Cool cloudy weather but it is not fall yet

The farm is still full of green but the weather is making it feel like fall with the clouds and cooler temperatures.

September started with the end of a heat wave and it has been cooling off ever since with a mixed forecast for when it will warm up again.

All the plants and us enjoy this weather a little bit more than triple digits even though the summer veggies take a little bit longer to ripen.

The first cool spell is almost always a false start to fall as we usually get another stretch of high-90s before it actually becomes fall which officially starts September 22 with the Fall Equinox.

Last year we got 100 degrees at the start of October which caused some veggies to not germinate and others to struggle with the stress and not recover but this summer has been much cooler so hopefully we don’t get that hot.

The past two weeks we have begun planting all the fall veggies in the field and they are enjoying this cooler weather we have.

As their roots get established in the soil the small plants are able to focus their energy on that instead of staying alive with the sun beaming on them. Building strong roots is vital at the very beginning so they can deal with the stresses that will occur over the coming weeks and months.

For the first couple days after transplanting the plants don’t look very good as they are dealing with transplant shock and trying to intertwine their roots with the nutrients in the soil.

After those first few days the plants start to show some growth, especially in this weather, and with larger leaves they will grow faster for the next two months until there is a lot less daylight.

We’ve already got a couple successions of lettuce planted in the field with more being planted tomorrow. Yesterday we continued our weekly seeding of lettuce in hopes to be able to harvest all winter long.

All the broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage has been seeded with a lot of it being planted tomorrow since it takes a long time to be ready to harvest. We have a quicker variety of broccoli that hopefully will be ready sooner and then two other varieties that produce larger heads but take more time to grow.

The larger plantings of veggies for the winter means we need to be constantly preparing more of the field for them so that they don’t sit in the tray too long. Having something be delayed a week or two in planting can lead to its harvest being a month later than we planned for and likely cause a gap in harvesting that veggie.

We do tend to plant a little more than we need just in case seeds don’t germinates or the plants have issues in the greenhouse. It is also a more enjoying feeling to have too much in the winter than be scrounging in the rain and mud for a tiny bit.

It took just a couple of days for the quickest direct seeded crops to germinate but now the slower carrots and beets are starting to germinate. It is a relief to see them pop out of the soil after almost two weeks of waiting.

Now begins the time where we have to weed all the fall veggies to keep the weeds from outcompeting them and taking all the nutrients and water.