Long planting days.

We have been spending many hours and days getting all the plants and seeds in the ground. Our eyes are mainly focused on Summer harvests but I am also planning for Fall and even roots we can over winter for next Spring. The first round of tomatoes are planted, which include many heirloom varieties, cherry tomatoes, tomatillos and some canning tomatoes. Also planted this week, is the first succession of cucumber and summer squash-more than I have ever planted before! We planted a patty pan yellow squash, classic zucchini, and Cousa-a Lebanese Summer squash and the most delicious squash I have ever tasted!
All these plants love the hot, sunny weather we are having  but they do not handle dry soil well. And stressed plants are more susceptible to insect infestations so we are irrigating these sensitive crops. I am quickly learning about these new soils and how sandy loam soils will dry out after a rain.

                                 Sugar Snap peas with garlic growing strong in the background.

Caterpillar tunnel to get the tomatoes off to an earlier start. The fabric row cover acts as a mini greenhouse increasing heat during the day while the sun is out and offering a few degrees of night-time low temperature protection.

Just one word: Plastic!

No, I'm not actually that excited about this. Sometimes as a beginning farmer I have to do things to build the farm that I do not intend to sustain. I could even go so far to say I'm not proud of these practices, but that would imply feelings of shame, and that wouldn't be accurate. In fact, I am satisfied that I can utilize an array of farming tools and techniques to help me save time and money and even have positive affects on the harvests.

Using black plastic as a soil covering mulch is one such practice. Laying it out tightly on a newly tilled bed significantly warms the soil and eliminates weeds, resulting in an earlier harvest that can be larger and more abundant. We will put all the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants on the black plastic mulch this year.

By laying alfalfa hay in the paths between beds, we can keep weeds down and build soil as it decomposes.

This week I am feeling like things are going according to schedule. The weather seems to have stabilized and we should be past the freezing night temperatures of last week. (Hopefully since I am itching to get tomatoes planted on this plastic!) Transplanting Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Kale, Leeks and other spring seedlings will be completed this week.

This is intern Gretchen's first full week on the farm and she has already experienced what its like to farm in a crazy Central New York Spring!

Managing ecologies

So much of my work on the farm is not spent tending to the crops that will be the bountiful end reward to that labor, but instead is spent managing the relationships between all life on the farm. My job is to choose the seed and then give it a fighting chance. And fight it must! So many forces are aiming against that chosen seed: other competitive seeds racing our young plant for nutrients, space, light, and water; pests that seem to focus their attention only on our future harvests, and lack of rain to germinate our seed are a few examples of what we are up against.

But my bag of tricks is pretty impressive and our seeds usually triumph.

This is a picture of early Arugula and Mustard seedings under row cover. These young leaves if left uncovered would quickly find themselves dotted with tiny holes, evidence of feedings of the persistent flea beetle. If the pressure is strong enough, the plants could be set back considerably or we could have complete crop failure. This lightweight, floating row cover sits atop the plants as they grow protecting them from insects as well as offering minimal frost protection.

When April showers are nowhere to be found, you can find me on the farm laying irrigation. The seeds can't germinate without sufficient water and putting plants into the ground without watering them in will result in transplant shock and crop failure (seeing a trend?) This is an example of the drip tape irrigation connections to allow me to irrigate sections of the field at a time.

The drip line spool propped on the wheel barrel for easy unwinding.  The first 100' of drip tape being laid out...with many many many more to follow.

This is the drip emitter. Spaced every 8" for even watering of crops. Laying the line close to each row conserves water and reduces wed growth by only putting it where it is needed.

Going into the barn this evening I noticed the chickens have made a fine roosting spot for themselves. Not where it was expected, but a safe distance from the curious dogs down below. They seem very happy and active in their new home.

Seeding begins!

This has been a busy Spring on the farm. Getting everything ready for the season, pulling out equipment and sharpening tools. I have also started seeding outside and this past weekend got the first generation of peas in the ground. Sugar Snap fans...get ready! I use this nifty tool for most of my direct seeding on the farm. It's an Earthway Precision Seeder, and can be outfitted with different sized seeder plates to accommodate a variety of seed sizes and spacing.

 Driving it down the bed, the front opens up a furrow in the soil, drops the correct amount of seeds and then covers them with loose soil before the back wheel drives over the furrow tamping the soil in place.

Unfortunately the soil is too try to germinate most of the seeds I have laid down. I will be setting up the irrigation system soon. This is strange for April, which is typically too wet and I worry about seeds rotting in the wet, cool soil.
 The seeding in the greenhouse continues as well. We will be transplanting into the fields soon, so check back for more pictures.

Soil prep continues...

Farmers focus a lot of attention and care on their soil. We read about it, talk about it, research it. We obsess over it really. The life in the soil and the care we put into ensuring the optimum conditions to support this life is integral to the farm. As I mentioned before, tilling aggressively has negative impacts on the soil and the rototiller is one of the worst culprits. It acts as it sounds; rotating tines tear through the top few inches of soil, pulverizing it into tiny pieces so what's left is the softest, finest soil surface. For the microbial, organic health of the soil its terrible. These tiny particles lead to compaction which results in poor drainage, lack of oxygen, and loss of beneficial microbes.

But, for the plants which get planted into newly tilled beds, life is good. The soil presses firmly against seeds for proper germination and the transplanted, young seedlings are coddled into their teens by soft, caring soils.
There are few alternatives to this useful tool on small farms.

Tonight I tilled up beds that will soon be planted to sugar snap and snow peas. I rented a tractor and tiller from a local farm supply shop and took a while to re-orient myself with how best to operate it...

                                ...mainly, how to drive straight so I would end up with straight beds.

Well, I'm still learning. 

As I was driving, I remembered what a farmer in Maryland said lovingly of his intern as she created incredibly crooked rows, "She never did anything straight in her whole life, why would she start now". Ha!

I have loads of rocks to pick this weekend and plenty of seeds to put in the ground over the next few weeks. If you are interested in coming out to the farm to help out, just email me at farmer@dailyharvestfarm.com. 

Amending the soil and big tractors

Despite the cooler, wet weather this week the soil was certainly dry enough to till. Friday turned out to be a sunny day and a perfect day to plow. Luke, the farmer up the road was available and met me at the farm around 5pm Friday afternoon with his big tractor and disc-harrow. It did a great job breaking up the cover crops and working up the soil. I was skeptical that the discs would do an adequate job and thought we needed to use the plow, but I'm glad I was wrong. We plowed the field in the Fall using a moldboard plow and discs. The moldboard actually slices and inverts the soil's top layers. If you think about soil as having most of its complex life in the top 6", you can see why disturbing this and burying it is not good for long-term soil building. Continuous plowing in this way will also create a plow-pan beneath the soil in which roots cannot penetrate. A great book to read more about this is the "Ploughman's Folly", written in the 1940's  had a huge and controversial impact. Luke mentioned having a chisel plow in his collection of implements, so I think I will try that out in the future. The chisel plow cuts through the soil, deeper than the discs, but doesn't disturb the soil layers as much. I'll let the green manures decompose a bit, add to soil fertility, and awaken microbrial activity.

To aid in this process, I add soil amendments to bring the soil's nutrient levels and ph to an ideal level for growing veggies. Based on the analysis of the soil test I took last October, I amend the soil with various products from the Fertrell company, which are approved for organic growing. I mainly use rock phosphate and greensand. Not only do they add valuable minerals to the soil, but they also improve soil structure by binding my sandy soils.

I am excited about how easily the soil crumbled under the discs. No clods, no shiny surfaces, that indicate compaction and damaged soil.

We will be planting peas, carrots, kale, and lettuces into this wlcoming soil very soon!

Greenhouse work

The seedlings have really taken off with last week's warm, sunny days. We have lots of seedlings growing quickly, new growth daily, and lots of newly germinating flats under the lights. My seed starting routine has not changed these last couple years. For Spring transplants, I start by over-seeding open flats and then put them under the lights to wait for germination. Once the little ones have started to develop their first true leaves, I pot them on into large cell-type flats where they will continue to grow into full sized transplants. This method is time consuming and uses a lot of growing mix, but for now it helps save valuable space in the greenhouse and under the lights...which saves me money. This method seems to work just fine for the quick growing brassica crops, like broccoli, kale, and cabbage. It also is a favorable method for tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers which grow very tall and require a strong stem.

Flats of Red Russian kale in their new home. They will grow quickly now.

Work at the farm is picking up now and we should be tilling the fields soon! Then, there will be more rocks to pick...yay! I love this part of the year, looking out at the greening fields envisioning all the crops that will quickly fill the space.  My pace around the farm these days is slow, contemplative. But I can picture the mid-season bustle of trying to race the sun clearly now.

The garlic is pushing through the straw! Its about 6-8" tall now! As it grows, 

I'll add more straw mulch to keep the weeds down.