Spring Planting Lessons from an Expert

Apr 15, 2010

Tom Waller of Elm Tree farm speaks about starting seeds.

A group of local gardeners hungry for tips on spring seeding gathered on April 10 at Elm Tree Farm, near Arden for Country Know-how's spring seeding workshop. Elm Tree is a Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) farm near Arden where owners Tom Waller and Elaine Nordin began farming in 1995.

They specialize in bio-dynamic, organic vegetables and heritage breeds of turkeys, ducks and chickens and have been running the CSA part of their business for 6 years. They sell roughly 40 shares of their produce to 110 customers in Sharbot Lake and Ottawa as well as to the Beckta restaurant in Ottawa. Theirs is the longest-running CSA farm serving Ottawa.

They garden a total of three acres which they have divided into seven gardens and though they are a commercial farm Tom Waller is quick to point out that-“Except for the initial tillage we work primarily by hand and a lot of what we do is relevant to home gardening. Also, anyone interested in more serious production should definitely benefit by seeing how we do it.”

Tom and Elaine began seeding this year in their house about a month ago with onions and leeks, then peppers and eggplants and most recently tomatoes. A small greenhouse behind their home is filled with flats of tender young seedlings.

Tom began his talk by speaking about a common fallacy - that everything has to be seeded and planted at once. Not so - vegetables grown for storage, like carrots and potatoes, can be planted at the end of June. He stressed that a lot more mileage can be gotten from a bed that is planted with three crops throughout the growing season. Similarly, planting smaller amounts of any single plant more often will allow a greater variety of veggies to ripen at the same time. As Tom said, “Unless you are large scale, who really needs 50 lettuces to ripen all at once?

On the topic of germinating seeds, Tom pointed out that when following instructions on seed packages regarding germination temperatures one must realize that germination temps relate to the temperature of the soil, not the air.

Sunny, warm days can often mislead the eager gardener into planting too early. To be sure, stick a meat or other thermometer about 1-1.5 inches into the soil to get an accurate temperature. In general temperatures between 60-65 degrees F are best except for lettuces, fava beans and peas, which germinate best in cooler temps.

Tom stressed that the best tool a gardener can have are his/her powers of observation: “Keeping your eyes peeled while you are out in the garden is key- and a lot of time can be saved by quickly running your eyes over everything to see what is happening and what requires attention.”

Once seeds are planted or seedlings transplanted into a garden bed they can be covered with a water and light-permeable covering, which helps moderate temperature, humidity and cuts evaporation in half. The material allows water to pass through as well.

Alternatively, freshly sown rows can be covered with a length of wood, which provides a similar effect and can be removed once the seeds begin to sprout.

Some of Tom’s transplanting tips- an artist’s paint spatula is helpful when transplanting seedlings from trays into pots or into a bed. Of the utmost importance is handling young fragile seedlings with a firm but soft touch since any crimping of the fragile stem will harm it. And what to do with those impossibly long and leggy seedlings? Plant them deeper into the soil so they remain straight and upright.

His tips for tomatoes? Transplant them when they are still young and smallish to make them more frost hardy. Shorter young plants that sit lower to the ground will be better protected from more extreme elements. When planting in ground with less topsoil, like much of the land in these parts, young tomato plants can be put in the ground on a diagonal so the roots have more area from which to gather nutrients. They will eventually end up growing straight up.

Many times through the talk Tom stressed that “Biology is your friend, not your enemy. If you start with a healthy biology in your soil everything will be kept in check. Diseases and insects are most often the result of something lacking in your soil to begin with.”

For seeding Tom uses compressed bales of starter mix, which may seem expensive but go a long way.

He includes 25% of his own farm soil and adds Fertrell’s Tersey sand, compost, lime and a small amount of calcium carbonate which all add important nutrients. “What you want to aspire to is as fully nourished a plant as you can have. A fully nourished plant is actually indigestible to insects and when the soil is in perfect balance the plant can access minerals directly.”

Other interesting tips: When growing in a hoop house or other greenhouse, vegetable compost is preferred over manure compost since the latter will build up unhealthy nitrate levels in plants as natural weathering is not present to keep those levels in check.

Tom demonstrated a number of seeding tools including different sized soil blockers which allow for quick and easy planting and transplanting and require little fussing.

He demonstrated a number of more expensive tools used for larger production like the Earthway Precision garden seeder. His favorite tool by far was one he customized for seeding beds, a $60 hay rake which makes perfect evenly spaced rows for seeding and which, depending on what you are planting, can be altered by adding pieces of hollow rubber tubing to individual prongs on the fork end of the rake.

Tom’s workshop covered a lot of ground and answered many questions for the many local gardeners who attended. Tom will also be giving another talk on composting at a later date. Check the Country Know How column for where and when.

For those who didn’t make it out to Elm Tree Farm have no fear. For the first time this year they will be opening a store at their farm for farm gates sales on Fridays afternoons from 2-6pm and Saturdays from 8:30 am-2pm. For more information contact them at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; 613-335-3361. www.elmtreefarm.ca.