Week 7 Newsletter

Here's an update of the condition of some of our crops, and what you can look forward to in future shares.

Sweet Corn
The first planting of sweet corn is ready for harvest. The electric fence is up to protect the ripe ears from the raccoons and the bird guard (an electronic box making hawk and distressed bird calls) is running to keep the sparrows and blackbirds out. We are doing weekly scouting for European Corn Borer and releasing trichogramma wasps that feed on the corn borer larvae eggs. We also spray Entrust, an organic spray, against the corn borer larvae when needed. Soon, we will begin scouting for the corn earworm that comes up from the South with the summer storms. We planted ten successions of sweet corn, so from now until September you should receive sweet corn in your share.

Winter Squash
This season we planted the winter squash on biodegradable plastic (made out of non GMO corn) and it has been a great success. The high raised beds and the warm soil provided just the right environment for the growing squash transplants. The plants sustained some damage in the hail but quickly grew out of it. The plants are large and healthy and are in full bloom. We are looking forward to a great harvest.

Onions
The fragile onion plants sustained quite a bit of damage from the hail storm. The leaves were broken and bruised just when the onions needed the leaves to increase the size of the bulbs. The damaged leaves are also more susceptible to soft rot and the plants have been exposed to thrips, an insect pest that burrows into the leaf tissue and yellows the leaves. The onions will be much smaller than in previous years. We will begin harvesting the “Ailsa Craig” fresh, sweet onions this week.

Tomatoes
Jean-Paul ate the first red tomato last week. Once the first red tomato appears, the rest should follow soon after. There are a lot of green slicing tomatoes and Juliet tomatoes on the vines. The hail damaged the stems and leaves, allowing septoria blight into the plants. They are also affected by tobacco mosaic virus and we will have to pull these plants. Fortunately, we plant three tomato plantings, and the next plantings look very promising.

Potatoes
The first potatoes are ready for harvest. They are an early white variety that sized up nicely. The Adirondack red, which is an all-red variety, will be ready for harvest next. The Keuka Gold potatoes still have healthy green plants, so our fall storage potatoes will be a good size, too.

Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potato transplants come as “bare-roots.” This means they don’t come with their roots growing in soil like the rest of our transplants. This year the plants arrived one day after we received a couple of inches of rain which prevented them from getting planted. By the time they got in the ground (a week later) they did not look too happy anymore. Just as they were beginning to form new leaves again the hail storm hit. The hail fell into the planting holes and rested up against the plants. This cooled the plants down to below 55 degrees, causing 30 percent of the plants to die from chilling damage. The rest of the plants are just beginning to vine out and cover the beds. The crew weeded the sweet potatoes last week and the field is looking good.

Other Crops
The storage carrots and beets are seeded and will germinate soon. The storage cabbage and Brussels sprouts are planted and beginning to grow. We planted two plantings of eggplant and peppers, so we will have a longer harvest of both this season. The first peppers should be ready soon. We have a scattered series of plantings of salad greens and cilantro as the weather did not allow us for proper successions. Often the ground was too wet for planting. Jean-Paul planted ten acres of sudex and field peas last week to build fertility and prepare the ground for next season. This week, we will plant seven more acres of vegetable land back into hay to allow the ground for a longer rest.
~ Jody