The Specifics of Planting

Rows being prepared for pepper planting

For this post, I will give an in-depth description of what exactly it means to spend "all day planting peppers".  Of course, four weeks ago I would have no idea what that entailed and now I take the process completely for granted, so please allow me to spell it out in more detail.  

First, the rows are tilled and bed-shaped with our tractor.  This uproots any weeds and makes the soil nice and fluffy for planting and in the correct shape.  Then the rows are amended (perhaps a few days later if we can spare the time, to let any weeds on the surface germinate only to murder them again, Ha Ha!) with chicken poo (the official name is something like Poultry Manure Pellets, which doesn't sound much better to me), calpril (which is ground up limestone or calcium carbonate) and compost from our friends at Nature's Needs.  Then all that is tilled into the soil.

Next we have to lay down drip tape which is the hose-like stuff you see running up and down those rows, when it's hooked up and turned on it slowly drips water directly into the soil rather than spraying it overhead which allows for a lot of evaporation.  This is the preferred method of irrigation for many organic farms.  We flush the tape with clean water and check for leaks before closing off the ends and stapling it to the soil using metal rusty staples.  Next it's time to dig some holes.  We plant many of our peppers 14" apart and dig the holes about a foot deep.  Then comes more fertilizer in the form of Steve Solomon's Double Secret (but not actually) Organic Fertilizer extravaganza!  The recipe is as follows: 4 parts feather meal (yep, it's made from ground up feathers!), 1 part calpril (a.k.a. lime or calcium carbonate which adds calcium to the soil and aids in reducing acidity), 1 part kelp meal (ground up seaweed, the other ingredient in this mixture that I enjoy the smell of) and 1/2 part bone meal (you can guess what that's made of).

About 1/2 a cup of this mixture is added to the bottom of each of the holes and mixed into the soil.  In the case of peppers and tomatoes, it is at this point in the process that the rows would be covered in plastic mulch, which is essentially a blanket to keep pests out and warmth it.  This is rolled out along the rows and stapled down.  Finally, the peppers, which can be seen in their little pots below on top of an enormous heap of compost (along with my coat and leaking piece-of-shit water bottle) are gently removed from their pots (different kinds of vegetables can take different amounts of stress to their roots--while peppers don't mind it, and tomatoes love it, squash needs minimal disturbance).  The plants are then ceremoniously placed in the ground and covered up with soil. Ta da!  Then you do that about a thousand million times until all the peppers are transplanted into the ground and then one of the most important parts, you water them in!!  The baby plants need water to ease into their new homes and begin the process of capillary action, wherein they draw water from the soil up through their roots.

And that's planting, folks!