A big planting before the rain
There was a buzz of action on farms all around us and on ours yesterday ahead of the rain we are getting.
Many of the tree crop farmers were spraying their trees as the almonds are starting to bloom right now and rain is not ideal for them to pollinate.
While they were using tractor pulled sprayers and spraying from low-flying helicopters we were transplanting over 3,000 spring veggies in the field before the rain came.
The chard, kale, collards, broccolini, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage were all ready to plant and with enough rain forecasted that would make it too muddy to plant on Thursday we made sure to get them all planted in the field.
It will not be a big shock for them since they have been outside our greenhouse for the last five days getting acclimatized to the weather instead of all cozied up in the greenhouse.
For the bunching greens it is the only planting of the spring so it is larger than normal while we will plant the broccoli and cabbage a few more times.
Not only is it the rain last night and today that pushed us to get everything planted yesterday it is the forecasted rain for the start of the next week.
Waiting until after that rain would delay us almost two weeks in planting and all the seedlings in the trays would have been very unhappy to remain in there confined space and not growing deep roots in the field.
In addition to the greens we got our potatoes planted yesterday a week earlier than we had been planning. We got the potatoes over the weekend but were going to hold them until we saw the forecast and since we use the tractor to help plant them it was better to plant before the rain than wait until the soil dries out after the rains.
Just like the last four year we got our potatoes from Full Belly Farm’s large order they do annually with Riverdog Farm. The Sifra potatoes, a Dutch creamy all-around variety, come ready to be planted having been sized so there is no need for us to fuss around cutting them up.
Last year we used our tractor to dig furrows to plant the potatoes in and it went well so we did it again this year with a few tweaks that made it go better.
We then drop the potatoes into the furrows spaced out somewhat evenly and then the tractor comes back through covering up the potatoes.
After the potatoes germinate and start growing we will use the tractor to hill them up encouraging more growth.
On Monday we seeded more beets, carrots, turnips and radishes. The first seeding of those two weeks ago are germinating and the arugula is growing quickly while the others are just peaking out.
The colder soil always means that the first direct seeding takes a little longer to germinate but it has been exciting to see them growing thanks to the sunny and warmer weather we have been having.
It is only forecasted to be just over half an inch of rain so we will be able to get back out on the farm and do some work but anything with the tractor will have to be held off until after the rain on Sunday and Monday.
As a result of the rain we are spending the day getting a lot of our office work done. Every year the office work seems to be increasing with the more we are doing and as we work to get everything more set up for when the farm goes in high gear in the coming weeks.
