Planting Seeds in Boxes - Sembrando en almácigos

Beautiful day at the farm today...
We continued to plant more fruit trees; bread fruit and jack fruit trees.
Before learning how to prepare the planting boxes, we dug and sifted sand at the river (we needed sand without salt!) to ad drainage to the pile of soil we made for the fruit tree planting. Again, thoroughly mixing different piles of material is done in a precise fashion, so as to create the perfect mix and prevent strain on the back.


Un hermoso día en la 'granja'. Continuamos sembrando más árboles frutales, yakas y árboles del pan. Antes de aprender a preparar los almácigos, paleamos y cernimos un poco de arena de río, la cual mejora el drenaje en la mezcla de tierra. Nuevamente, un buen mezclado de los diferentes componentes del montón es esencial y realizado en una manera precisa, como para lograr una mezcla total y no lastimarse la espalda ni el cuerpo.


Getting ready to plant seeds in boxes - Preparándose para plantar en almácigo

Sorting seeds and labeling sticks

Revisando y ordenando las semillas y preparando las etiquetas








































Bottom of box receives 1/2" of horse manure and some eggshell (tomatoes love eggshell)

La capa inferior del almácigo recibe media pulgada de excremento seco de caballo y cascarones de huevo. A los tomates les encanta (¡puro calcio!)

































Each box is meticulously filled, and soil packed, leaving a 3/8" lip (to accommodate the fine soil that will later be sprinkled over the seeds )

Cada caja se llena meticulosamente con tierra y se comprime, dejando un ligero espacio (3/8'') por debajo del borde, suficiente para acomodar la tierra que se usará para cubrir las semillas.























































Sowing seeds.
(After seeds are laid out in each square, a very fine mixture of soil is gently sprinkled over the seeds)

Sembrando semillas
Una vez que se esparcen las semillas en cada espacio, se recubren con una mezcla de tierra fina. La tierra se 'espolvorea' como si fuera nieve, sutilmente agitando la mano.

Everyday, more people are coming to help with planting. What a pleasure to play in the dirt with new friends, or a kid! As participation grows, some of us can now teach others how to make planting soil, prepare boxes and plant seeds.

A few more days of planting seeds and we'll move onto digging the beds on each side of the Alianza Jaguar. Come learn the French double-digging technique with us.

We'll also soon be starting on the compost pile behind Alianza Jaguar.