CROPS UPDATE

feel free to read this entry. it is more of a note to give a record for how the crops have done thus far.... the good and the bad.

first, the good:

• good germination on most direct seeded crops including: radish, haikurei turnip, arugula, cilantro, broccoli raab, spinach


• transplanted golden beets look good - no leaf miners (yet), could have been a few weeks earlier


• greenhouse tomatoes & peppers look amazing- good fruit set, great vegetative growth but not too much


• potatoes are surviving the colorado potato beetles very well (we have been picking them just about daily), plants are full and lively, flowers on the red norlands and the green mountain varieties so far


• no complaints about our heat-loving crops that are covered with hoops and row cover (field tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, cucumbers) we'll see how they produce


• scallions, fine... good amount planted; more successions next year


• spinach, nice plants, good harvests, bolted with unseasonal 4 day heat wave


• sunflowers... a new crop for us. all varieties of the sunflowers are doing well... for oil pressing, cut flowers and saving seeds for eating.


• flowers in general are doing well in the rocky soil. added a fair amount of compost in this garden, makes a noticeable difference


• 3 varieties, started out very well, customers love it... didn't plant enough the first time around; starting to bolt & yellow


• broccoli raab & arugula, didn't cover with remay... flea beetle damage but ethan saved us. thanks ethan for putting these holy crops on the flatbreads


• garlic, scapes were super popular, only two varieties have sent shoots up so far, plants great, mulched well, not too weedy, just waiting


• winter squash, aside from no germination on our first two seedings of delicata, plants went in the ground on time and look good so far, i am hoping for a plentiful harvest.

now, the bad:

• biggest disappointment, onion root maggot. never even heard of this pest, common to land that has been in sod. flies seek out alliums by scent, lay eggs, bury into root and destroy. we lost over 1/2 of our onions.


• carrots, didn't germinate well, spotty. then lost in the weeds by the time they were big enough to hand weed. lost two entire successions. try again with fall carrots. ordered a flame weeder. this will give the carrots an upper hand on weeds in the future.


• lettuce. 5 successions total. not really growing, some yellowing and recent storm damage with flash flooding. never harvested "tom thumb" variety. side dressing would help, also planted in the shadiest spot. still no harvest.


• broccoli, 3 successions - WOODCHUCK & HEATWAVE, did not stand a chance


• radish - wire worm and not enough water


• haikurei turnip: huge huge huge disappointment, roots totally eaten up by millipede. can't believe it. usually, millipedes aren't a problem. we had a massive infestation


• dry beans started out great, now they are swamped, literally, from our flooding and continuous rain. starting to rot, yellow, not good - not sure that there is anything we could do differently accept plant in a different part of the field not as wet


• calais flint corn - totally disappeared: BIRDS


• popcorn - nearly all disappeared: BIRDS


• peas, o-k germination but too shady, great first two harvests then nothing