washington State, for context.

I have a 32ft high tunnel, so I utilize that for hardening off before subsequent up potting and transplanting.

Does anyone have any advice for starts that seem to be struggling for light? Should I get a more powerful grow lamp? I have south facing windows and they get some natural light as well, but it never seems to be enough.

My current lamp is an LED 1000W with both bloom and veg settings.

Thanks everyone!

I’ve been growing these for years and they’re wonderful! The best thing is being able to propagate so easily and the fact that they come back year after year.

Scott, they don’t really keep grass away. Can confirm the grass will root even in when they’re in pots.

I love potting them so I can move them around the farm as I change things around year to year. The I’ve had them in all kind of light conditions but they seem to do really well anywhere. I tend to keep them in partial shade but it probably depends on where you live. I’m in Wa State where we get a lot of cloudy days, even in the summer.