Things are humming along nicely

So, it's a little bit of a slow time, now, a good time for relaxing. The pumpkins are growing nicely in the greenhouse, their roots are developing. We're keeping them happy, but not too happy - we need to make them work a little bit so that the roots develop, or later on they won't be able to suck up all the nutrition they need to get really giant.

But this week, things are really going to get started. I've got a pallet or so of extra organic material from the plant growth facility, and a plan. Next Saturday, we're going to get the earth ready. We're gonna dig out the sod, dump all that nasty grass, and till all that good fertilizer into the ground. We're gonna take those plants outside and let them take off. I have to tell you, I'm really starting to swell up with pride here.

But not so fast... taking a pumpking outside is something a grower has to do one step at a time. Growing in a greenhouse, our young plants haven't been exposed to much UV light, and they haven't developed the waxy cuticle it needs to protect itself from the sun's harmful rays. Without that waxy coating on the leaves, the very light that should nourish the plant could simply overload it and destroy the photosynthetic machinery. So we'll take it slow. We'll take our little friends outside a few hours at a time, and give them the chance to get ready and thicken up their skin before we push them out into the big, bad world.

By next weekend, our little plants should be ready to take that world by storm.

I'll post more pictures tomorrow... be sure to check back.