[AT] harvestconditions

Larry Goss rlgoss at insightbb.com
Wed Nov 26 08:27:18 PST 2008


Thanks for your comments, Bruce.  That's what I remembered from a couple of visits to the Kuchenhoff over the years.  The natural life cycle of perrenials with bulbs and rhyzomes is "different" from annuals like cereal grains and grasses.

I used to be amazed as a kid at the fact that customers would nearly insist on buying a specimen that was blooming.  They either didn't know or didn't care that the plant they were getting was at the end of its life cycle and was destined to die regardless of how they treated it.

Larry






----- Original Message -----
From: Bruce Moden <brucemoden at yahoo.com>
Date: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 1:54
Subject: Re: [AT] bad Insert addresses (separated by commas) Show Bcc harvestconditions
To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>

> Charlie,
>  
> Field planted bulbs, like you describe, are being grown for the 
> bulb not for the flower.  They will be harvested (after a few 
> years) when they reach a size at which they can be planted by a 
> flower grower and "forced" in a greenhouse,  Most of our bulbs 
> were field grown in Holland, but our supplier was trying to grow 
> bulbs in Kentucky, but the last I heard he was bitten by the 
> race horse bug & was using his acreage for pasture.
>  
> Bruce 
> 
> --- On Tue, 11/25/08, charlie hill 
> <charliehill at embarqmail.com> wrote:
> 
> From: charlie hill <charliehill at embarqmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [AT] bad Insert addresses (separated by commas) 
> Show Bcc harvestconditions
> To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" 
> <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Date: Tuesday, November 25, 2008, 9:31 PM
> 
> There is some very rich farm land in Beaufort Co NC.  
> That's one county N/E 
> of here.  There is an area there called Terracia (sp) that 
> was a Dutch 
> settlement in the old days.  They grew tulips there until 
> maybe 20 years 
> ago.  I don't know a thing about how they grew them but 
> I'll tell you
> that a 
> couple of hundred acres of blooming tulips in one plot is a 
> sight to see. 
> Most all of that land is in corn, soybeans and cotton these 
> days.  I don't 
> know if anyone is growing flowers now or not.  I don't 
> think so.
> 
> Charlie
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Bruce Moden" <brucemoden at yahoo.com>
> To: "AT Tractor Antique Tractor" <AT at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 3:43 PM
> Subject: [AT] bad Insert addresses (separated by commas) Show 
> Bcc 
> harvestconditions
> 
> 
> Farming can be cold off the tractor too!
> 
> A little different type of farming, but for many years we grew 
> tulips, 
> hyacinths & daffodils for many retail, wholesale outlets & 
> markets in 
> western NY. We planted such a large quantity (over 10,000) that 
> we couldn't
> 
> use bulb cellars or temperature controlled barns. For anyone 
> that has never 
> done this, you plant the bulbs in pots of 4 to 12 bulbs in the 
> fall, about 
> Columbus Day. We prepare a field and strip about 4 to 6 inches 
> of soil off, 
> place the pots in rows & cover them with about 4 inches of soil.
> That's the easy stuff!!
> You keep them watered until the ground freezes or the snow 
> covers them, they 
> grow into the soil above them (plants grow to about 3 to 4 
> inches). 
> "Harvest" comes 4 to 8 weeks before Easter, that translates into
> February or 
> March. You are lucky if there is snow, because the ground 
> doesn't freeze 
> under the snow. You begin by clearing about 2 feet of snow off 
> the end of 
> the field & dig a trench in front of the 1st row, then you dig 
> beneath the 
> 1st row & drop the plants out of the soil they are buried in, so 
> as to not 
> break off the young plant (the bud is in the center of the 
> leaves & is 
> fragile). you transport them by wheel barrow into the 
> greenhouses, wash of 
> the remaining dirt from the leaves, place them on the green 
> house shelves to 
> begin their growth.
> I remind you this is being done in 20-30 degree weather, by 
> hand, in the 
> mud! If there is no snow you cut 3 foot by 3 foot squares of 
> frozen dirt, 
> pots & all, move them into a heated area to thaw, separate them 
> there wash 
> them, etc. & repeat the process 1,000 times. You are wet, your 
> gloves are 
> frozen to your hands & did I mention we heated with wood so 
> while you 
> "rested" you cut wood & stoked the boiler!
> This was the old "Dutch" method of growing bulb stock- cold &
> hard, but the 
> end product was the best.
> The being cold didn't stop until Easter, because you would spend 
> the week 
> before at the market, sitting on the tailgate selling the over 
> stock, in 
> Buffalo it snows Easter Week!
> 
> (we also walked 2 miles to school is the snow, uphill both ways!)
> 
> Pharmer Bruce
> 
> 
> 
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