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.

Time to throw out the rule book?

As the temperatures quickly climbed to above 90 degrees in my greenhouse this morning, I like everyone else is wondering what this season will bring. This winter, many people asked me what effects the lack of snow would have and now about this early Spring. I don't know yet...we will find out together. We are all learning together what will result from these climate changes and severe weather abnormalities. I do not have enough years farming experience to do anything but learn from this. However, I have a plan and I force myself everyday to stick to it. I may lay awake at night psyching myself up to just go for it, put seeds in the ground...push everything 2-3 weeks up...do it! Everyone will be so happy! But morning brings reality and I hold myself back. Planting too early when we could still get very cold weather would kill the tender crops and set the farm back weeks.

 
So I'll control what I can and feel satisfied that at least I did that. I will come up against a lot of uncontrollable factors this year. If temperatures remain unseasonably warm, the spring cool-loving crops, like broccoli, may struggle to make it to harvest. Broccoli doesn't handle the stress of temperature swings well. 
Farmers and gardeners everywhere are realizing this will be a difficult year for pests and diseases that winter failed to control. A winter void of a long, hard freeze allows these populations to remain strong and eager for a farmer's hard work of planting their favorite meals.

This is the reality of farming. And while many farms are spraying every inch of plant material to make it so undesirable, the bugs won't touch it. We will rely on building healthy soil and an environment for beneficial insects to keep our harvests safe. I rely on crop rotation and intercropping to confuse the insects and out-compete the weeds. And I will recognize that I will lose crops...probably quite a few. But this is why I plant a wide variety of crops and make sure to keep careful notes on how each variety does in a difficult year. Weather predictions are hard to make, so we just go for it and put our faith in knowing there will be a bounty.

I'm looking forward to this new year!

Seeds and Scale

The seeds are ordered and delivered and some are already packed away securely because they will no longer be needed this season. I have started all the onions and leeks for the 2012 season. They are germinating under the lights and growing taller every day!

While I did notice some higher seed prices this year, I came out about even with what I spent last year. I was surprised by this since more than doubling my growing area for this year. Granted, I am using quite a bit of last years seed (having passed my seed germination tests). And I certainly did not sacrifice taste or reliability for cheaper seed prices. I tend to stick with what has worked in the past on my farm and splurge on varieties that I know have superior taste and quality.

I think I have settled into a sweet spot on the farm this year. I have reached a scale that makes sense...lets hope this feelings lasts! Many small farms reach this point eventually and have to ask themselves, How big do I need to get to stay in it? Farms need to become viable, and for me that meant increasing production. But to increase production I need to think about adding costly equipment to my operation. And how much do I need to grow to justify (and pay for) this costly equipment? That is one nasty pickle! And one that could lead me to grow way too large too fast...Get big or get out right?

No, there are plenty of models of successful small farms and much research is being done to help small farms with cost effective equipment that makes sense on their scale and land. I think this year's little growth spurt will help me see exactly where I want our farm to be.