Good morning farmies! I’ll keep things short this week since I’m sending the farm update a few days late and you’ll be getting another update from me in just a few days. Things are growing like crazy at the farm (including the weeds)! After being away for a few days this past weekend it seems as though things doubled in size upon our return. I’m so happy to report that our sugar snap peas are beginning to produce! With the hot, dry spring and early summer that we experienced last year we were unable to get a decent sugar snap pea crop, and it’s one of my favorites!
Greenhouse Update
The cucumber seeding that was scheduled for last week was pushed back to this week in anticipation of the heavy rains that came through this past weekend. Everything else in the shade structure faired well in the storms; Josh and I put tarps over the shade structure to prevent the seedlings from the heavy pounding of the rain. We are eager to get a bunch planted this week and next as most everything in the shade structure is ready to go into the ground.
Field Update
We are busy mulching up a storm in the Solanaceae crops (tomatoes and peppers specifically) as well as the Cucurbits (summer squash, cucumbers, watermelon). Chances are you’ve participated in at least a little of the mulching projects, and everything is looking great! Some weeds are beginning to poke through the mulch in places, but it is definitely an improvement to what we’d be experiencing had the ground been left bare.
We’ve been picking the blossoms off the peppers and eggplant until this week in order to direct energy back into continued plant growth. At this time of the season we are still wanting the plants to continue to grow foliage instead of producing fruit. We’ll let the plants flower and produce fruit starting at the end of this week, and hopefully experience better yield because of our efforts.
Last week we put in the 2nd succession of cucumbers and summer squash, as well as the 2nd succession of tomatoes.
Planted:
We began seeing what we suspect to be powdery mildew in the first succession of summer squash. Powdery mildew is a fungus that is common in the cucurbit crops. We noticed the first signs as we were spraying the summer squash with Neem Oil late last week (we were noticing aphids and cucumber beetles). Powdery mildew manifests itself just as it sounds; a white powdery look to the leaves of the plants. I have read that heavy rains can wash the fungus away, and it seems like the storms that came through this weekend along with the application of the Neem Oil have kept the fungus at bay.
It seems as though we are beginning the season of the cucumber beetle and aphid. Josh and I will be sure to point these pests out to you during work shifts. We’ve also started seeing bean leaf beetles in the bush beans, and may spray those with Neem Oil if we see continued damage.
We’ll have some busy harvest days coming up at the end of this week as we begin harvesting what we hope to be a bumper crop of sugar snap peas. See you all this week!
Stephanie and Josh