Potting-up Tomato Seedlings & Transplanting a Buffer Row

Village Farm Team,

Our tomato seedlings have been doing really well in the greenhouse, especially with the warmer weather we’ve been experiencing. We’ve been working on potting-up our tomatoes this week as they’ve nearly outgrown their seeding trays! Potting-up is a process that involves removing the seedlings from their trays and replanting them in larger, four-inch pots. This prevents them from getting root-bound and provides for more space to grow while we wait for the last frost date to pass.

Last spring we experimented with planting a buffer row of flowering plants next to our Farm Club plots to act as both a weed deterrent and draw for pollinators. It worked so well that we decided to implement it again this year. We transplanted calendula, coneflower, and zinnias into the buffer row. The added bonus that comes from using these varieties is that they will produce beautiful color on the farm once they start flowering!

We harvested the first of our Santee broccoli last week, a sprouting broccoli variety with a dark purple hue. Sprouting broccoli differs from standard, “one-cut” broccoli in that it produces several smaller heads with thinner stalks. When regularly harvested over the growing period, sprouting broccoli will keep producing thus leading to more harvests. Sprouting broccoli is often confused for “broccolini”, a hybrid of broccoli and gai lan (Chinese kale). The stems of the Santee broccoli are especially sweet and tender so we highly recommend picking some up at the veggie wagon this weekend.