Winding Up Spring

This spring’s weather has kept things interesting, although they have been less interesting here than they have been elsewhere. Just to the north of us, the talk all spring has been of drought; not far to the south of us, the talk has been of floods. After the last few years, we have learned not to complain about the weather - I almost had to shout down a visitor last weekend who insisted on making negative comments. On this farm, we work hard not to anger the weather-makers, and stick to vague statements like, “Well, I guess it could be too hot, and that wouldn’t be so good,” or, “Gee, the rain has sure made the crops grow.”

Cool weather has certainly slowed some crops down, but it has made for some fantastic harvests of radishes and spring turnips. Our spring-seeded cover crops of barley and peas have made the most of it, giving the spring weeds a run for their money. The thistles that have plagued parts of our farm for years have had a hard time keeping up, and stand poised to go into flower; we’ll chop them down along with the cover crops as soon as we get our mower repaired. Hitting the thistles just as they move into their reproductive phase does as much damage to them as possible, and the cover crops that have stretched the thistles’ resources will add to the health of the soil.

This spring has seen some real progress on the farm. We changed our transplant production system from soil blocks (cubes of soil held together by the roots of the plants) to open flats to cell trays (little pots all hooked together). For years, soil blocks produced beautiful transplants, but they are labor-intensive to produce and don’t work well for mechanical transplanting; the cell trays provide us with a low-skill, very fast way to produce the 150,000 transplants we grow each year.

We borrowed a transplanter from our friends at Featherstone Fruits and Vegetables that has allowed us to double the speed at which we can get plants into the field, which has just about revolutionized the way the farm operates. Black plastic for soil warming was laid early and we were in the process of achieving good weed control well before the melons, tomatoes, and peppers were planted into it.

Weed control operations in general have happened in a very timely fashion, thanks in large part to the capable crew we have this year. A capable crew lets me break away to do the tractor cultivating. A total of three tractor drivers on the farm also means that when the weather is right, one of us can be driving the transplanter, another can be mowing or tilling, and a third can be cultivating or seeding.

Just in time for the solstice, things have really warmed up. The tomatoes in the greenhouse have taken off to a shocking degree, and you can almost hear the broccoli growing.