One day after completing the prep of our fields, 432 Phenomenal plugs from Peace Tree Farm were delivered. Six trays of beautiful healthy plugs. This would be my first time planting plugs. Let the planting begin!
After three days of transit time, the plugs were ready for a drink and time in the indirect sun to acclimate for several days. We monitored the plugs daily with a moisture meter to prevent overwatering or drying out. On the sixth day of acclimation, we dipped plugs in Rootshield WP+ to help prevent root rot. An extra precaution in addition to amended each hole with well draining soil since our area gets more rain than lavender needs and also can get 2+ inches in one day.
Since Arnie did all the field prep heavy lifting and needed to tackle other farm projects, I took the challenge of planting solo. Although he did have to jump in and fill most of the holes with additional 5 gallons+ of amended soil due to the soil settling. The primary reason why our soil amendment mix was so off [five deliveries of 8 yds instead of one].
With my small green Gorilla cart with a tray of plugs [watered], a spade, pelletized lime, pea gravel and battery power water sprayer, I started planting on Monday, May 15th. My goal was to plant 144 plugs per day despite reading on a Facebook lavender growers page that one person planted 350. Not sure how that's possible if you break up the soil with a spade, add additional amended soil if needed, make a hole, positioned plug at hole level, replace soil, tamp down, add 1/4 cup pelletized lime then topped with pea gravel. Ultimately, it took 5 days, averaging about 100/day with one day only 37 due to previous night rain [too muddy]. We made the decision not to install drip line irrigation since we only used the test field irrigation twice. I did water [if it did not rain] the new plugs every 3 days [sometimes more as watering plugs more if the drainage is right encourages root growth] with my battery power water sprayer in the late afternoon. Did take a couple of hours since I did have to refill several times, but leisurely watering brought me joy and got lots of steps in. After 3 weeks of 3 day watering, the plugs only need weekly, and mother nature happily provided most weeks. All the plugs were doing well except for a few that I knew might struggle as the were very small compared to the rest. I was thrilled. As I walked the rows daily I said to myself I got this...or so I thought.
The second shipment of plugs from Peace Tree Farm was delivered on May 24th. 6 trays of 72 Count Phenomenal and 2 trays of 72 Count Exceptional. Exceptional is Peace Tree Farm's new 2023 patented creation - a white flower lavender intermedia. Thrilled to be planting the first year available. All the plugs were again beautiful and healthy, but a little taller. I potted 17 Phenomenal in 3" pots since the were too small to be planted as well as two Exceptional. Five days later, 576 plugs were acclimated, dipped in RootShield WP+ and ready for planting. On Sunday May 28th, I filled up my gorilla cart and planted 119 the first day. The next two days I planted 79 then 94. Off to a great start. On Wednesday morning after planting 47 more Phenomenal, I noticed that the plants were looking very frail and spindly not at all like the first shipment at this stage. Seemly overnight. I called Peace Tree Farm, and was advised to trim back since this shipment of plugs had been out of cold storage longer and planted in higher heat. I immediately trimmed all 339 in the field and stopped planting. The higher temperature continued for the next two days. The new shipment of plugs were not bouncing back. On June 1st, I trimmed back the 19 potted and 218 Phenomenal plugs in trays. Trying to save some of the field plants, on June 2nd, I took out 87 plugs from the field and potted. Then spent 3 more days potting the 218 Phenomenal still in trays. Sadly, lots of plants lost. Replaced/planted 267 of the potted plants in the field on June 8th, 9th & 12th with 27 plants still in 3" pots.
A third and final shipment arrived from Victor's Lavender on June 7th. Originally ordered 144 3.5" Grosso, but replaced with Sachet. Victor's Lavender wanted to replace our order with 2" Grosso since it looked better, but we were concerned with the heat and how it affected our last shipment, we opted for 3.5" Sachet. Like our test field plants that we order from Victor's Lavender last year, we received large healthy and beautiful large field plants that were just trimmed back. Due to the previous issues with the heat, we acclimated our Sachet plants for 9 days. Dipped in the RootShield WP+ [1 day] and planted [2 days] later with completion on June 18th, officially ending our planting season. A few struggling with the heat, but most are thriving.
From prep to planting, a total of 85 days if you include rain delays or a few days off. So thankful completed and look forward to watching our lavender grow. Lavender pictures and a few stats posted soon.
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