Spring planting 2013

Spring planting the past few weeks has been a hopping challenge.  It was such a relief to get all those strawberry plants in the ground -- 26,000 of them -- and then to let the rain come down.  Now, the field is full of little plants poking their heads out of the ground.  Here are some pictures of planting:

The white barrels contain a water/nutrient mix that is added to the plants as they are plugged into the ground.

The two girls alternate placing the bare root plants into the pincers.

The roll of black tape is for drip irrigation.  It is installed in the soil as the plants are plugged into the ground.  Drip irrigation conserves water.  Moving from overhead irrigation to drip has allowed us to double our planting area without increasing our water usage.

The kids take turns on the planting machine -- here they are on break!

Starting the drip tape installation.

The last plant!

Hooray! Lets celebrate the end of planting with a pontoon ride on our new irrigation pond!

Good job guys!