What's New at the Farm? 6/04/2008

WHAT’S NEW AT THE FARM?
6/4/08 BLM


Planting season is in full swing on the farm. Last week we transplanted peppers, tomatoes and eggplant. We also direct seeded dry corn and did quite a lot of ground prep in preparation of the upcoming plantings that we have to do. It is with much appreciation that we had some help from the Winslow crowd on pepper planting day. That was Wednesday. Peppers are always challenging as there were eight thousand five hundred fifty plants to put in, hoops to go every six feet and row covers to be installed the same day.

Friday we planted the tomato breeding workshop. There were six thousand nine hundred twenty plants to transplant into the field. Monday this week we did the tomato trial which consisted of one thousand one hundred and eighty plants. Pepper trial also got planted with one thousand eight hundred and seventy plants. And the eggplant was 345 plants, so that’s nearly 19,000 plants transplanted in five days. Pretty good I think.

This week we will get the ground ready for the squash and pumpkin trails and workshop. These two projects will cover about five acres. That, along with field prep for the foundation line increases, extras for Outbound, ground for grow outs and maintenance of the crops we already have in the ground should keep us out of trouble for the remainder of the week.

Last week we were also kept busy setting up irrigation. The peppers and tomatoes needed irrigation as soon as they were planted. The soil under the plastic was dry – too dry so we set up the drip irrigation and pumped water for a couple of days. The drip system puts water exactly where we want it so there’s no watering of the weeds and areas that don’t need water. Drip irrigation also uses far less water than overhead does. It’s also fairly easy to set up – once it’s set up, it’s set up for the season; no moving pipe around. The biggest problem with drip irrigation is the plastic pipes run just about everywhere and you have to make sure you don’t snag one with a piece of equipment. Luckily you can run over them just as long as you don’t catch one and tear out a few lines rather quickly.

Until next week, Brian