D&V Organics CSA
Week 3
Things are moving along quickly in the field with this most recent week of temperatures into the upper 80s and low 90s. The weather feels more like the end of June rather than the end of May, but our heat loving crops such as zucchini, cucumbers, beans and melons are appreciating the temperatures. Along with the abnormally warm temperatures, we also haven't had any significant rainfall in several weeks, which tends to be a good thing. Although it's been dry, we do have the ability to irrigate on our farm, which does cause us to work a little harder to grow things. The upside to the lack of rainfall is that there is a reduction in disease pressure. We often say that it is better to have no rain than to have too much.
Our picture this week is of our first zucchini and cucumber planting. We start the seeds in the greenhouse in early April, planting them outside by the end of April/early May. The plants can get a head start by using the warm and consistent temperatures in our greenhouse. After a few weeks in the greenhouse, the plants are ready to get planted outside. We can give the plants another advantage over cool weather by planting them into black plastic mulch, which we lay down with a tractor and special implement. The black color of the plastic mulch absorbs the sun's heat, thus warming the soil and making it more hospitable to the heat loving plants. We take it a step further by using hoops and a special fabric that covers the plants and helps to add an aditional 5-7F of heat above the ambient air temperature. All of this allows us to start picking zucchini in May, we'll have it in CSA shares within the next week or two.
Enjoy,
Derek & Vicky
