Post by Turk on Apr 20, 2011 22:10:09 GMT -5
I’ve completely forgotten about this thread. Here’s what’s going on at the farm.
The last two days have been long and tomorrow looks the same. My goal is to open May 1st but now it's looking like June 1st might see a push back. Once every 3 years or so I'll see a hard April frost, this year there have been 5. For my environment a hard frost is below 29 degrees and humidity below 20%. Cold and low humidity can destroy crops. The other negative is soil temperature is below what most seeds require to germinate. If soil temps are down and a high moisture content then the seed rots before it germinates. Also with cool climate the crows are more likely to dig seeds and young sprouts from the ground. Coexisting with crows is difficult.
So here it is late April and my soil temps are below what’s acceptable for squash, cucumber, corn, bean, tomato and many, many others. These are my bread and butter crops; if my window of marketing is less then my income is impacted.
I’m already writing off my apricots and almonds, neither one has been much of an earner but this year’s crop is 100% gone. Apricots can handle cool weather but hate high humidity and cool/high humidity has occurred about 10 days this month. So if the fruit didn’t freezes, it rotted. This is about a $1,000.00 loss.
So I’m regrouping on this year’s crop, I’m thinking I’ll give more room to corn and fall crops since my spring income is already gone. Fresh picked sweet corn is a huge draw so we’re thinking we’ll do an event sometime in August with BBQ grilled corn, hot dogs and water. If you’ve never had corn straight from the stalk then you’re missing out on something very special.
I planted snow and snap peas today, soil temps are at the minimum so I planted extra seed thinking the germination rate will be below 70%. So now if soil temps warm and germination is above 95% I’ve overcrowded my space. The problem with all peas is they don’t like their roots disturbed so thinning is not an option. And getting down on my knees cutting with scissors is also not an option.
I can hardly stay awake right now.
The last two days have been long and tomorrow looks the same. My goal is to open May 1st but now it's looking like June 1st might see a push back. Once every 3 years or so I'll see a hard April frost, this year there have been 5. For my environment a hard frost is below 29 degrees and humidity below 20%. Cold and low humidity can destroy crops. The other negative is soil temperature is below what most seeds require to germinate. If soil temps are down and a high moisture content then the seed rots before it germinates. Also with cool climate the crows are more likely to dig seeds and young sprouts from the ground. Coexisting with crows is difficult.
So here it is late April and my soil temps are below what’s acceptable for squash, cucumber, corn, bean, tomato and many, many others. These are my bread and butter crops; if my window of marketing is less then my income is impacted.
I’m already writing off my apricots and almonds, neither one has been much of an earner but this year’s crop is 100% gone. Apricots can handle cool weather but hate high humidity and cool/high humidity has occurred about 10 days this month. So if the fruit didn’t freezes, it rotted. This is about a $1,000.00 loss.
So I’m regrouping on this year’s crop, I’m thinking I’ll give more room to corn and fall crops since my spring income is already gone. Fresh picked sweet corn is a huge draw so we’re thinking we’ll do an event sometime in August with BBQ grilled corn, hot dogs and water. If you’ve never had corn straight from the stalk then you’re missing out on something very special.
I planted snow and snap peas today, soil temps are at the minimum so I planted extra seed thinking the germination rate will be below 70%. So now if soil temps warm and germination is above 95% I’ve overcrowded my space. The problem with all peas is they don’t like their roots disturbed so thinning is not an option. And getting down on my knees cutting with scissors is also not an option.
I can hardly stay awake right now.