October 2, 2022
Four Inches and Counting
by Farmer Derek

Last week we continued cleaning up fields and putting them to sleep for the winter months, planted another round of crops in a few of the tunnels, seeded the final round of greens for transplanting later on, and did a lot of harvesting. With Ian incoming we knew this might be the final chance to sow cover crop seeds this fall. We harvested the rest of the leeks, green peppers, and first planting of fall beets; removed stakes and twine; pulled up fabric and drip tape; mowed; chisel plowed; spread cover crop seed; and worked the seed in with the disk harrow. We sowed oats which will terminate when it gets cold this winter and allow us to probably plant peas early next April. We sowed rye in spots where we don't think we'll grow any crops until later in the season. Rye overwinters and grows vigorously in the spring. When incorporated after plowing and working in, it takes a couple months to break down and re-feed the soil and the following veggie crops.

Three tunnels, or 62% of covered beds, are now filled with late fall and early winter greens. We transplanted another round of lettuce mix, spinach, chard, and kale last week. These spaces were prepped with the tractor after spreading compost and gypsum but were planted by hand. After planting we watered in each plug (about 5,000 total) to make sure there is good root to soil contact. We'll eventually apply drip tape and will irrigate the tunnels about once a week.

After 31 weeks of sowing seeds in the greenhouse, we finally deposited the last of them (arugula, mustard, kale). These will go in ground in about 3-4 weeks and will hopefully be ready to harvest at the end of December. They need to be decently established by mid-November when daylight drops below 10 hours per day; growth really slows down then.

Hope you're enjoying this rainy weekend!