Potting Up Chives

My main focus of our farmers' market endeavor is herbs.  If you use the "search" feature on the left of this page to do a search for "herbs", you will see quite a few entries.  In the summer, I cut the fresh herbs, package them in sandwich bags and sell them at the Market.  In the spring, I grow them from seeds which I transplant into 4-inch pots and sell to customers wanting to start their own herb garden or to plant in flower beds.  

A few weeks ago I started some chives from seed.  I used the same technique that I use to start all our bedding plants.  I describe it in my blog entry titled "Start Your Own Seeds".  Here is a link to it:  http://windyacresnaturalfarm.blogspot.com/2011/03/start-your-own-seeds.html.

This past weekend I decided they were ready to transplant.  This is my potting bench that Tom built for me out in the garage.  It is nothing fancy, but serves its purpose just fine.

Instead of the 4-inch pots that we put our tomato and pepper plants in, I use smaller ones.  They come in squares of 4 together.   These are usually called "plug" pots.  The "plugs" are a little larger than an inch square.  To get the chives out of the little clear box that I start them in, I use a plastic knife (a plastic fork works well too).  I gently pry up a little soil to loosen it so I can get the chives out.

Then I separate the little plants.  Below  you can see a couple of the small chive plants laying to the left of the plastic knife.  I've made the picture extra large so you can see the long roots these little plants have.

I then use the knife to make a hole in the middle of a plug and gently tuck the roots down into the hole pressing the soil back around them.  You can see the chives that have already been transplanted to the right of the knife.

If I were transplanting tomatoes, peppers or basil, I would only put one plant per pot.  However, these chives were so tiny that I put 2 or 3 together.

Chives grow rather slowly.  So, I am hoping these get big enough to sell by the middle of April.  That is only 6 weeks away!   Our outdoor market will start the first weekend in April.  That is not very far off.  It will still be fine to plant them out in the garden until June or so when the weather starts getting hot.  Then, it would be best to put them in a bigger pot and save them until the fall.  Many people do not realize that autumn is a very good time to transplant perennial herbs in the garden.  As long as they have several weeks before frost to settle and grow roots, they will usually go dormant and survive the winter just fine.  Then in the spring they will reemerge from the soil ready to grow anew.