My plan - please correct me?!

[huntsman]

I have run out of time as Spring is so hot it's almost summer, so I have dug a hole about 15" deep, by 20' x 15' for me first attempt at veg. (Oh, and herbs!)

I have maters, peppers, carrots, lettuce, eggplant and the herbs.

I have ordered organic compost (1 x tipper truck) which I plan to mix with the soil from the dug hole and add some horse manure, and thus refill the hole. I will water well, allow to dry a little and plant my seedlings, which have been growing indoors under lights for three weeks or so. That's it...

Please shoot me down and tell me what I can do better in the present set of circumstances.

Thanks!

[Zana]

Make sure that isn't fresh manure or it may "burn" the plants. Good luck.

[RJ_Hythloday]

You mentioned your seedlings are about 3 weeks old? I don't know what your temps are but I start my seedlings 8 or more weeks before plant out. Allowing the last week or 10 days for hardening off.

Make sure you harden off your babies, you don't want to thrust them out into the world unprepared.

[ContainerTed]

Accent on the point of making sure that the manure is not fresh. If it is, there is a stong possibility that it is TOO RICH and will BURN the plants. You can always set up a second raised bed and put all the goodies in now so that natural composting can be accomplished and the bed will be ready for next season.

And like RJ says, introduce your babies to the great outdoors in stages. It's kinda like a real hot bath. You want to ease in there slowly to get adjusted to the new environment.

Ted

[huntsman]

Thanks folks!

RJ, it's probably closer to five weeks than three really, and I have them out all day three times a week already as the days are lovely and warm. Night time temps are almost at the 50F mark now...

I'm getting compost, not manure, so can I just mix it all up in the existing soil as I had planned? This will all take another ten days or so, so the plants should be ready once done.

[dice]

I'm getting compost, not manure, so can I just mix it all up in the existing soil as I had planned?

Sure.

Where I get horse manure, it is usually in a pile as
big as an RV, and the stuff at the outside edges is
brown and dry, not green and steamy. Ready to go.

If it is fresh (if someone just emptied out most of
the accumulated manure with a dump truck the week
before, for example), I mix it into the compost pile and
use it as little as 6 weeks later. No problems.

[RJ_Hythloday]

I got some horse manure this spring, already dark brown and earthy smelling. I went ahead and added it to my compost piles for 2 weeks, and it got steaming hot. I had another month till I was ready to use it and let it cool down during that time.

Five weeks sounds better for the seedlings, but peppers really like heat. You might want to go ahead and keep them under lights at night for a little bit longer, keeping them outside during the day as much as possible. I don't think 50s will hurt them by any means, it's probably about where my night time temps were when I planted out.

Over at the other place there was a thread in the hot pepper forum about using lights 24/7 before planting out, compared to his plants that were 18/6 they were much bigger at plant out and during the first few updates after plant out.

I'll be using my lights 24/7 next spring for both peppers and toms.

[huntsman]

Well, I've had two stems snap on me in the winds we have, so I guess another two weeks under lights will be good for them.

I'll be sure to check out the poop when it arrives, but the digging is taking longer than expected, so I'm targeting the third week of September for plant out.