5.13.22Farm Happenings

I am not really a superstitious person who thinks much of Friday the 13th, but boy, this week has been a ride.  

First of all, the good news: this week we welcomed Connor to the team for the summer! He and Farmer Alex got nearly 10,000 winter squash plants started on Monday plus another round of broccoli seeded in the greenhouse.  From now until the end of August, growing all of this produce will take all 4 of us (and sometimes another extra person or two).  Our son Caleb is back from college now, and hopped in on the crew as well until he starts work this summer.  It's 'all hands on deck' now here at the farm while we get going for the season.  





Also a bright spot:  we were FINALLY able to start field work - 3 weeks later than usual, but at least we got the ball rolling out there.  Over the weekend, I took our old 3 bottom plow shallowly through two fields that we had cover cropped with oats and peas, and the soil looked fantastic.  Following up the plow came the disc and drag combo to break up any clumps and make a good seedbed.  Fresh soil, clean fields, and fat earthworms, these are a few of my favorite things.  Thumbs up for cover crops keeping weeds at bay and building soil organic matter!

On Monday, Farmer Ellen ran through those plowed and disced fields and made beds to plant into.  The first step in bed making is to loosen up the soil deeply but without turning it over to bury organic matter deeply with the big subsoiler.  We want to keep all of the organic plant matter from the cover crop up top where the aerobic or oxygen loving bacteria can feed on it and make it useful for the next crop in the field.  Buried deeply in the anaerobic soil horizons, it will just basically "pickle" and is not accessible to feed the bacteria that need it.

After subsoiling, she followed up in those same beds with 2 more implements:  a quack digger to loosen up the top of the soil a little more and drag out any stubborn quack grass roots, followed by a roller-packer chained behind the quack digger to level the top of the bed for easy transplanting.  By Monday evening, we were set to start transplanting or seeding over an acre of onions, broccoli, and carrots, with hopes of having those jobs completed before rains were forecasted for Wednesday evening.  

We were off to such a great start!

Then, Monday afternoon, the winds began to increase tremendously.  Before we knew it, the plastic cover on hoophouse 1 - fresh with new cucumber transplants - had torn and was flapping wildly in the wind.  Thankfully, the forecasted low temps are going to be staying above freezing for the foreseeable future, so fingers crossed they stay that way and we can get new plastic here to recover that house.  If temps were as cool now as they usually are, we would have a serious problem on our hands keeping those tender cucumber plants warm enough at night.  



First thing Tuesday morning, we tied off the loose plastic on the hoophouse with long ropes to hold it down over as much of the top of the structure to provide as much protection to those tender cukes as we could.  There's still a huge gaping hole in the top of the tunnel, but at least it is helping to keep the wind off of the transplants and hold in a little more heat to help those transplants grow quickly.  New hoophouse plastic for that tunnel:  almost $1500.00.  That's an expensive wind storm, but at least the structure was not damaged, and our other hoophouses held fast.

Farmer Brian over at Northcroft Farm also had a hoophouse lose it's plastic in the wind a week or so ago, and some of the bows and braces were also damaged.  We veggie growers really depend on these structures for our early crops up here in the Northland, but they are not without worry.  Erratic weather events can take a toll on our hoophouses in just a few minutes, and repairs can be costly in both money and time/crops lost.  




After tying down the plastic on Tuesday morning, we fired up the tractor to go get the transplanter and fill up all of those nice beds Ellen made on Monday.  Aaaand hydraulic fluid began pouring out from the back side of the steering wheel. 

Sigh.  Preeeeety frustrating. 

So we changed gears - I tore down the steering column to find the leak, and everyone else worked on trellising peas and tomatoes.  We had planned to get these two tasks finished later this week after the transplanting was done, so at least we could continue to check things off of our list even when the tractor is down.  

By Tuesday afternoon, I was able to chase the leak down to some bad seals in the top of the hydraulic steering pump.  Luckily, I was able to take the pump apart and, once the new seals arrive, can install them myself.  Lets hope that solves the problem - new pumps run 6-800 bucks!  So for the rest of the week, we focused on tidying up our hoophouses - trellising and weeding - while we wait on parts, which should be here early next week. 

On that note, I am happy to report that the hoophouse crops are looking fabulous!  Farmer Ellen trellised up all the peas, and they are on track to be the earliest peas we've ever grown here.  We'll take a win when we get one.



By Thursday, I had hoped that we got our quota of problems taken care of for the week, but I was wrong.  Despite a significant trapline in the greenhouse, some rodents cleaned us out of several trays of winter squash that were up on the racks.  They must have climbed up in the night, and I am pretty sure they didn't miss a single seed as they worked their way through the soil, chowing away at those fat, tasty seeds.

Thankfully, it was only a few flats that were damaged.  And those buggers apparently didn't even notice the peanut butter/leftover squash seed/Kwik-Trip donut baited traps we had placed.  I thought FOR SURE we'd get 'em with the donuts in the bait! Who can resist those?!

Again - sigh.  But there's no time to dwell on problems.  We need solutions.



Lacking a real practical way to make the greenhouse rodent proof in short order, we moved every last one of the flats containing those nearly 10,000 winter squash seeds planted earlier in the week into our winter squash storage room.  There isn't much light in that room, but squash seeds don't need any light to germinate - just warm, moist soil. 

We cranked up the heat in there to get the seeds to germinate quickly and mimic the greenhouse conditions, but give the seeds some much needed protection from rodent predation.   With any luck - we could sure use a little right now! - we'll be moving them back into the greenhouse early next week once they are sprouted and not so attractive to critters so they can stretch out under the warm sunshine in the greenhouse. If the temps are warm enough, we might just move them out onto the hay rack outside of the greenhouse to keep the rodents at bay.  

I try to remember when things just don't seem to be going my way to always find the bright spots, and these cheery daffodils blooming in the woods by the house were just what I needed this week.  But just to be extra careful, I am staying away from black cats and not walking under any ladders for a while!

I hope you can enjoy the sunshine this weekend!  

In community,

Farmer Chris

Great Oak Farm