This week saw the final big transplanting sessions in the
garden. Our biggest job in the spring is
taking all of the babies we’ve started in the greenhouse and getting them out
to the field. We want to get them in
nice and early so they will be ready to harvest sooner. But we can’t plant too soon or they may get
nipped by cool weather. For each crop
cool weather is a little different. Cool
season crops like lettuce and kale don’t even mind a light frost very
much. But peppers will complain if the
nights get below 50.
Besides
transplanting seedlings the other method we use to plant is to direct seed
crops. We do this for crops like lettuce
mix, arugula, beets, and radish. These
small, quick growing crops don’t appreciate the root disturbance that comes
from transplanting. To direct seed a
crop we have to start with a totally weed free, nicely loosened garden
bed. We can’t have any weeds because
they will quickly out compete the crop that is trying to sprout from seed. The soil has to be the right texture so that
the vegetable seed will come into contact with moist soil for water and
nutrients. But we don’t want to pack it
down too tightly or else it’s like asking the seed to grow in a brick.
This
week the seeds we planted: lettuce mix, arugula, and radish all came up in
about 2 days! This is incredibly fast
germination because the temperature and moisture conditions were ideal. Back in the early spring when the soil was
still cool (probably about 55 degrees) lettuce mix took a solid week to
germinate. We like it when the
vegetables germinate faster because it gives them an edge over the next round
of weeds (there’s always a next round of weeds). It also means that it will be ready to
harvest sooner. The tricky part about accelerated
germination and growth is that a later succession of a crop can catch up to an
early one providing and over abundance one week and leaving a hole in the
harvest the next. For example: we might
plant lettuce mix 1 week apart. But the weather
is so much better for growth the second week that that planting comes up only a
few days behind the first. Now that its
up and the weather is nice it might even catch up. To help solve this problem we try to space
out the planting longer and longer as the spring goes on. So the early successions might be 1 week
apart while later successions space out to almost 2 weeks.
A
downside of this perfect plant growing weather is that it is also perfect
insect growing weather. We’ve had our
hands full with several of our common pests.
Squash bugs are starting on the squash, cucumber beetles have enjoyed
their favorite appetizer of swiss chard and are now headed to the cucumbers
themselves. In the potatoes a herd of
potato beetles was munching until we
got out there with one of our biological controls and took care of them! The other big muncher is a small insect: the
flea beetle. The fleas beetle got its
name form its small dark look as well as its habit of leaping away form
threats. It particular enjoys eggplant (which
we think we saved just barely) and certain cabbage family plants like arugula,
mizuna, and tatsoi . You may notice
small holes in the spicy salad mix leaves-that’s the handiwork of our friend
the flea beetle.
Out in
the big vegetable field we are enjoying a subtle flower show. Our potatoes are blooming! We grow a nice variety of potatoes for the
CSA and for ourselves. This year we are
trying a purple variety as well as a red, white, and gold type. After the plants have grown for a month or so
they send out delicate flowers at their tops.
The flowers are not necessary for crop production because the potatoes
we eat are all clones of the mother seed potato. This year the purple type has one of the
nicest flowers: a lavender petal with a rich buttery center. We’re looking forward to the potatoes later
this summer!
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