12,000 Plants in 3 Days

We finished planting all the plants today. Knocked them out in 3 days! It was definitely a slow process with a few long days, but I am proud and thankful for everyone who came and helped.
Albert’s family helped on the first day. We got 22 rows done, in about 10 hours.

The reason it took extra long is because we had a team of 6-8 people behind the planters that were diligent to scoop handfuls of soil on the plastic for each plant. It was important to help the plastic stay down during windy periods.

After the first day of planting, we actually discovered that we didn’t scoop enough soil on the plastic. When the winds came, some of the plastic in rows 1 and 2 came up and smothered some of our new seedlings.

We made sure to make a correction with more soil on the plastic moving forward. We got an early start (about 6am) on day 2, so that Rachel and my mom could help before work. I was also able to recruit the Box family. Day 2: 20 rows.

On day 3, the Box family came out again and brought a few homeschool kids. They were a HUGE help, and were able to knock out the rest of the plants (29 rows). The plants were getting hammered by the wind and colder temperatures yesterday. Some of them are bent over, and a small percentage didn’t make it. But the majority are holding on and look pretty strong.

Unfortunately, we still have 4 empty rows. We are going to pick up about 500 more plants from Jeff Whitaker.  Hopefully we can find more plants to fill up our empty rows. It is pretty exciting to see all the plants in the ground. I’m really thankful for everyone that helped out. Looking forward to the coming weeks!