September 16, 2024
Summer's Final Week
by Farmer Derek

All of a sudden it's the middle of September and the autumnal equinox is less than a week away. We're hustling and bustling to clean up spent outdoor summer crops, spread compost, and sow cover crops before this coming week's forecast rain event(s). We're also in the process of removing indoor tomatoes and preparing those spaces for late fall greens, all of which have a strict plant by date (too early and they grow too fast and are more susceptible to cold, too late and they'll grow too slowly and may not mature in time). We're also busy running and installing needed irrigation (obviously) but are hoping for a reprieve this week. Some cloud water for the crops would be much appreciated, though they sure seem to enjoy the stuff that comes from 300' down.

The fields where our fall crops are planted do much better in dry conditions where we can regulate water and so far all those crops are thriving (higher clay content in soil, water drains more slowly, fields on the south side of the driveway). One interesting setback that seems to be worse than I can ever remember is cutworm damage to young crops planted over the past few weeks. Cutworms are basically just caterpillars from certain moth species that unfortunately wrap around the stems of plants and feed horizontally, severing the stem. They feed at night and bury in the soil during the day so they're hard to find to squash. It's hard to process another setback/challenge at the moment but we typically have an abundance of crops in the fall so hopefully the losses won't even be noticed a month or more from now.