winter seedlings

This week we transplanted over five thousand pansies and violas from their tight little 288 cell trays, to larger 36 cell trays. In order to do this we had to open another greenhouse. Normally, our 'early spring' greenhouse is Buster; but Buster had a broken heater which is being replaced today. So we had to open Carmen instead. Carmen isn't usually opened until March when the dahlias are ready to be potted. Despite the switch-around, everything went smoothly, and four of us were able to finish the job in less than a full work-day. The pansies and violas will be ready for the outdoors sometime in early to mid April.
Next week we begin sowing our onion and leek seed. We need to sow about 13,000 onions and 3000 leeks. Our endurance will be tested; though the job is placed in perspective by the fact that larger farms in the area have to sow many more. The varieties of onion we'll be sowing include the following: Walla Walla, Cortland, Red Baron, Clear Dawn, New York Early, Ailsa Craig, Purplette, Pearl Drop, Olympic, Redwing, and Copra. The leeks are as follows: Bandit, Pandora, and King Richard.