July 22, 2024
Carry That Weight
by Farmer Derek

Besides feeling good about some received rain, we're also stoked about some quality hauls of two big crops, onions and potatoes. We finished retrieving the entirety of the onions last week and the yield and quality of both the red and yellow varieties is up this year (1700lbs red, 850lbs yellow). It's satisfying and a bit of a relief when a crop you're initially worried about finishes strong. I even began doing some research a few months ago about alternative onion growing strategies due to some perceived early transplant loss and weed pressure. In late February we start with 25,000 seeds, dropping 2 into each cell of a 288-celled tray, totaling about 43 trays. These grow in the greenhouse for about 6 weeks before they're planted outside in early April. Due to a recently new pest, the allium miner, we used to cover the entire patch with row cover, held up by installed hoops, to keep the bugs away. Wind, rain, and weeds made this method unfavorable. After a few seasons of this, last year we decided to try growing unprotected again. Loss due to the bugs was no worse than when they were covered so we won't be covering again, a relief to all.

Ah, the potatoes. How did they do it? Super dry and super hot and still a fairly robust yield. So far we've harvested all of the Red Gold and Dark Red Norland varieties and have started on Yukon Gem. Like the onions, their performance is above our average. I was pretty concerned by June's weather when they were supposedly bulking up. They're a tough crop to get water to due to their acreage and also the way they grow in a relatively thin, elevated mound. I managed to put our giant sprinkler on about half the patch once during June's 3-week dry spell. During late spring their foliage was the tallest and most robust I've seen, so my thinking now is that they transferred enough stored energy from upstairs to downstairs once their tubers started to develop. Thankfully there was enough rainfall early in their life and/or they had just the right fertility in the soil. We're not quite halfway through the overall potato harvest or the number of varieties, but hopefully the overall yield and quality remains constant. By the way, during yesterday's 7-9am workshift, we harvested 3,000 pounds - thank you CSA Members!