May 20, 2024
So...Much...Planting
by Farmer Derek

Wow, such an incredible amount of crops are going in the ground right now. In the span of two months, way more than half the farm's acreage gets planted. The first rush starts at the very end of March or early April when all of the cold tolerant spring crops start to go in the ground. Think lettuces, kale, cabbage, greens, peas, onions, potatoes, beets, chard, etc. Then in mid-May the summer crop rush commences, once the threat of frost is over, as the greenhouse and hoop house are filled to the max. Summertime crop transplants tend to take up a lot of space because the plants get large and require more growing room at a young stage. For example, 18 tomato plants, 50 pepper plants, or 38 zucchini occupy the same amount of space as 128 lettuces or 288 onions.

It takes a good amount of time to get all these summer crops in the ground because so much bed feet is devoted to them (most of them are planted one row per bed compared to three rows for most other crops). One planting of peppers and eggplant alone, for example, will occupy the same amount of space as an entire season's worth of lettuces planted over 6 months (about 5,000 feet). Over the past couple of weeks we've transplanted about 10,000 feet of crops (cherry tomatoes, tunnel tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatillos, flowers, beans, lettuce, herbs, chard, scallions, winter squash) and will plant another 10,000 feet this week (peppers, eggplant, basil, celery, watermelon, plus more beans and lettuces). After that it will be safe to say we're well past the midpoint of the season's transplanting requirements even though we'll still plant weekly into September. Large plantings of sweet potatoes, next season's strawberries and garlic, and fall brassicas, lettuces, and beets are still ahead of us.