The finish line for the spring preparation is within sight. I can't begin to describe that amount of work over the past few days...cultivating, bed preparation, watering, seeding mid summer crops, transplanting late summer crops...and all of the maintenance that keeps the farm infrastructure going.
Old routines die hard and I neglected to get the "This week's harvest" page updated by Thursday or Friday as promised.
First harvests are always a little small. This year's first harvest is smaller for a couple of reasons.
First being the late ground thaw date, which pushed back some of my earliest planting dates.
There was more bed preparation required this season as well - the last two years the field has been quite weedy, partly due to the effect of the eary spring interruption two years ago by the municipality spraying our frontage and compounded by the very wet conditions ast year making cultivating less effective for weed control.
I was nine customers away from hiring part time help this season. I put in extra hours for preparation this spring and can say that I have made a ot of progress catching up.
Her is a review of the field so far and some hints of what our prospects are for the season...pix to follow. Today is my day off (and here I am typing) but we can stop by the field on our way out to snap some pix...
Garlic, Onions and Leeks:
The late cold and some coolish nights seem to have had a positive impact on the leek moth. This season I have only seen two so far, down considerably from previous years.These are nocturnal, though I sometimes see these during the day if I disturb the grass where they are sheltering. I usually see them in the early evening as I am finishing up for the day.
Row covers keep these insects out, though after the garlic reaches a certain height, the cover is no longer effective and I have to leave the pants uncovered.
The garlic is looking a little small from previous years, but otherwise the plants appear healthy aside from a bit of irritation caused by the row covers. The mice have absconded a few onion and leek seedlings but are now too well rooted the for them to pull out when they nibble the tips.
Snow Peas: May 1st was the latest I have ever planted out peas and despite that, they have just grown extra quick. It looks like I will hit the June 20th harvest date after all.
Green Beans: Some mice damage but overall enough to get started. The Romano beans are doing well and may be earlier than anticipated.Kidney Beans: After four years of mistakes, missed opportunities, and just too much to do, I have reached a point where planting in the east field has started. First out of the gate are the Kidney beans. These four beds represent one third of the total, another nine beds are in later stages of growing. I stagger the planting of these to ensure that I can harvest them over a period of weeks, spreading out my workload and ensuring that if there is a week that is very wet (not the best time to harvest kidney beans) then the entire crop does not require the extra curing.
Lettuce, Frisee Endive, and Celtuce: Aside from having the first harvest pushed back a week, the weekly transplanting has gone according to schedule.Spinach: I suppose it is possible that the mice carried these off - at least one text suggests that this crops is susceptible to them. I grow weary of blaming the four legged cretins but there were certainly more sprouts back in the spring.
The discrepancy in size might be a better clue...could the fertility in these beds be weak? Each bed had a slightly different fertility regime last year, so that might have been an indicator.
I am going to try again in the fall and use a double helping of compost to see if that makes a difference.
I have to keep reminding myself that there may be more than one factor at play here.
Kale: Doing very well and maybe earlier than anticipated as well...this crop does better if harvested sooner but I have to balance this with having enough leaf to cover everyone...I may start this and the chard early, giving half the customers one crop and the other half the other crop, then alternating two weeks later.
Chard: Also doing very well despite some early difficulty with low germination rates in the nursery...I wound up seeding many more than I needed to and was left with a lot of extra transplants for with there was no room in the filed for. Costly for seed but the result was being able to choose the healthiest individuals for transplant. This may be an example of a happy mistake.Arugula and Mustards: Did I plant enough or too much? This all went into the ground three weeks ago when I was still uncertain how many customers I would have. I can confidently sow more than I need for most crops, but with brassica crops being quite specific about where they can be placed, I have to err on the less is more (for later) side of the equation.
Parsley and Cutting Celery: Doesn't look like much right now, another slow grower. Should be ready sooner as I started it earlier in the nursery this season. The cutting celery is just starting to germinate in the nursery.
Amaranth: Another crop I planted a "middling" amount of as I was uncertain how many customers were going to join this season's roster. If there is not enough for the first round, then there will certainly be ample time and space for more.
Tomatoes: 40 per cent more red tomatoes and 100 per cent more cherry tomatoes available. There will be extras for these and still some left over for the farm gate stand. Pus our new heirloom, "Gold Bison".
Peppers: Less fertility for this year, as I suspect too much nitrogen has been the result of some fruits having a bitter taste last year.
Potatoes: Slow emergence for some reason but coming along well. These are otherwise very predictable.
Cucumbers and Zucchini: Off to a good start. Last year their appeared to be a bit of cucumber mosaic virus in the cukes and zukes. I suspect it came from the cucumber seed. New seed from a different source from last season could eliminate that. Every tool, watering can, and planting tray was sterilized as a result, and I continue to sterilize the tools after working in the four beds where the infection occurred. I also ceased using the heirloom zucchini in favor of a hybrid that is resistant to cucumber mosaic virus.Pictured here - cucmbers under sown with radish.
The hybrid zucchini (variety called Dunja) is a monster of a plant with the potential for an equally monstrous yield.
Butterscotch and Delicata squash: On the way...I started these a little late to ensure that they don't start to flower before the Delicata squash does. This allows me to save some delicata seed despite the small field.
The draw back is fewer fruits per plant, so I planted twenty per cent more than I would ordinarily need.
Celery and Fennel: Not much to report on here except that unlike last year, the second round of celery was planted out on time, and the third round of celery has already progressed to the hardening off shelter (last year the 3rd succession was cooked in the outdoor nursery).This here is the celery pictured in the nursery two months ago.
The first succession of fennel germinated well. I wanted to finish up some very old seed, so three seeds were planted in each spot to ensure that at least one came up.
Despite that, there were still a couple of empty spots, so I transplanted a few of the extras.
The long tap root cannot be disturbed for this process, so this is a somewhat surgical task...dibble a hole, tease out the transplant without disturbing it's neighbors, suspend the tap root into the dibbled hole, and water in so that the soil fills in around the tap root without folding it.
Carrots: Growing slowly but surely as expected. I often say growth is exponential, and carrots and celery provide good visual examples of this...these plants start so small and seem to stay that way for a long time...then one day, they are there!
Celeriac: I have high hopes for this year's crop. After getting a tip from gardener Ed Lawrence, I think I have the missing ingredient to getting them to size up...trimming off the lower leaves as the plant matures.
Parsnip and Hamburg Parsley: The beds these (and the celeriac) are in have a high water table, lots of sun, and better fertility than other parts of the field. Reasonable to expect a decent harvest from these crops. I am very curious about the hamburg parsley.
Red and Gold Beets: I wish there was room in the carrot/celeriac/parsnip beds for these, as beets are a heavy feeder. If the beets don't size up here, I will have to switch places with the carrots for another attempt in the fall.Turnips: A little concerned about the amount of growth so far...more thinning will hopefully alleviate that.
Rutabaga: As mentioned in the 2017 review, I had to decide weather to pant these early (bigger roots) or late (better tasting roots). I compromised and planted them neither early nor late.
Radish: Hard to go wrong with these except for planting dates...there is a narrow window for such quick growing crops such as these as they can become pithy if left 48 hours too long. PLant them too early and they are a little on the small side for harvest day.
Watermelon Radish: Always tricky finding good spots for thsi crop. With that in mind, I am planting fewer and spreading them out a little to grow larger roots.
Flowers: We have a new color of zinnia this season. I'll give the first blooms to whomever guesses the color...
Hint, it's not red or yellow, which I already have.
Several oppopeo/amaranth flowers...probably more than I need, few folks take them due to their size. I try to leave a few as the gold finches really like the seeds in the fall.
Fewer marigolds and more dianthus made it out of the nursery this year. 100 per cent achievement is not possible in agriculture...only 100 per cent effort.