Production Gap, Production Note, Veggies, WP Migration

It is cover cropping time but a lot of work is needed to make it happen!

Posted on by Farmer
I love this time of the season when we are mowing down spent crops, pulling up black plastic and disking the soil in preparation for cover crops. The farm looks so neat when we can no longer see a field of weeds that took over our spent crops. We had BIG plans for seeding buckwheat in our spring field. We also had big plans to keep our fields mowed. Both never happened. The farmers’ famous saying is, “There is always next year”. With a new year and a new season brings new hopes and new dreams.
In order for us to prep the soil and seed cover crops we must do the following:
– Pull up black plastic landscape fabric. We use this for keeping the soil warm and the weeds at bay in our strawberry patch. This job takes a lot of physical strength and I WAS SO TIRED one Thursday after this job that I fell asleep around 8 PM. Carl did chores for me THANK THE LORD.
– Roll up drip tape and pull up our overhead irrigation pipe
– Disk the soil to remove any weeds, or for that matter any plant material, this is so that our cover crop seed comes into contact with the soil once seeded enabling it to better germinate.
So that is what we are in the process of doing this week …. So far, we have a couple acres seeded and the night after seeding we received a very nice rainfall! Normally we don’t get that lucky with our timing.
We have 2 acres of cover crop germinating and it feels GREAT! Our cover crop adds biomass to our fields in the spring once plowed under. Seeded in this photo is a tri-culture of crimson clover, vetch and rye. For the record - seeded 9/16.
We have 2 acres of cover crop germinating and it feels GREAT! Our cover crop adds biomass to our fields in the spring once plowed under. Seeded in this photo is a tri-culture of crimson clover, vetch and rye. For the record - seeded 9/16.
Thank the LORD that the strawberries have been transplanted! We sterilized the plastic, prepared beds, buried the plastic, hand transplanted the strawberries, and finally gave them a boost of fish water. (Like the strawberries ate a power bar.)
Thank the LORD that the strawberries have been transplanted! We sterilized the plastic, prepared beds, buried the plastic, hand transplanted the strawberries, and finally gave them a boost of fish water. (Like the strawberries ate a power bar.)
PRODUCTION NOTE TO SELF: Need baby boc choi or some other green for the beginning of September. Be sure to seed start this on the first week of July. It was on the schedule but I didn’t follow-up to be sure the task was completed! In addition, seed arugula, radishes and turnips (hakurei) the last week of July. This was also on the schedule but we axed it due to the hot weather. I want to try growing it with row cover regardless of the temperatures.
Farmer

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