Weeding & harvesting new spring veggies
In organic farming there are only three guarantees: you will be planting, harvesting and, spending lots of time on the fun task of all which is weeding.
The past week on the farm we have been spending a lot of time weeding all the veggies we planted in February and early March.
Weeding is a task we choose to do instead of the quick fix which is applying chemicals and over time the seed bank starts to slowly reduce leading a small decrease in time we spend weeding.
The time up close to the plants also allows us to see how the individual plants are doing and if we need to make any changes to how we are growing them. For some veggies we have different varieties right next to each other that we are comparing so we are able to see the slight differences.
After being weeded the beds of veggies look amazing but getting to that point can take some time and dedication slowly moving down each of the rows.
The veggies we transplant we can start weeding them closely soon after they get planted but what gets direct seeded we have to be careful to not disturb the germinating seeds.
For some of the veggies we are using tools to weed them weekly to drastically reduce the amount of time we have to hand weed while others we are having to hand weed to make sure we don’t kill the tiny plants.
Even though we try to use as many tools as we can to weed there is always a little bit of hand weeding to be done right around the plant. Hopefully, its just one time and then the leaves shade out the soil preventing the weed seeds from germinating again.
This sunny warm weather we are continuing to have means that the spring veggies are growing much quicker and every week it seems that we are having new crops to harvest.
This week we will have hakurei turnips, a delicious white salad turnip that can be eaten raw or cooked, and chives which have a mild onion flavor.
Depending on the next two days we may also begin to harvest some of the spinach for this weekend if it sizes up a little bit more.
As our overwintered bunching greens are slowing down and some of them starting to go to flower the February planted ones are growing so quickly we will be able to harvest some of the dino kale this week.
Most of the growth of the new bunching greens is due to the weather we have been having but we have been also giving it the necessary water and keeping it relatively weed-free so that the plants don’t have to spend any energy competing with the weeds and can just focus on growing.
Even in the greenhouse the plants are growing quicker than in past and ready to plant around a week or two sooner.
They are having to sit in the greenhouse even though they are ready to be planted as we are still finishing preparing the ground for the plants. It takes a couple of days to prep the field and we want the organic matter from the mowed down cover crop to start decomposing before we plant in that area.
In addition to the tomatoes that we planted just under two weeks ago we also direct seeded some summer squash last week.
With the warm weather and the forecast not showing it getting too cold we decided to plant a very early succession of all four varieties we grow. They already are germinating and hopefully enjoy this weather even though it is earlier in the year than normal.
The last two weeks we have been seeding cucumbers, melons and watermelons in the greenhouse. They grow rapidly and within the next 10 days we will likely be planting the first of them.
Last year we direct seeded the majority of the cucurbits and they did not germinate that well just getting irrigated by drip tape. To have full beds of cucumbers, melons and watermelons instead of sparse beds we decided to start them in the greenhouse so we could make sure each bed is filled with plants at a satisfactory spacing.
For our new property the cucurbits we are growing there will still be direct seeded since they are much larger beds.
