Our First Planting
On March 10, we transplanted our first round of seedlings from our indoor nursery, where we let them germinate and grow for a few weeks. Since our greenhouse heater will not be installed until later this month, we utilized heating mats and LED lights to create an optimal temperature and photoperiod for the seeds to germinate and put on growth. Once the spring temperatures rise, and we can rely on our heating system when needed, we will be able to begin the germination process in our greenhouse as well.
It was such an exciting experience to commence operations in our commercial greenhouse and place our first plants into their nutrient film technique (NFT) channels for the first time. Growing hydroponically is nothing new for us, though! Even though we grew flowers and vegetables in our personal, backyard greenhouse during the summers of 2019 and 2020, there was something very special about sharing this moment together as a family to turn on Root 42 Harvests’ growing system for the first time. Abigail was so excited to watch and of course eager to help.
The first seeds we decided to start are a unique variety called mâche. Also called corn salad since it can typically be found in the wild growing in corn fields, mâche is a cool season salad green. While you can use it as a raw ingredient in a salad, it can also be cooked down like spinach. When the plants are ready to be harvested, they will have dark green leaves in rosette-shaped bunches. We look forward to watching the mâche grow in the greenhouse and are counting down the days until our first harvest!
The next seedlings to hit our greenhouse will be two members of the Brassicaceae (commonly known as mustards or cabbage) family: bok choy and kale. We selected these varieties to be among our first plants this season for the same reason we planted mâche. Boky choy and kale are cool season varieties that can withstand the cooler overnight temperatures that our greenhouse will experience this spring. Once our greenhouse heater is installed we will have greater flexibility and progress into planting our lettuce varieties and herbs.
