Raven Burgos Raven Burgos

FRIDAY DISPATCH

This week on the farm we continued our farm move project. As some of you may know we purchased a local flower farmers business. In addition to high value perennials like peonies, Irises, and Baptist, we purchases infrastructure such as Walk in Flower cooler and a High tunnel from farmers friend.

We spent the week calling folks who might be able to get this out from beneath the deck in one piece. We also have a IBC tote watering system that we will have to hire a trailer to transport. The overwhelm is real and I just spent a few hours digging up hundreds of narcissus and daffodils. But Im so grateful to carry on the legacy of this local flower farmer.

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Raven Burgos Raven Burgos

Forcing Tulips in Winter: A Reading List

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Forcing stems for Market

Start with the Cornell hydroponics primer from William Miller's lab, even if you have no intention of growing anything on water. About a third of the Dutch cut tulip crop is forced hydroponically, and the article walks the whole sequence: most of the cold given dry and unplanted, a short cold rooting period, then warmth. 

Timing a crop to a specific date

Forcing is mostly date math, which makes sense since most flower farming is date math.  The bulb needs a fixed number of cold weeks, so you count backward from your sale date to know when cooling starts. Cut tulips want sixteen to twenty weeks of cold; potted ones want fourteen to sixteen. Valentine's Day has its own schedules, and the Netherland Bulb sheet and the AATCC review break the week counts out by how early you want bloom.

The Fundamentals

These are the extension fact sheets written for gardeners who just want a bowl of tulips on the table by March.  These guides will not get you far on commercial timing, but they are a better place to start if you are just beginning

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