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Spring Rhythms: A Day in the Life of a Grower
82 Plays13 days ago
Spring has sprung, and with it comes the daily dance of decisions, dirt, and dedication. In this episode of Hort Culture, we step into the boots of Jessica and Alexis to explore what a typical spring day looks like for many growers. From sunrise planning sessions to soil prep, planting, and pest patrol, we uncover how growers prioritize tasks, adapt to ever-changing conditions, and stay focused during one of the busiest seasons of the year. You'll hear tips on how to stay organized, the importance of observation, and why flexibility is one of the most powerful tools in the shed. Whether you're growing acres or just a few pots on your patio, this episode will root you in the rhythm of the season.
Questions/Comments/Feedback/Suggestions for Topics: hortculturepodcast@l.uky.edu
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Transcript
Impact of Weather on Emotions
00:00:18
Plant People
What up, friends? I thought I just hit the intro button again and panicked. ah
00:00:23
Jessica
There's a little pause there.
00:00:23
Plant People
It is me again in control, which means chaos has and like is about.
00:00:24
Jessica
spring
00:00:27
Brett
Uh-oh.
00:00:28
Plant People
ah help How's everybody to- today? How's everybody feeling? Spring Spring is here.
00:00:35
Brett
alone
00:00:35
Jessica
is here. Yeah. ah spring is here
00:00:37
Plant People
the spring is here
00:00:37
Brett
We've been having some crazy weather.
00:00:39
Jessica
yeah
00:00:39
Brett
it ah It has a lot of effect on my upon my mind and my body and my emotions.
00:00:44
Plant People
How do you feel about, I'm always curious on every, like, you know, we know that sunshine makes us feel better, right? Because we're just basically just, you know, houseplants with feelings. But when it's like really windy or, you know, something else about the day is weird, does that affect it at all?
High Winds and Safety Concerns
00:01:02
Plant People
Or is anybody else like your like your mood like if you're normally if you look outside and go wow the sunshine is making me so happy but there's also a ton of wind that's coming along with it does that like change the vibe or are you still yeah.
00:01:15
Brett
Yes.
00:01:16
Jessica
Yeah, I'd say so.
00:01:18
Plant People
My anxiety like skyrockets. even Even if I know everything's okay, like hearing the wind like hit things, it just like, i don't know.
00:01:26
Jessica
Yeah.
00:01:28
Plant People
Like my wind chimes, if they're lightly tinkling, oh that's so nice. But anything more forceful than that, I'm like.
00:01:34
Jessica
I guess like when I see the forecast and I see how many
Preparing for Severe Weather
00:01:38
Jessica
hours of the high wind is predicted, that's when I'm like, oh, like, like,
00:01:39
Plant People
o
00:01:42
Plant People
Yeah.
00:01:46
Jessica
A couple hours of it, maybe. But then as you see, like, it's gonna... And it goes just from, like, this morning. It was all calm.
00:01:54
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:01:54
Jessica
And then it's just, like, it's really just, like, like a light switch comes on and just...
00:01:56
Plant People
Yeah. Yeah.
00:01:57
Brett
you feel, is it, is it, is it all of this like relative to to the fact that you have things that are in play that could be damaged or otherwise complicated by the weather?
00:02:08
Brett
Or do you think it, even if you lived in a apartment in the dead center of a building with no risk of a tree falling on you or anything else, you would still feel that way?
00:02:16
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:02:19
Plant People
I think I personally have always had a little bit of anxiety of wind, but also my house got blown over by a tornado when I was little. So maybe that's what it stems from, which I'm not scared of like storms or anything.
00:02:27
Jessica
Oh, yeah.
00:02:29
Brett
wow
00:02:30
Plant People
But yeah, the our house was like leveled.
Weather Apps for Monitoring
00:02:33
Plant People
The tub was, you know, three miles away in a tree. ah it was wild.
00:02:36
Brett
Wow.
00:02:37
Plant People
But anyways, so I think like
00:02:39
Brett
Where were you?
00:02:39
Plant People
yes ah Where was i Not. It was a brand new house. My parents were putting in the light fixtures. So like they had built the house or put in light fixtures.
00:02:48
Brett
Oh, you weren't living there yet.
00:02:49
Plant People
We were. Yeah, we weren't living there yet.
00:02:50
Jessica
Oh, wow.
00:02:51
Plant People
Sorry, if it wasn't clear.
00:02:51
Jessica
Very...
00:02:52
Plant People
I was like, yeah, I mean, I was not three miles away in a bathtub in a tree, but um but definitely mine's mostly because I've got like things in play.
00:02:52
Brett
Wow.
00:03:01
Plant People
But it's just like walking outside when it's windy is not pleasant. You know, like it doesn't matter where you're walking.
00:03:08
Jessica
Kind of hurts your head, right?
00:03:10
Plant People
Yeah.
00:03:10
Jessica
Like, it just, like, messes with you.
00:03:11
Plant People
If you got a lot of hair, it yeah you know, even if you put it up, it gets crazy.
00:03:15
Brett
Rub it in.
00:03:16
Jessica
You can't... It's like, you can relate, right?
00:03:18
Brett
Rub it in, Alexis.
00:03:19
Jessica
Right, Brett?
00:03:19
Plant People
Your beard gets just all messed up, doesn't it?
00:03:22
Brett
Yeah, definitely.
00:03:22
Plant People
Yeah.
00:03:24
Jessica
Well, you're probably, like... You probably get cold, though. Like, colder.
00:03:28
Plant People
Does your head get cold?
00:03:28
Jessica
faster sir
00:03:30
Brett
i don't know.
00:03:30
Plant People
yeah
Weather's Role in Agriculture
00:03:31
Plant People
It just whisks that sweat away and then you can't cool yourself.
00:03:33
Brett
That's right. I'm dry. I'm dry. I don't know. I don't know if I... Annie has really bad like storm anxiety.
00:03:43
Plant People
mm-hmm yeah
00:03:44
Brett
and so But partially because they didn't have like the same type of thunderstorms and when she was growing up.
00:03:48
Jessica
Right.
00:03:50
Brett
um And so... Compared to her, I seem extremely chill. um ah But I'm wondering if I just... I don't know. It doesn't... But it it does affect me. It makes me like amp amped up, kind of.
00:04:04
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:04:04
Brett
Like, I feel like a wild animal, you know, like crazy energy.
00:04:06
Plant People
You got like the energy in the air.
00:04:08
Brett
Yeah. Yes. That affects me big time.
00:04:10
Plant People
and
00:04:10
Jessica
Oh.
00:04:11
Plant People
um left
00:04:11
Brett
And like, yeah, yes.
00:04:12
Plant People
Extra electrons.
00:04:15
Jessica
Right.
00:04:15
Brett
And that, that might be from the baldness.
00:04:16
Jessica
and
00:04:18
Brett
Just, I have a direct, yeah, just goes directly.
00:04:19
Plant People
The static electricity. Yeah.
00:04:20
Jessica
Right.
00:04:21
Brett
And I'm up. There's no buffer.
00:04:23
Jessica
ah feel like, you know, i need to prep some with like stuff outside. But then like also we live in a older farmhouse. And so like our like, where do you go
00:04:35
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:04:35
Jessica
Right. If you need to go somewhere, because we have these huge windows, and you know, like in every room.
00:04:36
Plant People
Same.
00:04:41
Jessica
And for us, it's like our cellar, but you have to go outside to get to the cellar.
00:04:45
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:04:46
Jessica
Right.
00:04:46
Plant People
Antium!
00:04:46
Jessica
Yeah.
00:04:47
Plant People
Antium!
00:04:48
Jessica
Yeah, so it's kind of one of those things of like, okay, well, we need to have everything prepped by the door to like, take, go outside if we need to go outside.
00:04:53
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:04:56
Jessica
So there's, you know, that as well.
00:04:58
Plant People
Yeah. we have a We have a crawl space that, like, is I mean, it's a small crawl space, but Tyler's been down in it and it's lined with plastic and stuff. And you can access it from inside, like from the office I'm sitting in.
00:05:11
Plant People
But I'm always like, I don't want to go down in there. Like that just like we'll just sit and like our heads would poke out of the hole. Like if we were to sit right, you know, like it's so I'm like, maybe.
00:05:19
Jessica
Oh, he's such shallow.
00:05:25
Plant People
I don't know if this would help or not. Like taking the two dogs down there. But it's an old stone foundation. So we'd probably be pretty safe.
00:05:32
Jessica
Right.
00:05:33
Plant People
I don't know how we get back out though.
00:05:33
Brett
So how is it that you all, how do you all monitor the weather?
00:05:40
Plant People
How many weather apps do you have, Jessica?
00:05:43
Jessica
I think I only have three right now.
00:05:46
Plant People
Okay. um Yeah.
00:05:47
Brett
I think I only have three.
00:05:47
Plant People
Yeah. I was like, let me I'm looking.
00:05:48
Jessica
i three.
00:05:50
Plant People
I think I have four. Um, But, yeah. Let's see. No, I lied.
00:05:55
Brett
So weather apps is the main thing.
00:05:56
Plant People
I have...
00:05:59
Jessica
And we will turn on like we had storms come through and recently like this past week.
00:06:01
Plant People
I have seven. Yeah,
00:06:04
Brett
Did you see seven?
00:06:05
Plant People
I have seven.
00:06:07
Jessica
You have seven weather apps.
00:06:09
Brett
wow
00:06:09
Jessica
You and my dad, man, you guys would be tied.
00:06:10
Plant People
Well, you know, one...
00:06:11
Brett
biblical number of of Biblical number of weather outs.
00:06:13
Plant People
One is
Planning Agricultural Tasks
00:06:14
Plant People
like my general and it's out and about, right?
00:06:14
Brett
That's
00:06:16
Jessica
Right. There's
00:06:17
Plant People
Like that's my general one. And then there's the one that, yeah, it's my everyday.
00:06:18
Brett
your everyday, everyday carry weather out.
00:06:21
Plant People
Then there's the one that comes with my phone. And so I leave it because what if it says something different? And then I have one that is, uh, it's like a funny weather app and so it's more about the like if you're having a bad day and it's really windy it says some funny stuff about how windy it is um um well it's called like wtf weather so uh uh all of the funnies have curse words in them
00:06:40
Brett
ah Can you give us an example?
00:06:48
Brett
Okay. Go on. I'm ready. Earmuffs,
00:06:54
Jessica
ah
00:06:55
Brett
true leaves.
00:06:56
Plant People
Yeah.
00:06:57
Jessica
Right.
00:06:57
Plant People
And then I have our personal weather station. ah So I know exactly what's happening at home. And then I have the UK weather alert ah one because it's top notch and I like to know when lightning is close by and it gives me an update.
00:07:05
Brett
Yes.
00:07:06
Jessica
huh
00:07:10
Jessica
It's good.
00:07:11
Plant People
And then I have the NOAA one where I can just see in real time radar on various winds and precipitation. And then I have the Kentucky Mesonet one. So I can see weather stations in every county.
00:07:25
Plant People
not
00:07:26
Brett
Huge shout out to Matt Dixon at the UK.
00:07:29
Plant People
Matt Dixon!
00:07:30
Brett
we We should have him on.
00:07:30
Plant People
We should have Matt
00:07:31
Brett
Yeah.
00:07:31
Jessica
He would be perfect.
00:07:32
Brett
Yeah.
00:07:33
Plant People
Making a note.
00:07:33
Jessica
Perfect timing.
00:07:35
Plant People
Yeah.
00:07:35
Brett
He was, I was in a, ah this.
00:07:35
Jessica
he would be a good one.
00:07:38
Brett
program train, like develop, I don't know, leadership thing ah with him earlier, I guess last year sometime. And I was like, really, really gassing him up. I was like, this guy is the man. And I think he thought I was like trolling him or like not sincere. i was 100% sincere.
00:07:58
Plant People
He is fantastic. Yes.
00:08:00
Brett
He's just, and he's also like, it's really nice guy too.
00:08:00
Plant People
Well. Mm-hmm.
00:08:02
Brett
Like on top of that, which is great, always great. Um, but like when they, when they decide, you know, that they are going to cancel like the football games, cause there's lightning, he has to be there.
00:08:10
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:08:11
Jessica
Right.
00:08:12
Brett
Like he's like monitoring that every, you know, every Saturday evening he has to be there like on site. And, uh, but anyway, the UK weather UK, what is it? UK weather alert.
00:08:24
Brett
That's like their, their app that they developed, um, which I downloaded and is,
Spring Planting Strategies
00:08:28
Brett
is pretty cool. But, um, You know, he keeps us, I feel like he's got a nice, even tone, like he's not an alarmist, but he is an and informer of things.
00:08:35
Jessica
right
00:08:37
Plant People
Yes.
00:08:37
Brett
and And it's just an interesting thing because, you know, people out in the world think about the weather some, but in agriculture, it's like one of the big things.
00:08:46
Plant People
We live by the weather.
00:08:47
Brett
Yeah.
00:08:48
Jessica
Yes.
00:08:49
Plant People
Yeah. Jessica, ah how many times a day do you check your weather apps and or check the weather in some various form?
00:08:55
Jessica
Oh, multiple times a day. i was going to say, like, my dad finally, like, moved to the...
00:08:57
Plant People
Yeah.
00:09:00
Jessica
My dad has been farming forever. um And he finally moved to a smartphone.
00:09:07
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:09:07
Jessica
And he was like, oh, why do I need one of these? And I was like, look, you're going to be able... And this is before they created the weather app, right? But he would still go to, like, the UK site to look at their weather things. And I, like...
00:09:17
Brett
Mm-hmm.
00:09:17
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:09:17
Brett
Mm-hmm.
00:09:18
Jessica
created a shortcut for him on his home screen and he has like 10 different weather apps and I guarantee like he checks them that's like the best thing about his smartphone is that he can check like all 10 different stations and he will tell me what all the local news people are saying and he'll tell me what the national is saying and what UK is saying and what it you know but
00:09:23
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:09:41
Jessica
you know everything now that he's retired and he farms full-time like revolves around knowing what's going to happen with that weather right so especially now in like storm stormier season checking it like constantly so
00:09:45
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:09:48
Brett
Yeah.
00:09:56
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:09:57
Brett
Yeah. For me, for me, I'm like, I i check, I don't even, i don't have any commercial interests, but I do have a lot of time and energy invested in some plants that exist outside most of the year.
00:10:06
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:10:08
Jessica
mm-hmm
00:10:09
Brett
And so the things that I, you know, this time of year, I'm constantly checking for for the the lows overnight lows, you know, to and anybody who would have anything that might be sensitive to frost or freezes or whatever.
00:10:15
Plant People
Thank you.
00:10:23
Brett
um and But I would say I check it all the time. And I and i remember when we when my dad and my uncle got smartphones, it was the the main pitch for convincing them to get it was exactly that of weather of like, look,
00:10:35
Jessica
you
00:10:39
Brett
you know how much you love to stare at that radar on your desktop imagine you can take that with you and do it you know elsewhere as well so i think you know the we we've we've pointed out here that the the weather checking the weather is kind of like a daily occurrence and that got you know i was when we were throwing out ideas for an episode this is one that i wanted to throw out which is um it maybe sounds a little boring but in my experience
Adapting to Weather Constraints
00:11:06
Brett
when you start to truly approach mastering something or at least gaining competence in it, there's all kinds of things that you know to do just from experience that the beginner just doesn't know.
00:11:12
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:11:19
Brett
And I'm talking about like on a daily basis.
00:11:19
Plant People
Yeah.
00:11:20
Brett
And so, so the idea, the thing we pitched here and weather, checking the weather and being aware aware of the weather as part of that is thinking a little bit about like, okay, ah ah Alexis is going to step outside and check.
00:11:33
Brett
It's, so it's the morning and the morning, she's going to step outside and check on the plant, check on her plants, do a field walk, maybe do a little scouting, do a little bit of checking in. What does that actually look like? Like, what are the steps? What's going through your head?
00:11:45
Brett
And then maybe, you know, we can see if how Jessica's, similar or different and then I'll just be along for the ride and talk about looking at little trees and wishing that they would grow faster.
00:11:57
Jessica
Right.
00:11:58
Plant People
Yeah, I, uh, yeah. So, oh, it's almost like a day in life in, you know, spring or, or April, uh, is when, you know, this will come out.
00:12:06
Brett
Yeah.
00:12:06
Plant People
And so,
00:12:06
Brett
so know your your Your field walks will look different depending on time of year.
00:12:09
Plant People
Right, right. Yeah.
00:12:10
Jessica
right
00:12:10
Plant People
so we we'll try and do a seasonal one maybe for y'all. But this time a year, I feel like it change it it can change by the by the week for sure, just because you know things can warm up and and change so quickly. But I give you give you an average. So I definitely start the day with, ah guess what? My weather app.
00:12:30
Plant People
So checking that, I might, you know, as a as a business, right? If you're not a business, you probably won't do this. And, i you know, I wish that for you. But I check my email to see if there's anything. And I'll check my calendar to see like what If you're doing any type of sales, ah you know, you might check ah when you have the next, ah you know, share, CSA share or something like that and just kind of orient myself around what tasks I have for today. Like, do I have to harvest?
00:13:01
Plant People
Maybe I have to because the plants require it. But if, you know, maybe I can get away with another day, it just kind of depends. So I try and orient sort of my day around like my deliverables, quote unquote.
00:13:12
Plant People
But then... um As I go out, like, you know, with my coffee, ah after I've checked the weather, figured out what I have have to get done, um i kind of make a plan for the day of, you know, what's on the what's on the to-do list. How do you start, Jessica?
00:13:33
Jessica
Uh, probably is so starting the same of like checking the weather
Transplant Care and Weather
00:13:38
Jessica
out for the day. ah when I think about it, like right now, like what I have been doing right now with our vegetable stuff, like, um, we grow our little transplants at a separate location.
00:13:45
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:13:50
Jessica
Like it's a family affair. So like my in-laws take care of the little baby transplants versus where we're actually at the farm. So right now we're just in the process of I'm finalizing,
00:14:02
Jessica
like making sure all of those certificates, permits, everything are in for the market season.
00:14:06
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:14:08
Jessica
Like that's been like a big task for me for like this spring time of year, but checking in on little baby transplants that we do have around.
00:14:20
Jessica
Um, and we're still like, not in like full planning mode, like of like, we you know, we're, but, um,
00:14:26
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:14:30
Jessica
gearing up of like what fields are we going to put where you know what we're putting where this year kind of thing but usually start off yeah yeah and just you know making fields are still cleaned out i know this last week we finally got what you know do as i say not as i do a a field finally like that was completely cleaned out but you know just starting off that morning checking the weather what's the outlook going to be like what's the week going to look like uh
00:14:34
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:14:36
Plant People
Checking those.
00:14:42
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:14:58
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:14:58
Brett
Yeah, I was going to ask, what what things when you are looking at the weather, what what things are you particularly looking at?
00:15:01
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:15:04
Jessica
but I'm looking, no, no, that's not silly.
00:15:05
Brett
might be a silly question. I don't know.
00:15:06
Plant People
Yeah.
00:15:08
Jessica
Like weekly forecast. Cause you know, we also have other full-time jobs, right?
00:15:09
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:15:12
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:15:13
Jessica
So what days are going to be the best day to do um planting, pruning, wait at, you know, but little tiny baby apple trees.
00:15:17
Plant People
Planting or... Mm-hmm.
00:15:23
Jessica
I waited really late to prune them, you know, this year, like looking out at that forecast, when was a good time? Will I also be at work?
00:15:29
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:15:31
Jessica
When it's nice weather those days, will my husband be at work those days?
00:15:31
Brett
Mm-hmm.
00:15:35
Jessica
Do we need to like try to, you know, move stuff around to get certain tasks done? So it's more of like looking at it weekly. And then if there's like weather events, more of like, okay, what the hour what's the hourly look like?
00:15:48
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:15:49
Jessica
Right. And I'm sure like in Alexis's situation where she has a way where she has a lot of tunnels, like, okay, if I'm, you know, the front's not going to move in until much later. i will be home by that point and it should be okay for me to close things up, right?
00:16:02
Plant People
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:16:03
Jessica
Or like, it's the storms aren't going to come in until much later. So I still have time to like get home and we get, you know, pick stuff up, make sure things are secure, you know, versus like, okay, is this coming like earlier in the day?
00:16:14
Jessica
Do we need to do things before we leave for work? You know, that kind of deal.
00:16:17
Plant People
And like if you're – even if you're outdoor planting and you know you're thinking about rain, you know, if it's one day of rain and you really need to get your transplants in and, you know, they'll be fine with a day of rain, great.
00:16:18
Jessica
Yeah.
00:16:29
Plant People
And it's awesome to get them in right before that rain. But if it's going like three days of rain, probably not the best for baby transplants.
00:16:35
Jessica
Right.
00:16:36
Plant People
So it's like, okay, can I push these? Do I need to bump them up because it's going to rain for a week? Yeah. um You know, do I need to remove plastic from something because it's going to rain?
00:16:48
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:16:49
Plant People
So like those are the types of things we're thinking about with weather.
00:16:52
Brett
Are either of you all doing doing much tillage?
00:16:56
Plant People
Not a ton anymore. or if we're doing it, we do it in, we try and do it in the fall, but I'll i'll have to terminate some cover crop and stuff that I can't do when it's wet. Yeah.
00:17:06
Jessica
We do because we do the raised beds, the plastic raised beds with drip irrigation. Yeah.
00:17:12
Brett
So how long, what, how does the rain factor into your field, like you're planning for that kind of ah soil well prep?
00:17:17
Jessica
yeah Soil prep, right? So, um you know, depending on like what that target date is, like we are we are not an early cropping system. people like we, we, we are, we're like getting stuff out more in like that may timeframe, but that can really impact of like when we've, you know, if we've already turned the soil over and when you work it, because, ah you know, you can't have a lot of moisture with that plastic layer, right.
00:17:29
Brett
Mm-hmm. Sure.
00:17:47
Brett
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:17:47
Jessica
That bed shaper. So it's, you know, taking that in consideration, how many days, like if it rains, are we going to have a good dry stretch afterwards? Is it going to be windy, right? Is it going to help dry things out a little faster or yeah.
00:18:00
Plant People
It is in Kentucky apparently.
00:18:01
Jessica
Yeah. yeah um and And that can really affect how um quickly we go at getting those beds. Because like once those beds are made, right? what
00:18:14
Brett
Right. Mm-hmm.
00:18:15
Jessica
Once those beds are made, you could do that in advance and then not plant for like a couple weeks later, like if it's going to be bad weather, right? So just paying close attention as it gets closer to that time of ah soil prep. Because you don't want to go in there and till up soil and then have like these hard rains and everything crust over. And then you're just going to have to go back and rework that.
00:18:34
Jessica
the soil again and we're trying not to work you know we're trying to do minimum right working it right h is yes yes
00:18:34
Brett
yeah
00:18:37
Plant People
Overwork it, yeah.
00:18:38
Brett
And at the same time, if if you if you work it when it's too wet and then you end up with these big clods that turn into a whole, and that's the nightmare for laying plastic, trying to lay plastic into.
00:18:42
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:18:48
Jessica
yes
00:18:48
Brett
that That was always one of the, to me, one of the defining things about spring is okay. So ah before all this, I worked a little bit on the research farms and we had some field plots and with plastic. And um we also would all kind of come together and help get fields prepped in other places on the farm, one of the UK farms and when you had just a prolonged, it rained every other day from March 1st through May 1st, there was always this mat and there would always be like this window of like four days where it was going to be just dry enough to work the soil.
00:19:12
Jessica
um Right.
00:19:15
Plant People
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:19:22
Brett
and of course, everyone on the farm needs the equipment to work it all at once. And so it would be that all hands on deck kind of situation. But that was, and the thing is that certain field, like certain fields and properties and other things dry out really fast.
00:19:36
Brett
Some of them don't dry out as fast, depending on soil type, depending slope, depending on all these other things.
00:19:36
Jessica
Right.
00:19:41
Brett
And that, that was always for me, one of the defining monitoring weather events in the spring was like, but if you have high tunnels, little umbrella that, that your field is under, then suddenly you're not under those constraints.
00:19:49
Plant People
Yeah.
00:19:54
Brett
And if you are able to reduce some tillage and suddenly that's something you don't have to worry about quite as much, but you do have to worry about the transplanting and,
00:19:54
Jessica
huh
00:19:58
Jessica
huh
00:20:00
Brett
Even with the, um on the transplant side, you mentioned if it's going to rain for four days, that's one thing, but also if it's going to be like it is today and like 80 degrees, when you put out your little transplants that have been baby sunny, windy, nightmare for drying those little buddies out because they haven't established the root system in the ground.
00:20:12
Jessica
Great.
00:20:13
Plant People
And sunny and windy. Yeah.
00:20:18
Plant People
Yeah.
00:20:20
Brett
And so, yeah.
00:20:22
Jessica
And Alexis mentioned about like, oh, maybe it's not a good idea to go out and like plant and then have a bunch of rain. Well, the same thing we've, you know, earlier today we had a gentleman come in and he was bringing in soil tests, but then he was talking about drilling seed in the ground.
00:20:38
Jessica
And he was debating if he should hurry and do it before this rain, because a rain might be good. Well, yeah, and a normal rain might be good, but then we're projected to get like
00:20:46
Plant People
yeah
00:20:49
Jessica
eight eight yeah Yeah, like flood flow flooding events.
00:20:49
Plant People
14 inches. Something crazy.
00:20:50
Brett
Flooding events.
00:20:52
Jessica
And so in that situation, like sometimes we do rush to get it in because we're like, oh man, a rain would be excellent to get on this crop or whatever we're seeding.
00:21:01
Brett
What was the type of rain you were talking about, Alexis? Respectful? Is that the right word?
00:21:04
Plant People
Oh yeah. You want a nice respectful rain.
00:21:07
Jessica
ah yeah.
00:21:08
Brett
For kind of the gentle, like, it's not, it's...
00:21:09
Plant People
ah yeah Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:10
Jessica
chance
00:21:10
Plant People
Like it.
00:21:11
Jessica
Like a slow, like, yep.
00:21:12
Plant People
It's a rain that soaks in. When I mean that, what I by that is like a useful rain. It's respectful versus like a driving rain or a spitting rain.
00:21:17
Brett
Mm-hmm.
00:21:18
Jessica
Right.
00:21:20
Plant People
It's respectful.
00:21:21
Brett
Disrespectful.
00:21:22
Jessica
Yeah.
00:21:22
Brett
Yeah.
00:21:23
Plant People
Unlike this wind today that is disrespectful.
00:21:24
Brett
I like that. Disrespectful wind.
00:21:27
Jessica
It's very disrespectful wind.
00:21:28
Plant People
But yeah, so, so yeah, kind of planning out the day is the way I, you know, approach it, but looking at the week and, you know, sometimes you have to look at like all the things you want to get done this week and then plan it based on, you know, if it's going to rain or not.
00:21:40
Plant People
And then,
00:21:40
Brett
Yeah, that that there are things where the weather are literally going to decide when you can and can't do something.
00:21:46
Plant People
Yeah.
00:21:47
Brett
And if you want to fight that, good luck.
00:21:49
Plant People
Right.
00:21:50
Jessica
Yeah.
00:21:50
Brett
Your hubris, the gods that will defeat defeat you for your hubris.
00:21:50
Plant People
If you...
00:21:50
Jessica
There's...
00:21:53
Plant People
Yeah.
00:21:53
Jessica
There is positives, though, to even if we're like we wanting to plant and we, you know, like all because it's
Monitoring and Managing Plant Health
00:22:00
Jessica
spring, right? And we want to do that. The positives, alternative to that is sometimes you're forced to do things that you don't normally want to do, but you need to do them anyways.
00:22:07
Plant People
Get your laundry done. Yeah.
00:22:09
Jessica
Well, I was saying like double checking that equipment to make sure everything is ready to go.
00:22:12
Plant People
Yes. Yes.
00:22:14
Jessica
Right. Like making sure you have all parts are there, things are
00:22:19
Plant People
Batteries are charged.
00:22:19
Jessica
Boiled, greased, like things are ready to go when you need it instead of that day when you finally can plant and then you're like, crap, you know, and that kind of forces us to work on some of those items, at least around our place and the farm or clean up.
00:22:21
Plant People
Yeah. Totally.
00:22:26
Plant People
Girl, preach.
00:22:36
Plant People
Or clean up all of the things that you said you were going to clean up this winter and then you were like, it's too cold.
00:22:39
Jessica
Yep. Me didn't.
00:22:41
Plant People
Looking at myself. um
00:22:43
Jessica
Yep.
00:22:44
Plant People
But then from like a field perspective, you know,
00:22:46
Brett
Yeah. So let's say you go, it's a normal day.
00:22:48
Plant People
yeah
00:22:48
Brett
It's not a crazy day.
00:22:49
Plant People
Yeah.
00:22:49
Brett
It's not been pouring raining.
00:22:49
Jessica
not crazy day.
00:22:50
Brett
It's not crazy wind.
00:22:51
Plant People
Right, right, right.
00:22:51
Brett
You're you're just going to walk, you're walking out to your beautiful field.
00:22:52
Plant People
right
00:22:52
Jessica
and Tell us on our minds.
00:22:54
Plant People
Yeah. So ah for me, I've got perennials, I've got annuals, and then I've got a high tunnel and greenhouse production. So um I usually start by going into the greenhouse.
00:23:10
Plant People
And if it's warm enough, I'll pop everything open um and water if watering is needed. It kind of just a depends on the plant stage that's in there. And then just kind of get everything prepared for, you know, the day in there. And then I do the same in the tunnels, right? Because they're going to heat up the fastest. And so then I'll cycle through.
00:23:31
Plant People
I open it while I'm going through an opening. and I'm checking like is everything I have automatic sides, so I make sure like they're rolling up properly and you know there's no um frost cloth on the plants or I take the frost cloth off if that's the nature of the beast. ah Pop open doors, that kind of stuff. So I check through that. Usually as I'm walking through the tunnel, I'm just looking at hey, this needs to be harvested or those leaves are looking yellow or, um you know, why is that leaf so those leaves so curly and I might get down in there and, you know, look for aphids or something like that.
00:24:07
Plant People
And then I just kind of have a note on my phone where I'll say like, you know, needs a spray or, um you know, these stems are toppling, maybe need some calcium or,
00:24:07
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:24:17
Plant People
You know, just sort of that general scouting type thing. um And then I try to maybe not every day, but once a week, I'll walk through the perennials and see what's starting to pop up.
00:24:29
Plant People
ah What needs mulch? What maybe needs to be it's the time of year where ah those insects that you've left all. Your perennial stuff, we've talked about how, you know, leave the stems for the insects and things like that.
00:24:42
Plant People
They're out and about. They've moved on to the next stage of their life cycle for the most part by this time. And so now is the time where I go up and would be cleaning those beds. So maybe I'll mow them down or, you know, prune something back.
00:24:51
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:24:55
Brett
Okay, whoa, whoa, whoa, we would have dropped like, way more knowledge than I was ready to take on and like a rapid fire.
00:24:57
Plant People
Yeah.
00:25:02
Plant People
ah Sorry.
00:25:03
Brett
So so back to the so back to the like a tunnel, for instance.
00:25:05
Plant People
Yeah. Scouting. Yes.
00:25:08
Brett
So how how long is your tunnel and how many beds are in it?
00:25:13
Plant People
Yeah. have two 72 foot long tunnels.
00:25:17
Brett
Okay.
00:25:17
Plant People
ah They each have different set of beds because I ah have perennial, like a quote unquote perennial plantings in one. ah And then the new tunnel has animal beds in it.
00:25:29
Plant People
So about seven.
00:25:29
Brett
So on and um and yeah on an average day, so you have so you're talking about like 14 total 72 foot long beds of various highly diverse plantings.
00:25:35
Plant People
yeah
00:25:38
Plant People
Yeah.
00:25:41
Plant People
Yes. Yes.
00:25:43
Brett
How long would you say on a typical day you're spending in one of those tunnels?
00:25:49
Plant People
If I'm
00:25:49
Brett
Like doing doing your doing your scouting, your initial kind of path.
00:25:51
Plant People
Yeah. If I'm just scouting, like don't count harvest, don't count that kind of stuff.
00:25:55
Brett
Right.
00:25:56
Plant People
I'm probably spending only about five minutes in each tunnel.
00:25:59
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:26:00
Brett
Okay.
00:26:00
Plant People
And I'm just kind of like, because I know what I'm looking for. um And it would be like, what's the weed pressure like? Are there any yellowing, you know, things? What what doesn't look right? You don't necessarily have to know.
00:26:10
Brett
Mm-hmm.
00:26:12
Plant People
what um what it is that's wrong. But I always tell people when you're out in your garden, look for something that doesn't look right.
00:26:16
Brett
Right.
00:26:21
Plant People
Now, what that does mean is if it you need to know what it's supposed to look like.
00:26:22
Brett
Okay.
00:26:24
Plant People
If you've grown it before, that's usually easier.
00:26:26
Brett
Mm-hmm.
00:26:26
Plant People
If you've not grown a crop before, that can be a little bit more difficult. But you know is some is like one part of the row super, super green and another part not? Or you know are you noticing that the blooms or something, like they're all flopping over or...
00:26:42
Plant People
you know, there's a couple of plants that are super curly looking, just something that doesn't look right.
00:26:42
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:26:46
Plant People
You don't have to necessarily know what it is. Um, that's like the key.
00:26:49
Brett
And I think even even like a drastic change from one day to the next, like that being out there every day, there is no substitute for being in that space over and over and over again, day after day and being able to monitor as things maybe change for but good or for bad.
00:26:53
Plant People
Yeah.
00:27:04
Brett
You know that like the yeah.
00:27:05
Jessica
huh
00:27:06
Plant People
You see the growth. You're like, oh, look at the babies. get like, you see the little buds.
00:27:08
Brett
Whoa, those were flowers and now they're cucumbers.
00:27:11
Plant People
Yeah.
00:27:13
Plant People
The zucchini happened overnight. I'm hooked on zucchini because like they're the classic example.
00:27:15
Jessica
Thank you.
00:27:17
Brett
Yeah. Well, and so I think the my other question is, so like when you're looking at the field or you're looking at the tunnel or whatever, this question for either of you, are you looking at the field as a whole?
00:27:18
Plant People
Squash.
00:27:29
Brett
Are you looking and going and looking at each individual plant? Are you looking at one plant every five feet? Like how, how are you interacting with those, with that as you're, as you're looking at it?
00:27:41
Jessica
So for us, like we're all field, field grown. Right. So um a lot of times with that scouting as well. So like once, like I said, we're kind of like a month away from getting all our stuff.
00:27:50
Plant People
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:27:52
Jessica
We're still we're like in this weird transition of period of like we have baby calves dropping on the ground right now. So we're in like livestock mode before we fully transition to our gardening.
00:28:00
Brett
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:28:04
Jessica
mode, but it's doing like a quick, maybe drive by overview with when they're small, right? Like, and I'm thinking of tomatoes because we do a lot of tomatoes and we have a pretty good size production when it comes tomatoes, when they're small, like a quick you know glance, does anything look odd or off?
00:28:22
Jessica
But as they continue to grow, it's more of, we're going to walk the rows, right? And it doesn't take that long.
00:28:28
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:28:28
Jessica
Like Alexis said, it takes maybe like five, 10 minutes Because we kind of know what we're looking for, but you're also just like anything that just looks odd, looks off, right? now We're not stopping at everyone and flipping leaves over and looking for things.
00:28:42
Jessica
But, you know, just a glance over there, everything's looking okay.
00:28:42
Brett
Mm-hmm.
00:28:46
Jessica
But then, you know, as they get larger and they're blocking each other, because as they're getting taller and we're trellising them up, then going in there and walking up and down rows just to make sure nobody looks a little...
00:28:51
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:29:00
Jessica
a little off. Right.
00:29:01
Plant People
Yeah.
00:29:01
Jessica
Right.
00:29:01
Plant People
Yeah. who Who's been hiding themselves in here?
00:29:04
Jessica
Right.
00:29:05
Plant People
Yeah. Yeah.
00:29:05
Brett
And I'll, I'll, I don't know. think these are actually helpful questions. There's questions that I wish I could have asked you 15 years ago, but um so do are there like, based on your experience and your knowledge, are there specific things that you're kind of looking for based on what crop it is? Or is it just complete open book looking for something different?
00:29:27
Jessica
Yeah, for us, especially when I think of like tomatoes, we're looking at the for the beginning of like septoria, leaf spot, um early blight, those kind of things. We do stick to a fungicide spray schedule to manage those.
00:29:41
Jessica
And it is amazing when you stop how quickly those tomatoes will go up because eventually my husband been and my father-in-law get to a point in the year and they're just like, we're done.
00:29:45
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:29:46
Brett
Yeah.
00:29:52
Jessica
Right. Because everyone's tired and then it's like a week or two and then the tomatoes are done.
00:29:53
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:29:58
Jessica
But we're looking for any signs of that at first, any just like yellowing, purpling nutrition, you know, nutrient deficiencies of the leaves.
00:30:05
Brett
Of the leaves.
00:30:06
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:30:08
Brett
Yeah.
00:30:08
Jessica
um
00:30:09
Brett
And I think that, you know, because one thing like with Septoria early blight, You know that sometimes people will see the top of the plant looks really bright and green and great, and they're not looking at the bottom, the leaves toward the bottom.
00:30:16
Jessica
Right. Really? Yep. Right.
00:30:19
Brett
And that's just something that you don't know unless you've done it before that it tends to go from bottom to top.
00:30:21
Jessica
Right.
00:30:25
Jessica
And you also with tomatoes, you work with them a lot from, you know, we prune, go through, we prune them and then we're trellising like weekly, depending on how quick they're growing.
00:30:31
Plant People
We trellis in every week.
00:30:37
Jessica
and so you keep a close eye eye on them versus like, I mean, the squash and zucchini and all that that we grow, it's a little easier just to like glance over at them and they're so productive and such a quick crop, right?
00:30:53
Jessica
They're not going to be, you know, you're usually doing a second planting of them because they do their thing and they're done or, you know, versus those tomatoes you're hoping they're going to go from potentially end of April all the way into October, you know, so you're going to have your hands on them a lot more and be out there
00:31:11
Plant People
Yeah.
Integrated Pest Management
00:31:12
Jessica
them.
00:31:12
Jessica
with them
00:31:13
Plant People
Yeah, I think like a good if you are new to growing stuff um or you grow a lot of different things is like the general looking for colors that aren't quite the same.
00:31:15
Brett
right.
00:31:24
Jessica
Right.
00:31:25
Plant People
And usually you see that in, you know, pop up in one or two plants at first, you know, ah or and the colors could even be you know spotting from disease it could be nutritional it could be just you got a weird variety of something but like just looking for those kind of obvious one thing is not like the other ah section and then you know you might look at textures like i said like curling of the leaves again this is usually something that we see in like ah
00:31:43
Jessica
right
00:31:51
Plant People
We call it like a bullseye, you know, pattern where something starts. So usually insects start in one location and or even fungus starts in one location and sort of like bullseyes out from there.
00:32:02
Plant People
And so if you catch it when it's in the and field level.
00:32:03
Brett
You're talking about like at the field level. Like if you look at the field, there's one plant that is messed up and then there's some a little further out there, are a little less messed up.
00:32:06
Plant People
Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
00:32:12
Brett
And then there's one and then eventually there's and then they're fine.
00:32:12
Plant People
Yeah.
00:32:12
Jessica
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:32:13
Plant People
Right. Right. And like, I mean, you could take that into even like looking at a flat of, you know, this cosmos that you sowed, a flat of cosmos, and you notice that certain rows right in the middle are not like the others.
00:32:20
Brett
Hmm.
00:32:21
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:32:28
Plant People
Well, they may be staying too wet and there's algae growth right there. Right. So you're just kind of looking for color, texture that is different and then going deep diving into like, okay, what's causing this?
00:32:41
Plant People
And that's where like that quick kind of five minute and if I've grown a crop before I'm looking specifically for something like I know ranunculus gets powdery mildew So i'm gonna be checking and doing like an extra spot check through in the rows here and there uh every other day or so looking for Specifically powdery mildew or looking specifically for aphids if I know something gets it so uh, I would say like don't let never growing something like scare you
00:33:10
Jessica
Right.
00:33:10
Plant People
um And you will learn it, but just looking, literally just being like, one of these is not like the other, and then you take it to your extension office or you send the hort culture people a picture of it and you go, what is wrong with this?
00:33:15
Jessica
oh yeah.
00:33:23
Plant People
um And, you know, there's a lot that can be done.
00:33:24
Jessica
and And just like noticing like, huh, why does that one plant look wilty? or like, is the whole row wilty?
00:33:30
Plant People
ah
00:33:33
Jessica
Oh, is my irrigation not working in this row?
00:33:35
Plant People
Boom. Right.
00:33:36
Jessica
oh nobody turned that one line on. That's why. You know, or is like, why is that one twisted? i didn't spray anything. Nothing else is twisted. oh maybe that's a virus and I just need to rip that one plant out.
00:33:50
Jessica
Right. And then everybody else is fine.
00:33:50
Brett
Mm-hmm.
00:33:52
Jessica
But it's just like you said, as simple as we we preach about it all the time in like our classes. That we do about, but but yeah, really scout.
00:33:58
Plant People
But we really do it. Mm-hmm.
00:34:01
Jessica
Like anytime people talk about like, they get worried about insects because people get so worried about like insects coming in and wiping out crops. It's just like going out and scouting and you can find them early enough to take care of the problem.
00:34:13
Jessica
Most of the time with a bucket of soapy water and you're not even having to add any like, you know, organic or, you know, something harsher to your garden.
00:34:15
Plant People
o
00:34:22
Jessica
Cause you can just take care of things really easily. by, by, by getting out there and actually looking at them.
00:34:28
Plant People
Yeah, and it's like you're excited to do it anyways.
00:34:28
Jessica
Right.
00:34:30
Plant People
I don't know. Even after all these years and all of the like, sometimes it's like, why do I do this? Like farm is crazy, but like it's so exciting. Literally every day, even though the plants have changed minutely, right?
00:34:46
Plant People
Every day I get to go out and see what's going on.
00:34:49
Brett
Yeah.
00:34:49
Plant People
Are they greener? Are there more buds on that? Oh my gosh.
00:34:52
Jessica
right
00:34:52
Plant People
look they Did they grow? They probably didn't grow, but I'm like, they grew. They're so much bigger than yesterday. Right. It's just like so exciting. i mean, you've got to feel that way with like the bonsais, especially this time a year when stuff's starting to like kind of waken back up again.
00:35:07
Plant People
like
00:35:07
Brett
Yeah. yeah I mean, it's, it is very, very exciting. And I think it, if you find yourself really struggling to go out and check in on the stuff, know,
00:35:18
Brett
a lot, like if you don't have that, you know, that excitement or that kind of drive or whatever, I think it's going to always be kind of challenging to manage pests and manage diseases because there's no real substitute for checking on stuff regularly.
00:35:32
Brett
And I think too, the the other thing is that, you know, you mentioned if you haven't grown something before, or haven't grown much of anything before, there are, ah different publications and IPM guides and things that will tell you these are like the most common things that so just mentioned.
00:35:49
Brett
septoria early blight uh and the powdery mildew and uh uh the um the big green worms yeah the hornworms tomato horn or tobacco or tobe horn hornworm like these are all things that you will probably come across if you grow stuff in kentucky and
00:35:53
Plant People
Patternal Dew.
00:35:59
Plant People
Squash bug. What?
00:36:01
Jessica
Cucumber beetles. Yeah.
00:36:03
Plant People
Yeah.
00:36:04
Jessica
and
00:36:12
Brett
It's not like an infinite list. There are some things that are very niche that are one of our previous guests, Rick Besson, would get excited if he got to see it because it's so rare and so strange. But a lot of times the problems exist within a very normal set of circumstances that through experience and through learning, you can you can kind of gain some.
00:36:25
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:36:30
Plant People
Yeah. And we have like some
Challenges in Transplant Growth
00:36:32
Plant People
IPM guides that like they're meant for, you know, like larger scale people. So, but they have good pictures in them. So even if you're only growing, you know, a market garden or just even something for your home um self that ah the IPM guides Solanaceous IPM.
00:36:48
Plant People
So it's like tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant. There's one for corn. There's one for melons. There's one for, um, uh, there's another potatoes, maybe sweet potatoes, broccoli.
00:36:57
Jessica
There's broccoli, like, cucurbits.
00:37:00
Plant People
So there's like specific, uh,
00:37:02
Brett
They're very cool.
00:37:03
Plant People
UK, yeah, IPM.
00:37:03
Jessica
They are cool.
00:37:05
Plant People
And so like you can even just literally I will flip through the picture sometime because I'm like, I don't know if it's this or this. And I just flip until I find a picture that makes sense. And then I read about that like specific thing and, you know, ah find get more information about that. So those are available. I can link those um just where to find them on UK. But, you know, those are going to be Early blight, if you grow tomatoes in a lot of the U.S.
00:37:29
Plant People
states, you get early blight or septoria.
00:37:31
Brett
Right.
00:37:32
Plant People
So even if you're not in Kentucky, these might be useful photos for you to acquaint yourself with.
00:37:38
Brett
And you likely have some from your region.
00:37:38
Plant People
um
00:37:38
Jessica
Right.
00:37:39
Brett
So are you all, do you all grow your own transplants?
00:37:40
Plant People
Right.
00:37:44
Jessica
Yes.
00:37:45
Plant People
Not all of them. Some of them.
00:37:46
Brett
But some, so what is, what does a spring check-in on those look like?
00:37:47
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:37:48
Jessica
Yeah.
00:37:51
Brett
Or, or, you know, ah you've you've sown, sown all of them, most of them, some of them by now.
00:37:57
Jessica
For us, the peppers have definitely been started because peppers just take a long time. and They were started a week or two ago. um
00:38:09
Brett
And what you started them in in cell trays or in how are you starting those on heat mat, no heat mat?
00:38:09
Jessica
tomatoes Tomatoes are right around in the corner. Go ahead.
00:38:14
Jessica
Yeah. Yeah. Yep. in cell trays with a heat mat because those peppers really like the warmer soil temperatures and it's going to really help them take off. And then we have a small greenhouse, which is basically like the smallest size high tunnel you can get, um that we use as a greenhouse instead.
00:38:31
Brett
Mm-hmm.
00:38:31
Jessica
And that's where we, we grow most of them now. Granted, like when it does, we do get these cold snaps. We do have to bring them in because we don't have actually any heat to that.
00:38:39
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:38:42
Jessica
um, But getting those peppers, especially especially we grow a lot of really spicy peppers that take a really long time to get going.
00:38:50
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:38:51
Jessica
um Starting them pretty early with those heat mats followed by tomatoes. And then it's like those cucurbits and everything. They don't take as long to germinate. You know, you think about like the bigger the seed with it.
00:39:02
Jessica
They don't take as...
00:39:03
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:39:04
Jessica
take as long um to get them going. But slowly we start them all and in that same size cell. So we don't bump them up again to like a bigger cell size.
00:39:16
Jessica
They'll stay in like a 72 tray. um And that's what eventually will go out in the field ah with that size root ball for those for those transplants.
00:39:28
Jessica
But i definitely by the end of March or a little earlier for the peppers, getting them going to get them planting in in May or even mid-May with those.
00:39:38
Plant People
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:39:40
Brett
and We had several previous episodes in case anybody's thinking about this transplant math and trying to work backward on how many days ahead of time do we want to start and all that kind of stuff. We had garden planning one. We also have ah one that we recently published that's kind of this whole spring transplant seed, figuring out your plan for for what the garden might look like. So we have several previous episodes about that, just in case you want to go back and listen to those.
00:40:04
Brett
But what is, so what is like caring for transplants or checking in, you know, this is in this day in the life kind of thing.
00:40:04
Jessica
but
00:40:09
Jessica
So, and
00:40:10
Brett
What did what is your all's, how do you all approach that?
00:40:12
Jessica
Yeah. And so like I mentioned, like my in-laws, I'm very fortunate. They're the ones who mostly manage those and it works out nicely because um they need a lot more water, especially like we have a day today that's really warm.
00:40:26
Jessica
The greenhouse needs to be open. They might need to be watered multiple times a day because they're going to dry out faster. My mother-in-law, she started some pepper's earlier before like our peppers were actually growing for our like business that she had and she was worried about them because she thought they might have got a little fried the other day because it got a little too warm right and so um when you do start your transplants and you do you're growing them yourselves and having a structure you need to plan to be around right there's not going on a uh it's just kind of like with and yeah yeah
00:40:45
Plant People
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:40:56
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:41:00
Plant People
Don't go on vacation if you're starting seats.
00:41:02
Jessica
Yeah, it's kind of like with just like when you go have animals, right?
00:41:05
Brett
Yeah.
00:41:06
Jessica
Somebody still has to come and feed and water animals. Somebody needs to be there to water and open the structure, close it up at night. And then, you know, we get to that point where, okay, they got their true leaves going. They need to bump up. We might need to start adding a little fertilizer to that water to get them going.
00:41:28
Jessica
And then, you know, over the years you learn what mix works well for you, what um works well for certain plants, because nobody wants to bump up plants ah really quickly and, and then still have to hold them for like a we few weeks before you can actually put them out into the, into the ground.
00:41:44
Plant People
Yeah.
00:41:50
Jessica
Yeah.
00:41:51
Brett
So when you're talking about what you talking about this idea of bumping up or not bumping up or potting up or not potting up, what is that?
00:41:51
Plant People
Yeah.
00:41:55
Jessica
you
00:41:56
Brett
Like, can you give the thumbnail of let me guess what that is and and why someone would or wouldn't do it?
00:41:58
Jessica
So like,
00:42:01
Brett
Yeah.
00:42:03
Jessica
yeah. yeah So like, that's just, you know, increasing your, your size of your plants. Right. So basically if you want to, if you're trying to hit a target date and maybe you see little behind giving them a little more nutrients to encourage them to grow a little faster and bigger, maybe you're trying to get plants ready to sell right
00:42:21
Brett
Thank you.
00:42:25
Jessica
for like a market event where you want to sell, you know, a larger, larger plant, uh, to somebody versus, um, you know, you might, they might need some nutrients because you're like maybe looking a little yellow, right?
00:42:40
Jessica
ah But we don't want to encourage them to grow so quickly that they're ready to go in the ground by the end of April. And we know it's not safe yet, um you know, unless we provide protection for them to put, you know, some of these summer crops out and then we just have to hold them.
00:42:58
Plant People
So you're saying like, yeah, you hold if you need to hold them and they're really root bound is when you would um use, we say bump up, which is usually just like the next cell track.
00:43:03
Jessica
Right.
00:43:10
Plant People
the next cell size or the next pot size or whatever. And so like if you've seeded too early or maybe you gave them a little too much nutrients and they're too big and you can't put them out yet, um
00:43:21
Brett
And importantly, their roots are too are too developed.
00:43:21
Plant People
eating roots are yeah their roots are too developed. And so like if you pull them out and it's like you barely see any soil and all you see are white roots and it is perfectly molded to the you know little cell that you had them in, then
00:43:33
Brett
Boom, you got a bonsai going.
00:43:36
Plant People
You can now have a bonsai tomato.
00:43:36
Jessica
Yeah.
00:43:38
Plant People
ah But you'd want to either get those, you want to get them into more soil, whether that's in the ground or in a bigger pot quickly.
00:43:39
Jessica
Yeah.
00:43:46
Plant People
And so, yeah, so that would, might be part of my check-in when I go in and check on transplants. I'm checking, do they need watered? Is anybody getting water too much? What seeds have popped up?
00:43:56
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:43:58
Plant People
Because it's like, you know, it can literally happen overnight. And so I'm looking at my dates. So if i look at a um this year, I feel like I've had a problem. I had a little bit of old seed and I think I had a mouse getting a little chompy ah in my greenhouse.
00:44:10
Brett
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:44:11
Plant People
And so I'm checking those cell trays to see what's germinated and how evenly it maybe is germinating. And so um not only did I see the mouse, but I suspect suspected a mouse before I saw it, literally in between cell trays,
00:44:27
Plant People
um one day was it felt really ah like I had the same thing seeded. felt really sporadic in one tray and not the other and kind of like around the edges.
00:44:38
Plant People
And it was a surface sowed seed, which means that, you know, it could get in there without really disrupting anything and chew on the seed.
00:44:43
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:44:46
Plant People
um And so I'm looking at that. I'm looking at the dates because I'm putting my date that I sowed something on my tag. along with the name of the tag. And I'm like, that should have popped up by now. Is my seed old? ah Is my heat mat working?
00:45:00
Plant People
You know, art did they get too dry? That kind of stuff. So, you know, doing those like little quick check-ins of same thing that you kind of do in the field, but you're doing with your transplants.
00:45:11
Plant People
ah the same Same general thought process goes in there.
00:45:15
Brett
Yeah, i I mean, one, one, so I do a little bit of seed starting of some various things, um more oddball stuff. Sometimes I don't, I don't have any reference point for sometimes how long they should take or anything.
00:45:22
Plant People
Beep.
00:45:26
Plant People
Yeah.
00:45:28
Brett
But I went out the other day and I just have this tendency to go and just put my hand down around the tray to see if I can feel any heat coming off the heat, the heat mats.
00:45:32
Jessica
Yep.
00:45:36
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:45:37
Jessica
here
00:45:37
Brett
And one of them I felt and i was like, this isn't warm at all.
00:45:41
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:45:41
Brett
On hold it had just come unplugged and stuff like that happens.
00:45:43
Jessica
oh
00:45:44
Plant People
yeah
00:45:45
Brett
You know, you bump it or, you know, the thing falls and it comes unplugged and and you wouldn't know that.
00:45:45
Jessica
yep
00:45:49
Brett
And then suddenly every half of your stuff is three weeks behind the other because you just didn't check. But
00:45:54
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
Learning from Plant Care Experiences
00:45:55
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:45:56
Brett
you check that you know, that that particular thing, I think.
00:45:59
Brett
Yeah, it's, it's, i found that there's just so there's a lot of things that gets slowly get internalized and made part of the subconscious process that um if you've ever like, you know, tried to learn a new skill or tried to even had to learn a new job.
00:46:08
Plant People
her
00:46:17
Brett
It's really exhausting at first, because you're like trying to take in all this information all at once. And it's all new.
00:46:22
Plant People
That everybody else just does without thinking. Yeah.
00:46:24
Jessica
Right.
00:46:24
Brett
And the people like you all who are like pros at this, it's just, it's, you know, it's kind of second nature of, yeah, well that, you can see right there that that's curled. And like, i I didn't notice that that was curled, but now that you say that I do.
00:46:34
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:46:36
Brett
Yeah.
00:46:37
Plant People
I think the key here is that you are curious. Like, i I honestly think the key to growing plants in general is just being, like, curious. Like, are you inquisitive? And so you want to go to see if something germinated. You want to know why something looks weird. You want to know.
00:46:54
Plant People
And so, like, you don't have to have all of the skills. I don't want anybody to be, like, turned off about, like, all the things I just should naturally know. Like, If you just, yeah, it takes so much time and I still freaking kill plans left and right.
00:47:03
Jessica
And it takes time.
00:47:08
Plant People
Like we talk about it all the time, right?
00:47:09
Jessica
Same.
00:47:09
Brett
Okay.
00:47:10
Plant People
Like we know all of the things and still kill them, but like the curiosity of wanting to know what maybe has changed or just trying something new will get you further.
00:47:22
Plant People
Like that's all that a lot of this is, is just looking to see what's popped up and then and then going from there.
00:47:25
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:47:28
Plant People
Okay, what's the next step?
00:47:29
Jessica
and And don't get discouraged about it because Alexis and I actually were talking about this the other day about like how certain plants, like are they growing? like What's wrong? What have I done?
00:47:39
Plant People
Oh my gosh.
00:47:40
Jessica
like why hasn' it why have and Why haven't they changed?
00:47:41
Plant People
My transplants!
00:47:43
Jessica
And then it was kind of like, you know what? We need to go away for... have somebody water for you but you need but we have in our work professions have traveled together and we have gone away just for like 24 hours or 48 hours and come back and been like holy cow you but they're huge and i've only been a god because you know because we' we're looking at them all the time right so
00:47:48
Plant People
Right.
00:48:00
Plant People
They're huge! ah
00:48:06
Plant People
Uh-huh. Sometimes literally like five times a day.
00:48:09
Brett
ah watch A watched pot never boils and a watched plant never grows.
00:48:09
Jessica
yeah right
00:48:12
Plant People
Yeah. or when it's ze like When I get to plant zinnias or like you know those seeds that germinate really quickly, it literally can change like from morning until night.
00:48:20
Brett
Yeah.
00:48:21
Plant People
And that's so ah exciting like to to see.
00:48:23
Jessica
Right.
00:48:25
Plant People
um One of my ah flower farming friends sent a message the other day and she was like, nothing to boost the spirits and bring back confidence like seeding zinnias. Yeah.
00:48:35
Jessica
right
00:48:36
Plant People
Because they're it's like, you know, 48 hours and they're germinated and it's you're like, OK, all right, i I'm good. I can do this.
00:48:46
Plant People
So.
00:48:46
Brett
Yeah. So, I mean, I think a couple of the things that I'm hearing about springtime in particular is that it is, it's one of those in between, it's like a season of change.
00:48:51
Plant People
hmm. Mm hmm.
00:48:57
Brett
worst so I mean, all seasons are seasons of change, but I'm going to get too heady with it.
00:48:57
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:49:02
Brett
but But I think it's the variability of it could be 80 degrees and it could be 18 degrees.
00:49:08
Plant People
Yeah.
00:49:08
Brett
There's not a lot of times of year where that's necessarily true.
00:49:12
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:49:12
Brett
um So keeping an eye on the weather, staying kind of plugged in to what situations are unfolding. And then from there, it's kind of about it's about having systematic processes for being able to go out, take a look at things, take everything in, notice and ah inspect differences that you see across plants, across areas, across any of those things.
00:49:34
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:49:39
Brett
um and you said to kind of be curious about what might be happening in those in those contexts and you know that you've mentioned record keeping or kind of having notes or or some sort of thing to make notes to yourself about what you should do to follow up uh i think that's a you know it can be ah it can excel it will certainly accelerate your learning uh process if you have something to reference
00:49:45
Jessica
All right.
00:49:45
Plant People
Be curious about the change. Yeah.
00:49:57
Plant People
Mm hmm.
00:50:01
Plant People
yeah Yeah. If you're really good, you'll take like legitimate notes about like, don't do this next year, do this next year, or this looked really good by this time, or first bloom, or whatever, first tomato harvested.
00:50:08
Jessica
right
00:50:14
Plant People
And you know again, that can be something quick. like You look at the tag that you put in the field with your plants, and it says... seeded on March 1st and then you can look at the day that you get your first tomato off of March 1st, you know, and and you can decide on that and you can make little notes.
00:50:32
Plant People
But even if it's just something as simple as your to-do list and it's just like, I found aphids, just a reminder, you need to do aphids.
00:50:33
Jessica
Oh yeah.
00:50:38
Plant People
Also, plants are getting tall, you need to trellis them. Like sometimes you got to do just like really basic stuff like that.
00:50:42
Brett
Yeah.
00:50:44
Brett
And the year to year stuff, photos are a great thing too. Like I, in in the world of bonsai, one of the things that is like ah an indicator is whether the buds of a plant are swelling or not to kind of indicate that there's this initial push of growth and there's things that you do at that phase.
00:50:47
Plant People
Yeah, yeah.
00:50:47
Jessica
ah like yeah
00:50:59
Brett
But every year it's like, oh, shouldn't things be swelling by now? And then I go and look at my pictures. I'm like, no, just chill. That is not, that has not happened for a while.
00:51:06
Plant People
Just chill.
00:51:06
Jessica
Yes. Yes.
00:51:08
Plant People
Yeah.
00:51:09
Brett
Uh, And that that's just one of those experience things of like, oh yeah, i shouldn't shouldn't my flowers be bigger by now?
00:51:10
Plant People
Yeah, definitely.
00:51:15
Brett
like shouldn't Shouldn't the tomatoes be you know at the top of the whatever? No, no, no, no, no relax.
00:51:21
Plant People
yeah and also if they they right uh yeah yeah especially when you're like oh crap i still don't have trellis up which is me right now um so yeah just just be curious uh and if you're trying a new crop just pay maybe a little extra maybe take some new notes on ah if it's a new crop or not ah
00:51:21
Brett
Soon you will be wishing that they were growing more slowly.
00:51:26
Jessica
yes yes
00:51:45
Plant People
And that will they'll help you in future years.
Community Support in Plant Care
00:51:48
Plant People
And so even if you don't take notes on the tried and true stuff because you just kind of know it, take them on anything new that you're trying and and you'll be grateful.
00:51:57
Plant People
I've been doing better. I've been trying to keep good notes about my tulips, especially. And I'm really proud of myself this year for that. So. Mm
00:52:03
Brett
And something that helped me when I first was first starting was like doing these walks with someone who is experienced, whether that be an agent, whether that be a friend, whether that be, a you know, just somebody that you are able to to get in contact with who's in you in your area, not that they're going to walk with you every time.
00:52:08
Plant People
hmm.
00:52:20
Brett
But it's just crazy to to do something like that with someone who has experience, the things that they'll notice and say, you know, um I wouldn't worry about it, but I'd keep an eye on it.
00:52:24
Plant People
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:52:27
Brett
Or this needs attention now. Like that's a whole level, a whole other level of sixth sense that people develop over time.
00:52:29
Jessica
Yeah.
00:52:35
Brett
that i But yeah, late leaning into people and ah and having different sources of information that you can draw on, I think can be helpful too.
00:52:42
Plant People
Yeah. Well, cool. Well, we didn't get super far in in the daily. that That was like the first hour of mine of my life.
00:52:49
Jessica
yeah
00:52:50
Brett
ah
00:52:51
Plant People
But I think that's the probably one of the most important hours. So I would say that we focused on the right thing in my mind. um But yeah, i'll I'll throw some links in the show notes for ah the weather app.
00:53:05
Plant People
That's the UK Weather Alert. If you want to go find it, it has a picture of a lightning bolt as the um ah app icon.
00:53:11
Brett
Icon thing, yeah.
00:53:13
Plant People
ah But we'll put those IPM guides in there. We'll course have our email that all of us get if you've got any questions or thoughts. ah on on that or you know questions you want to ask.
00:53:24
Plant People
We should do one where we tell people when an episode is going to be recorded and what it's going to be about and then they can like send in some questions.
00:53:33
Jessica
Oh, yeah, that would be fun.
00:53:33
Plant People
That would be fun.
00:53:35
Brett
Mail time.
00:53:35
Plant People
ah
00:53:36
Brett
Mailbag.
00:53:36
Plant People
So if that's interesting to you, leave it in a review. And as you leave us five stars, be like, hey, would love to be able to ask questions and hear them on the podcast. You can, of course, always do that, you know but you know, on the back end.
00:53:48
Plant People
But if you want to know what maybe a guest has to say about it.
00:53:51
Jessica
Yeah. That'd
00:53:52
Plant People
Uh, we'll, we can keep you, keep you updated and we may post about it on our Instagram. So if you don't follow us on Instagram, it's at hort culture podcast. Um, and you can follow us there and you can shoot us some messages about, you know, things that you come up with and we'll post something maybe about, uh, when we can get our weather guy, Matt, uh, on and we'll see what questions you might have for,
00:54:13
Jessica
be good.
00:54:16
Plant People
the a ag weather profession. I mean, more than just ag, but he's he's we love him particularly for those areas. So if you want some good blunt answers, you can you can ask him your question. So anyways, follow us, check out the links, leave us a review.
00:54:34
Plant People
We appreciate you guys joining us, watching on YouTube, listening to the podcast. We hope that this is helpful ah and we hope that you'll join us next time. So have a great one, guys.