Growing Marketable Chives in Pots
Winter Lake participates in a farmers market. The farmers market customers demand the freshest produce possible. It was reasoned that the freshest produce is picked immediately before sale to the customers. To find the best ways of getting the freshest produce to the customers, several methods were tried.
The most successful method was to grow the produce in boxes or other containers that were taken to the market. The produce was harvested from the containers in the presence of the customer and the sale was made. This resulted in the freshest produce available. This method was very popular with the customers. They had the experience of seeing the produce harvested and also having the freshest produce possible. This method was simple to implement and had few drawbacks.
One of the items of produce grown was chives. Chives do not store well so fresh harvesting is a must. Growing chives in containers was explored and proved to be successful. The chives grown were the common culinary chives, with the round stem. The methods that worked for chives also worked for the garlic chives.
The chives were sold to the customer as plants and were not cut. The chives were grown in such a way as they could be harvested as whole plants. This kept them absolutely fresh.
It was found that chives have a deep root system. They are heavy feeders. The soil depth was best at a minimum of nine inches. A very rich, loamy soil was best. The chive plants were separated by cardboard barriers set into the soil in the pots the chives were grown in. At harvest, a knife was run around the cardboard to cut the lateral roots. The plants were lifted from the pots and the soil was gently removed from the roots, keeping as many roots intact as possible. The roots were sprayed with a light mist of water and wrapped with plastic wrap. This kept the chives fresh for at least forty eight hours if refrigerated.
immediately after harvest, the hole left in the soil from harvest was filled with soil and more young chive plants were planted in it. This kept a constant rotation going for fresh chives. The quality of the chives was high and the customers were pleased with the method of harvest. All the chives sold.
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