We gathered the dung for the second hotbed over the last week, throwing it up in a pile to heat and after a single turning it proved so abundantly steamy we were able to load the hotbed just four days later.Once the temperature in the hotbed settled at approximately 110n degrees on Mr. Fahrenheit’s scale we capped it with four inches of fully composted dung from last year’s bed. It is well known amongst gardeners that seeds germinate more readily in an organic soil than in a mineral soil and the light, friable structure of the compost allows oxygen to penetrate the bed and prolong the heat of the dung.
It is in this March frame that we start our warm season crops comprising various varieties of Melons, Cucumbers, Peppers and Love Apples, now more commonly known by the Spanish name of Tomato.
As these plants will be transplanted to the garden in warmer weather they require somewhat more attention than the cool season plants started in the first hotbed.
In accordance, the peppers and tomatoes are seeded into pots, plunged into the warm soil so that they may form a more confined and manageable root system for transplanting in late April or early May. The melons and cucumbers are seeded into loosely woven baskets that can be removed with a more intact root system than simple digging may obtain.
In this case we take instruction from Philip Miller who has written of early cucumbers that they may be the more conveniently contained in “Some loose wrought Baskets, about eight Inches Diameter, and five Inches deep.”
Once the hotbed is prepared he observes, “on this I placed the Baskets, which were almost full of good light Earth, as near to each other as possible…then I filled up the Spaces between the Baskets with the same light Earth as was put into the Baskets,putting the Frame and Glasses over the Bed, which in two Days was in a proper Temperature.”
The peppers and tomatoes are transplanted once they have rooted throughout the pot but before they become pot bound and the melons and cucumbers are transplanted with the baskets still intact when they have grown their third true set of leaves.
Of the total that have been set out in this method, are they all likely to survive or is there an “average” amount that is likely to be lost before they are transplanted?
Dearest Mary Anne,
We always sow more seed per pot or basket than what we intend for the final transplant. In the melon and cucumber baskets we thin the plants to three per basket, in the pepper and tomato pots we leave only a single plant for transplantation. We seldom ever lose a pepper or tomato after they have been transplanted to the garden. Melons and cucumbers demand somewhat more care and of all varieties the Armenian melon (also known as the serpent or snake melon) is the most difficult to transplant. It is critically important that all of the melons and cucumbers are moved in overcast or dripping weather and while most of their roots are still within the basket. If the weather should turn hot or windy they must be shaded for the first week or ten days.
In expectation of a mild season, I remain,
Wesley Greene