Journal March 5, 2016 - Warming trend on the way

The forecast for the upcoming week, beginning Monday, is for mild temperatures.  The night temperatures will be ideal for using the thermo cube with the fan forced greenhouse heater.  My expectation is that this will be an ideal combination for early spring and fall.  I plan on bringing nine olive trees from the tent indoors and leave them in the greenhouse for the entire week.

As the forecast also calls for some cloudy periods, I made a temporary installation of two LED grow lights to provide supplemental lighting during cloudy periods.  The lights can be turned on remotely from the house, so with the thermo cube and lights it should make for an interesting week.

The olive trees put on a lot of tender growth during their time indoors during the winter, so as I move them outdoors I give them a light pruning.  The leaves, however, are not wasted, they are cleaned and dried and will be used for olive leaf tea.  If you have never heard of olive leaf tea you might check this site: Olive Leaf Tea

 The Picholine olive tree has an extraordinary, to me, abundance of flowers.  The agronomy states that it is self fertile, but will do better with a pollinator such as Luccino.  Out of pure dumb luck I have a Luccino right next to the Picholine.  There are a number of tiny olives forming on the Arbequina, so my pollinating efforts appear to be paying dividends.  A small fan on a timer has been placed facing upward in the bottom of the tent to distribute the pollen as it falls from the buds to further improve pollination.

The beet greens, which are receiving only the generic dry nutrients with some calcium nitrate and Epsom salts, are doing very well at his point.