So while the rest of North America packs it in for the year we're just now prepping to get our fall plantings in... About a month behind where I would have liked to have been but that is life.
We started ours in 70 cell trays on the back porch under lights and let them grow out to about 7 inches. They were them moved over to 4" diameter pots and will go outside on a "grow out table" with automatic irrigation that's 50% shaded mid-day. They will stay there until they are about 14+ inches tall.
It's laborious to double transplant but we're sparing ourselves some misery in seasonal SNAFUs. No late tropical storms this year but even without them we get a lot of fronts moving through that require staking and trellis lines. The taller the plants the easier that is to do.
We're also avoiding a certain number of pests, particularly cut worms when under 12 inches tall. Though we're late in planting it's not horrible as our day temps have moved from 90+ down to the mid 80s and high 60s at night. Hopefully the early cool weather doesn't completely bite me in the arse in mid December.
We have 210 Sobolchskii, 70 Virginia Gold and 70 Rustica for 350 plants total going into 5000sf.
We started ours in 70 cell trays on the back porch under lights and let them grow out to about 7 inches. They were them moved over to 4" diameter pots and will go outside on a "grow out table" with automatic irrigation that's 50% shaded mid-day. They will stay there until they are about 14+ inches tall.
It's laborious to double transplant but we're sparing ourselves some misery in seasonal SNAFUs. No late tropical storms this year but even without them we get a lot of fronts moving through that require staking and trellis lines. The taller the plants the easier that is to do.
We're also avoiding a certain number of pests, particularly cut worms when under 12 inches tall. Though we're late in planting it's not horrible as our day temps have moved from 90+ down to the mid 80s and high 60s at night. Hopefully the early cool weather doesn't completely bite me in the arse in mid December.
We have 210 Sobolchskii, 70 Virginia Gold and 70 Rustica for 350 plants total going into 5000sf.