Spring Planting in Full Swing

Wow guys, we are so excited, because with the launch of our blog, we finally get to share with you some of the big things going on here at Walden! This year we’ve really ramped up our genetics program and are growing a bunch of varietals of autoflowering genetics. We’ve done a bunch of infrastructure improvements and have been working with other farms to help them get off to a running start. We expect that the Washington state market is going to have more variety of high-quality autoflowers hit the shelves in midsummer, and we are thrilled that we get to be a big part of that.

We’ll do another post on the specific varietals we have coming down in July, but until then, we wanted to give you an idea as to how we’re able to plant tens of thousands of plants in only a few days!

First off, let us introduce you to our brand new greenhouse. This baby can hold 50,000 seed starts.

By the end of the spring planting season, we will have planted over 80,000 autoflower seedlings at five different grow sites. They will be ready for harvest in July, which means the market will see fresh sungrown flower hit shelves in August 2020.

These farms include: Chinook Growers, Peace Valley Farms, Higher Education, Gorilla Gardens, and of course, our own grow!

Timing is critical for ensuring these plants get a healthy start, as autoflowers are particularly sensitive to transplant stress. Once we pop the seedlings, we don’t have much time before we have to get them in the ground.

The first step is field prep, which involves tilling and adding any amendments if the soil needs it.

Autoflowers are nitrogen hungry, so we recommend replenishing the soil with nitrogen fixing cover crops during the winter and tilling them back into the soil at this stage.

Field prep usually takes our team a day. Once the field is prepped and the soil is ready, it’s time to lay the beds and the drip tape.

 

Once the beds are prepped, its time to use the water wheel for planting. With a water wheel, one person drives the tractor, which punches holes in the fabric and inserts a little bit of water into the soil. Two people sit on the back and insert the seed starts into the hole. Using the water wheel, we have been able to plant over 20,000 starts in a single day.