Green and growing

About two weeks after planting, everything is starting to grow.

It’s been a busy month here at the farm. Lots of time was spent preparing our field for its plots of fiber hemp, flax, sorghum and indigo. In the adjacent beds, 90+ new willow cuttings for basketry use are taking root, alongside the venerable (and very large) stand of rhubarb that has been here for as long as anyone in the neighborhood can remember.

I have planted many varieties of basketry willow this spring, including collections from the Vermont Willow Nursery, and some from a basket weaver in Wisconsin (Zestinferna on Instagram). The willow is mulched with layers of cardboard, all the waste wool from our shearing in April, and layers of partially-composted hay/manure. It’s been a dream of mine for years to establish a basket willow planting, and I am glad it is finally happening.

Gazing ball with madder. Ovine collaborators in background.

In the dye and vegetable garden, it’s been great to have extra hands at work (Hannah and Grayson are avid gardeners, and my folks have planted squash, green beans, and lettuces). The Weld and dyer’s chamomile I transplanted from Smokey House are establishing nicely, and the madder beds are finally beginning to fill in. I had an early, small harvest of woad, from which I made woad balls (a fun process I plan to document in its own blog post sometime soon).

Mama’s first woad ball.

I’ll go into some detail about my field/bed prep in this post, and provide a bunch of information about seed varieties, seeding rates, and early care of these plots, since a lot of what I am growing is part of ongoing research processes, and this documentation is something I need for that work (and to save time next year when I am repeating many of these processes!) Some of this information was covered in my previous blog post from early May. I mean it when I say there’s minutiae here - I won’t be offended of you skip over details that don’t interest you.

Let’s get into it!

Field/bed prep

My friend, Barreto. I really feel like we formed a bond.

After removing as much loose, fallen hay as I could from the former pasture which is now my research field, we rented a heavy-duty walk-behind Barreto rototiller from a local shop. I can’t say enough good things about this tiller! The machine we rented came with its own trailer, was easy to unload and load, easy to start, and at 13 horsepower, has a lot more oomph than tillers I have used in the past. It does weigh more than 500 pounds, so it’s definitely a workout in the field. The weekend of April 20, Stan and Grayson took turns and tilled the field twice. I rented the tiller again three weeks later on the weekend of May 11, and did a third pass through the field. I also took soil samples for testing at this time, and discovered that the field was high in nutrients and had an organic matter of 9.7% (thank you, sheep!). Because my field has been fallow for a long time – 70 years would be my guess, based on prior occupation of our site, and had substantial recent additions of hay and manure from the flock, there were very few rocks and weeds to contend with as we prepared the field this spring. 

Like cake.

During the week of May 13, Tansy and I mapped out the plots for everything I was planning to seed, and marked all of the planting areas with stakes and string. The weather looked dry for most of the week, so I held off on seeding until there was a good amount of rain in the forecast. When the time felt right, I did a final seedbed preparation with a 30” bed prep rake from Johnny’s (link), to get the soil as smooth and fine as I could. 

The seedbed rake used before planting, and the landscape roller (tank filled with water for a weight of 270 pounds) used afterward to improve seed-to-soil contact.

Flax

Avian flax about two weeks after planting.

The fiber flax was planted on May 17 and 18. At the request of a friend, I am running a side-by-side test of seeding techniques. My two large plots of Avian flax are each 26’ x 30’. One was planted in approximately 4” rows with the Jang JP-1 single row seeder, and the other was planted in the traditional way by hand broadcasting the seed. The two plots were seeded about 20 hours apart (the Jang plot went in first). I calculated a seeding rate of 100 pounds per acre for the Jang seeding, which translated to just 1.5 pounds of seed.

My friend Jang, with optional double disk opener and kickstand - vroom!

Based on guidance from flax grower Karla Sandwith in Canada, the Jang was configured with the double disk opener (an optional part purchased separately) set for about a ¼ - ½” seeding depth, and the seed plate was removed to facilitate seed scatter within the row. I used the LJ-24 roller in the seed hopper, and set the gears for very tight seed spacing of 1.5”; 11 at the rear sprocket, and 13 at the front. I tried to put each row as close as possible to the row preceding it and ended up with a row spacing of approximately 4”. With these settings, my 1.5 pounds of seed filled the 26 x 30’ bed perfectly. The next day, I seeded the adjacent 26 x 30’ bed with Avian flax by hand broadcasting. I began with 1.5 pounds, but this looked and felt like too little seed compared to how I would usually hand broadcast, so I seeded an additional half pound in the hand broadcast plot. I hand broadcast about one cup of Dutch white clover seed over both flax beds, then rolled them with a landscape roller.  

The smaller flax plantings I have going this year; Calista, Lisette, and Linore, are all from saved seed that I am growing out for seed and are in 2 square meter beds that were hand broadcast and rolled. I had still smaller quantities of Evelin, Melina and Cascade flax which I am growing for seed in nursery pots. The cascade seed was given to me in a tiny envelope marked 2012. Three seeds germinated!  The Melina seed I found inside a bundle of retted straw from 2017 last year and decided to try to save. I have two robust pots of plants growing from it. Flax is a remarkably sturdy seed.

I did not expect to see a significant difference  in the seeder vs. hand broadcast flax plots, but so far, the flax planted with the seeder has germinated more quickly and uniformly than the flax that was hand broadcast, and the stand looks more robust. I think I will get useable material from both plots, but early indications suggest that the flax planted with the seeder is going to be the better crop. Time will tell, of course. 

Early germination of the hand broadcast flax. The stand has filled in quite a bit in the last week, but stand height is definitely more irregular here than in the plot planted with the Jang seeder.

Hemp

Bialobrzeskie hemp looking pretty in June.

I have five different fiber hemp varieties in the ground this spring, all of which were planted on May 20 and 21. For UVM, I am growing Futura 83 and Bialobrzeski hemp, the same varieties I planted at Smokey House in 2023. For my own USDA SARE project, I selected three dioecious hemp varieties: from Hungary, Tiborszallasi, from King’s Agroseeds, Carmentecta, and “Zaki,” a variety provided by the USDA germplasm bank at Cornell. I had a very small number of the Zaki seeds available (and their germination rate tested as only fair), so that went into a 2 square meter plot. The seed for UVM was planted in two 10’ x 30’ plots, and the Tibor and Carmenecta seeds for my SARE were planted in two, 15’ x 30’ plots, plus an additional 10’x 30’ plot of the Tibor seed, laid in at a different seeding depth than the larger plot - in learning how to use the Jang planter, I ended up doing a bit of experimentation with seeding depths.

Hemp seed in the Jang hopper. The seed roller is the black disk at the base of the hopper. You can order many different configurations of these for different seed sizes, and change the seed spacing by changing gears on the planter.

I used the same configuration of the Jang seeder, but I swapped out the internal roller for one with larger “dimples” for moving seed, the LV-24. I kept the gearing the same as I had for the flax, and once again tried to place my rows as tightly together as the seeder permitted. As I planted, I discovered that the bolt which secures the double disk opener was gradually loosening, resulting in a deeper seed depth than I intended in the Carmenecta and Tibor plots - almost 1”. I was worried that this might negatively affect germination, so I reset the opener to about a ½” - ½” depth and planted a second small plot of Tibor seed to see if there was any difference in germination. As it happened, germination was quickest and most uniform in the plots with the deeper seeding depth, but everything came up and looks good. All of these hemp beds were planted at a seeding rate calculated to be 80 pounds per acre.

Come on, Zaki - I believe in you!

My little plot of Zaki hemp has been getting a lot of TLC - initial germination was very low and growth has lagged behind that of the other, industrial varieties I am growing. After an initial heavy rain the day of planting, I found that some hand broadcast seed was exposed on top of the soil, so I carefully sifted a thin layer of potting soil over the seeds and pressed them into the ground with my flat hands.  Fortunately, many more plants have germinated now, and as of this writing (June 10, 2024), the Zaki hemp seedlings are about 3 inches tall on average. It’s interesting to note that the Bialobrzeskie and other industrial varieties growing right next to it, are all more than 18 inches tall! I selected the Zaki as a variety to try as part of my grant because the plants I observed in the field at Cornell last year were quite short and almost flax-like in their habit. I’m looking forward to seeing how these plants continue to develop. 

Rotational crops - Sorghum and indigo

Between the planting of the flax and the hemp, I got my other seeds for this research field into the ground on May 18 and 19; a sorghum/broom corn, and direct-sown Japanese Indigo. I used the LV-24 roller and gear settings for the sorghum, and the LJ-24 roller for the indigo. Why plant these other crops as part of my hemp grant work? I have divided my field into roughly three equal parts, so that I can rotate crops through different plots over three years. Many traditional sources describe a longer rotation for flax (5 to 7 years); I don’t have room to subdivide my field into that many small plots, so I am hoping that a three year rotation will be adequate. I plan to add compost to this field each year after harvest, and will do soil testing each year as well. Many old sources describe flax as a “heavy feeder” on the soil, but I tend to think of it more as a bellwether crop that will really let you know if your soil is not up to snuff. 

Baby brooms in seedling form.

The broom corn crop looks wonderful, and I hope to have a good harvest that yields material for broom-making. Germination of the indigo has been spottier than I’d like. Usually I start indigo indoors and put it out as transplants. This was my first time using a seeder to plant indigo seed. I suspect I may not have gotten the seed as clean as I should have (shout out to my neighbors Denny and Arena who recently gifted me with an awesome vintage seed cleaner!). It’s also worth noting that I did not use the roller on the indigo. Given how much it seems to have helped boost germination of the hemp and flax, I should have used it here, too. Still, lots is coming up, and if I can keep ahead of the weeds, I should get a harvest. It’s more of a factor for next year, when I have written some retting water and dyeplant experiments into my grant. 

A vintage seed cleaner gifted to me by my cool neighbors.

Indigo seed.

More on that another time though - if anyone has lasted all the way to the end of this document, congratulations! You have a lot of stamina. 

A note on rain and watering - I have been keeping a close eye on the weather at all times, and have done some hand watering of all of the beds every few days if conditions are dry and rain has been lacking. I usually don’t have a way to water my fiber plants, but this year I do, and I’m quite invested doing all I can to help these plants succeed, so yes, some watering this year; by my count, I’ve watered four times over the past 23 days since planting began. Not a lot; just enough to keep things on track.

My season one review of the Jang JP-1 planter: five stars, would recommend. I’m really happy with it as a tool, and I hope to get lots of use out of it in the years to come.

Happy June!