Boswyck Farms » growing stages

January Planting

sara — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:59:43 +0000

Here at Boswyck Farms, we decided to start the year off right – by planting a variety of peppers! We followed up last week with another round of planting which included red cabbage, echinacea, lavender, nasturtium, and fennel. We are all about sharing here, so we want to share the progress of our little seedlings as they grow – from planting to harvest – with you!

Drilled Holes in the Tray

First, we had to pick out a nice, sturdy tray for our red cabbage and its friends.

We used an electric drill to make holes in the tray for good drainage – about 4 rows of 4 holes in no particular pattern.

We cut away any excess material created from drilling with scissors.

Soaking the Rock Wool

Next, we placed a sheet of rock wool into the tray, and soaked it well with water. After soaking it, we let it sit on a towel for about 5 minutes to let the water absorb completely. This makes the tray pretty heavy!

Finally, it was time for planting. We chose our seeds and got to work.

Planting the Seeds

The rock wool sheet has pre-made holes for seeds to go straight in. Each hole in the sheet takes one seed – which can be tricky because some types of seeds are super tiny – like the cabbage. Of course we don’t want to waste any seeds by dropping them or putting too many in one hole, so this can be a little time consuming (but loads of fun!)

Once our seeds were safely planted in their new homes, we moved the entire tray over to the seedling bed. This bed has a lower hanging light, since these guys are just starting out and won’t need so much room just yet.

Into the Seedling Bed - Week 1

Additionally, we needed to make a customized cover for the edges of the bed (the white part you see around the edges there). By using a sheet of PVC , a straight edge, and a box cutter, it was pretty easy to measure and cut out a piece of PVC that would cover the edges up. This cover prevents water from evaporating and greatly reduces algae growth.

There was already another tray in this bed – which are the peppers that were planted the previous week (the tray in the back of the photo to the right). You can see the peppers were already starting to sprout up.

Now let’s take a look at how these guys are doing THIS week!

Cabbage & Friends -Week 2 Growth

WOW!! The cabbage is coming along nicely! The rest of the gang is also making a good effort. Some seeds just take a little longer to sprout than the others, which is fine, because this group is staying in the seedling bed for about another week before getting transplanted.

Cabbage Closeup - Week 2

The peppers were also coming along very nicely, and it was time to graduate them to a bigger bed where they will have more space to grow.

What we did was take the pepper tray out, and cut out each plant in a little cube (keeping it in the rock wool, of course), then transplanting it into a 2″ pot where they can then fit nicely into a floating raft on a bigger bed. We only transplanted those that had sprouted.

Transplanted Peppers

We have a ton of peppers, and there are a few different types including hot varieties and sweet varieties. In order to know which ones were which we labeled and separated them with bright green tape.

Can’t wait to taste these guys!

Stay tuned for next week’s update on this round of crops!

First Harvest at Fountain House

lee — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 18:14:25 +0000

We planted the first bed with lettuce seeds in November and 5 weeks later the first harvest took place. It is very exciting to see the members harvesting the lettuce. It was then used for salads in the cafeteria.

The rest of the beds planted will be planted and in full production by the end of the year. We hope to be harvesting around 40 heads of lettuce each week by the middle of February. The members at Fountain House will be planting, monitoring and harvesting. We are also teaching carpentry skills along the way. It has been a lot of fun working on the project and the help from members, especially Vincent and Gary, has helped make it all possible. We all have been nibbling along the way and I hope to eat some of the salad this week. I have learned as much as I have taught. Three of our interns (Chris, Victor and Logan) have pitched in with the construction work. We will keep you up to date and give more details of how the systems work in future posts.

Here is a slide show of the harvest

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Farm Report: The Death of a Sunflower

Joanna — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:50:22 +0000

September 4, 2010
By Joanna

The title pretty much says it all so I’ll start off this report with the obvious: our last sunflower has died. I’m sort of sad as I love sunflowers. At least we’ve learned that 2 giant sunflowers in one pot on a very hot roof = a bad ending. On to happy news.

Round 2 of radishes has begun. We had a great harvest 2 weeks ago and are excited to taste this batch (except for me because I don’t like radishes).

Out with the old, in with the new. Bye to our tomatoes in the aeroponic system. We’ve replaced that whole system with a bucket flood and drain. Lee planted a new batch of tomatoes, which I am very excited to eat.

Our outdoor NFT system is looking fabulous with sage, Swiss chard, kale and more. Lee snapped some very pretty pictures of them after a rainfall.

Thanks to LunchNYC for shooting at the farm last week. We’ll be on an upcoming show. Details to follow.

[[Show as slideshow] click on an image to watch in the dark using arrow keys]

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend!

The Friday Farm Report, a few days late

Joanna — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:45:49 +0000

August 19, 2010

By Joanna

This report is a little late in coming. The beginning of August found us waist-deep in workshops, not to mention planting, harvesting an incredible amount of Fine Verde basil and experimenting with a bucket flood & drain system.

Thanks to Growing Leaders, who are partnered with BK Farmyards this summer, for being the first group to participate in the soda bottle workshop in our space. Up to now we’ve always held our workshops off-site. You showed us that our magical, expandable kitchen table isn’t just for dining. It transforms nicely into a workbench. We’d also like to give a big thanks to Heather Butts for bringing several young adults from her program, H.E.A.L.T.H. for Youths.

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For more information on our educational program contact joanna@boswyckfarms.org.

Farm report

Joanna — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:52:41 +0000

July 24, 2010

By Joanna

We’ve had a very busy week at the farm. The heat wave a few weeks back took its toll on our rooftop installation but thanks to Lee’s quick thinking and ability to lug pounds of ice up some steep stairs, everything is back on track. I’m loving the sunflowers which are now enormous. Our cumbers are kicking right along and the Fine Verde basil is busting up out of the NFT system. We also had our first lady bug sighting. Win!

New to the farm this week are our carrots which have just sprouted. Our pea shoots are back. There was a sad turn of events for the peas when it hit 103 degrees on the roof so we’re happy to see them again.

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All that is yummy

Joanna — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 15:56:44 +0000

6/20/10

About a month ago Lee built a vertical system which we planted with strawberries. They are happy in their new home and about 2 weeks ago began to flower. Even though they aren’t quite ready we did a small tasting this past Tuesday. The result? A little tart but a lot delicious. Our Caribbean Red Cabanero peppers have ripened and they are…hot. We’re looking forward to pickling! Our Red Zebra tomatoes were harvested and are pretty and delicious.

[[Show as slideshow] click on an image to watch in the dark using arrow keys]

Seedlings at Roberta’s alive and kicking

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:30:32 +0000

Everything made it through the cold fine. The seeds planted on Tuesday are starting to sprout. Here are some photos of their older siblings.

the first lettuce sprouts

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:45:44 +0000